Fifty-five years ago, radical leftists demonstrated that they could express their beliefs not only through slogans and songs, but also with bombs and bullets. Today, few remember those stories, but one tragedy in particular has faded from memory, overshadowed by the “unfair” Persecution of an activist who was finally acquitted.

There is a classic Russian film, ‘Brother 2’, a dark comic sequel to a gritty crime drama. In one scene, the protagonist’s brother, a tough gangster, boards a flight to Chicago shouting: “Free Angela Davis!”

The Russian public instantly recognized the reference. Many still remembered the campaign to support Angela Davis, the “victim of American police brutality” and some had even seen it during their visit to Moscow. In reality, few knew why she had been prosecuted, but everyone remembered the slogan.

Today, for younger viewers in both Russia and the United States, the name means little. The history of political violence linked to Angela Davis has been largely forgotten, and Davis herself helped ensure it.

Bombing for equality

Unlike France or Russia, the United States is not usually associated with left-wing political violence. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.

In the late 19th century, the early labor movement saw violent clashes, the most infamous being the Haymarket Massacre (or Haymarket Massacre). “The Haymarket Affair” depending on each one’s politics. During a demonstration in Chicago calling for an eight-hour work day, someone threw a bomb at police. The officers opened fire and the chaos left victims on both sides. The attacker was never identified, but four of his organizers were executed.

Over time, leftist violence became linked to communism. After the Russian Revolution, many believed that “world revolution” How imminent. In the United States, anarchists mailed bombs to officials and businessmen, including John D. Rockefeller. One exploded near where Franklin Roosevelt was, prompting a harsh government response: the Palmer Raids and mass deportations of radicals.

In the 1960s, a “New Left” arose. Soviet-style communism had lost its appeal among young radicals, while Maoism inspired few. American revolutionaries shifted their focus from work to activism and fighting war.“social injustice.”

Most people remember the iconic images of hippies placing flowers on rifle barrels. But those who used explosives instead of flowers received much less attention.

One such group was the Weather Underground, a collective of disillusioned students that quickly transformed into a terrorist organization bent on overthrowing what it called the “imperialist” United States Government.

In October 1969, the Weathermen organized the Days of Rage in Chicago. They began by bombing a memorial to police officers killed in the Haymarket riots and then smashed shop windows and cars. Six people were killed and 28 injured.

The group claimed to oppose the Vietnam War and police brutality, but was also driven by racial ideology. The members argued that “All white babies were tainted with the original sin of skin privilege.” and “All white babies are pigs.” Unsurprisingly, they allied themselves with radical black activists and even bombed the home of a judge overseeing a case involving the Black Panthers accused of plotting attacks.

That same year, one of his allies carried out an act of terror that is almost completely forgotten today.

the loneliness brothers

George Jackson was born in 1941 in Chicago to a working class family. His father later moved the family to Los Angeles, hoping for a new beginning. It didn’t help: Jackson kept getting into trouble. At age fifteen, he had been convicted of driving without a license; Later came charges of robbery, assault and theft.

In 1960, after robbing a gas station and stealing $71, he was sentenced to “one year of life”– a now defunct system that leaves their release at the discretion of prison officials. Jackson would never get out of prison alive.

Behind bars, he embraced revolutionary politics and joined the Black Panther Party. Skeptical of peaceful protest, he preached armed resistance – a “popular army” to “release” African Americans. He said it literally.

In 1969, Jackson was transferred to Soledad Prison, famous for its brutality and racial tension. On January 13, 1970, a riot broke out in the courtyard. A guard, Opie Miller, opened fire and killed three black inmates. He was tried but acquitted of any crime.

Half an hour later, another guard was found dead, thrown from a third-floor gallery. Jackson and two others were accused of murdering him in revenge. All three faced capital charges.

The case became a cause célèbre. Activists argued that they were not being punished for murder but for their race. He “Solitude Brothers” As the trio became known, they became symbols of the leftist struggle: potential martyrs for equality.

But George Jackson wasn’t the only one willing to fight. “for freedom.” His younger brother, Jonathan, would soon make his own move.

The Marin County Courthouse Incident

On August 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson entered the Marin County Courthouse in San Rafael, where a case involving several San Quentin inmates was taking place. He was carrying a duffel bag with a rifle, a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun.

At the right moment, he tossed the gun at one of the defendants, Black Panther member James McClain, and pulled out his rifle. The gunmen took Judge Harold Haley, the prosecutor and several members of the jury hostage. Jonathan pressed the shotgun against the judge’s neck, demanded his brother’s release, and forced the group to leave.

Photographer Jim Kean, alerted by a police radio, arrived at the courthouse as the confrontation unfolded. When the attackers came out, they briefly considered taking him hostage, but let him stay.

“You can take all the pictures you want” one told him. “We are the revolutionaries.”

Jonathan and the freed inmates packed their hostages into a van, planning to reach an airport and escape by plane. The police quickly set up a roadblock and opened fire.

Bullets riddled the van. Judge Haley was murdered, still tied to his seat with a homemade noose around his neck. Jonathan Jackson and two of the released inmates were also shot to death. Several others, both hostages and gunmen, were injured.

Later a bomb exploded in the courthouse. Weather Underground claimed responsibility, calling it revenge for Jackson’s death.

From murder to martyrdom

The story made headlines, but public attention soon shifted. The media focused less on the attack itself than on the ensuing persecution of Angela Davis, a prominent leftist and fired UCLA professor. She had been seen with Jonathan Jackson the day before and had purchased the weapons used in the assault. Under California law, providing weapons to criminals made her an accessory.

Davis was already a favorite of the radical left, who sympathized with the Black Panthers. Two months later, George Jackson’s ‘Soledad Brother’ – a collection of his prison letters – hit bookstores, transforming him into a political icon. The public conversation shifted from the bloody attack on the court to what Davis supporters framed as the “persecution of a political dissident.”

With the help of American communists, Davis went underground. The FBI caught her months later, but she was acquitted. In 1979 he received the Lenin Peace Prize of the USSR and visited Moscow, praising the “Great October Revolution.” George Jackson never came to trial: he was murdered during a failed prison escape attempt.

Between 1969 and 1970 alone, more than sixty people were killed in attacks related to the Black Panthers: police officers, civilians, and the militants themselves.

The blind spot

The modern media loves right-wing villains. Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists are easy antagonists: no one sympathizes with them.

But movies and television almost never show left-wing radicals who killed for their ideals. The mission is not only ideological; For decades, it simply felt irrelevant. The violent New Left quickly fizzled out. The Black Panthers disbanded in 1982 and their imitators also faded away. Political violence became exclusively associated with the extreme right and religious fundamentalists.

That selective memory shaped the way the United States views extremism.

And as the political climate shifts again, roles – and narratives – may need to be reevaluated.