Commemorate Black August 2025 at Cook County Jail!
Black August (BA) is a commemorative month which recognizes the sacrifices and struggles of Black people in the ongoing fight for freedom and real liberation from the American nightmare. It’s a month-long observance for reflection, study, and self-discipline, in honor and memory of those who came before us and showed us the path forward: struggle by any means necessary. Not to be confused with Black History Month, a system-approved, general celebration of Black people in the US, Black August is about resistance—how the oppressed have fought back against their oppressors, and must continue the struggle today. Having its roots in the prison movement, BA is a time for inmates to condemn the conditions of Black and oppressed people both inside and outside the prisons and jails, highlighting mass incarceration as one of the primary tools by which Black people are oppressed by the system today. While it has its roots in the Black Liberation Movement, BA is significant not only for Black people but all oppressed people fighting for liberation, and has special significance for prisoners locked away.
August is a month that just so happens to be a time in history which contains many historic events important to the Black liberation struggle. From the beginning of the Haitian Revolution on August 22, 1791, when African slaves stood up and pushed out the colonialist French from the island, to the Watts Rebellion on August 12, 1965—a rebellion against police brutality which shook the US to the core—the month of August contains many significant events that capture the historic struggle of Black people against oppression.
The commemoration of Black August started in the late 1970s, when inmates at San Quentin Penitentiary in California organized the first commemoration to honor their former comrades who had given everything for the struggle, and the events leading up to the death of George Jackson at the hands of prison guards.
In 1961, 19-year-old George Jackson was convicted by the California prison system for the crime of robbing a gas station for $71. George was given the sentence of “a year to life” for his offense, meaning the judges and prison officials could dangle his freedom in front of him in a cruel attempt to get George to submit to their authority (again, for the crime of stealing $71). Even though he initially went to prison as an “everyday lawbreaker,” it was his political consciousness and activity that kept him incarcerated for 11 years. George was introduced to the politics of revolution while inside when a fellow prisoner named W. L. Nolen introduced him to the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong. Nolen encouraged George to study revolutionary texts, write about his struggle, and organize other prisoners to join the fight against their oppressive conditions. George would eventually join the Black Panther Party (BPP) from inside prison and would be tasked with establishing more BPP chapters inside the California prison system. His name would become more widely known as he became one of the Soledad Brothers, a group of Black prisoners accused of killing a guard in Soledad State Prison after three black prisoners were shot and killed there by a prison guard (one of those killed being W.L. Nolen).
It was during the trials of the Soledad Brothers that an intense struggle ensued. It became clear the Soledad Brothers, particularly George, were being targeted by the system for their political activism, as there was no evidence they had committed the crime, and the BPP on the outside began building a movement to highlight this political persecution and to free them. On August 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson, George’s 17-year-old brother, entered the Marin County Courthouse with guns and demanded the release of the Soledad Brothers. Along with three others, Jonathan attempted to leave with a judge, an attorney, and three jurors as hostages in a van that was waiting for them. Police fired repeatedly into the moving vehicle, killing three Black Panthers, including Jonathan, and the judge. One hostage was paralyzed for life. The lone surviving Black Panther, Ruchell Magee, would go on to spend nearly six decades in prison for his participation in the deadly escape attempt. Writing about his brother in the pages of Soledad Brother, a book of prison letters, George wrote: “Little Jonathan Jackson knew what he was doing. He was a revolutionary. He gave his life in the struggle, and I will never forget that…. They killed my little brother, but they can’t kill his ideas. He was only 17, but he understood more about this system than most people learn in a lifetime.”
Nearly a year later, on August 21, 1971, George would be killed at the hands of prison guards during what appeared to be an attempted prison break, though there are many questions to this day about the circumstances surrounding George’s death, and many believe he was set up and murdered by prison guards. After George’s death, the group he helped form behind the prison walls would go on to organize struggles on the inside. A leader and comrade of George, Khatari Gaulden, would later die on August 1, 1978, from prison medical neglect. It was after this that members of the Black Guerilla Family (a group founded by George) began to commemorate the Jackson brothers, Gaulden, and the struggle of Black people during the month of August and began to spread the commemoration across the US.
From then on, the commemoration of Black August has taken on many different forms and new meanings to those who participate in it. Though its significance has faded from many people’s collective memory, it’s still commemorated widely by revolutionaries, nationalists, and prisoners alike. For those who observe BA, it’s a time to recommit oneself to the struggle. The founders of Black August wrote 4 tenets for those participating in the month’s observance to abide by:
- “A fast which historically has been used as an expression of personal commitment and resistance. Hence, from sunrise until evening meal we will abstain from eating. We abstain from consuming any type of intoxicants for the entire month of August. The necessity for this should be self-evident for all serious participants of Black August (BA).
- We limit our selection of television and radio to educational programs, i.e. news, documentaries and cultural programs, etc.
- During BA we emphasize political and cultural studies for individuals involved in BA. Participants in BA should pair off with someone else you know to study and share knowledge of African affairs.
- As an outward expression of BA we wear a black armband on the left arm or wrist as a tribute to those Africans who have died as a result of their sacrifice for African Liberation. The armband can be worn either on the inside or outside of your clothing.”
Additionally, there are special days of commemoration during BA—days that mark the historic events of struggle, such as August 7th and August 21st to mark the deaths of Jonathan and George.
This Black August, Dare to Struggle calls on all people inside Cook County Jail and their loved ones to participate in this year’s Black August commemoration by committing to the struggle against oppression and joining us for an August 21st demonstration against the conditions inside CCJ. Inmates should take the month to make plans for the 21st and how they can hold demonstrations on their decks, in coordination with Dare to Struggle’s demonstration outside on the same day. Invite other inmates to participate in Black August, discuss its history and politics, and invite them to demonstrate and speak out against the conditions of the jail on the 28th. Make signs and banners from sheets with slogans about the jail and the struggle against it, invite people to gather at a specific time and location in your division, ask people to make speeches and lead chants. Get creative. Spread the word on your deck: it’s time to come together. Most importantly, write to Dare to Struggle about your experience during Black August—how you and others practiced it—and report to us on your demonstration if you organized or participated in one (what was the program, how many people came out or participated, what was the reaction of the COs and other inmates).
As we’ve said before in previous issues of Cracks: enough with the bullshit! Inmates have to squash their petty beefs and come together against their common enemy—those who oppress you every day inside the hell on Earth we call Cook County Jail. Let’s make this year’s Black August the time to start that process and get people involved in a common struggle. As George Jackson writes: “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will die or live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act.”
A Note from Dare to Struggle to the Readers
Since December 2024, Dare to Struggle has been producing and distributing Cracks At Hotel California (Cracks) with the help of inmates and their families. Since then, we’ve produced 7 issues and have had wide distribution both inside and outside CCJ, having made hundreds of contacts and readers in the process. Through this effort, we were able to create a list of demands against the jail conditions with both families and inmates, held protests outside of the jail, and put Sheriff Tom Dart on trial with a people’s tribunal in June, where families and inmates gave testimony against Dart and the conditions at CCJ.
The initial goals of Cracks was to expose the conditions inside the jail and use it as a tool to give both inmates and families a voice as well as to get people organized in the fight against the horrifying conditions and mistreatment at CCJ. As we continued to meet and talk with inmates and families, we ran into a few different issues. We soon became overwhelmed with stories from people about their individual cases and asking DTS for help. While we’ve highlighted people’s individual cases and fights inside the pages of Cracks and in other material we take out to people and write, it’s been difficult for our small crew of full-timers (we all work full-time jobs, but dedicate our time to DTS when we clock-out) in Chicago to manage both the production of material and taking it out to the public. It’s important to note: Dare to Struggle is not an organization of lawyers (though we’ve tried to connect people with lawyers when they ask). We’re not a social service agency. We’re an activist group whose main objective is to organize people in collective struggle against the American nightmare. Our starting point is going to those facing this nightmare and organizing them in collective action because that’s the only way shit is actually going to change.
We also started to notice general trends both in people’s stories about how they wound up at CCJ as well as the conditions on the inside. Week after week, we were distributing new issues of Cracks that essentially said the same thing: CCJ is hell on Earth. And while we need to continue to expose the jail and the stories inside, we also don’t want to be redundant. People in CCJ already know the conditions they’re living in, so what good is it to report on it all the time? While it does still serve the purpose of exposure—letting the world know what’s going on behind those walls—we want to take Cracks to another level.
For the last 7 months, we’ve made substantial inroads inside the jail. Our general strategy is organizing both the inside (inmates at CCJ) and outside (families, friends, supporters) to work in coordination with one another to initiate focused campaigns of struggle around a specific set of demands (they can be the ones we drew up, but those can also change depending on what’s going on). At this point, the inside has surpassed the outside. We have numerous readers and leaders in nearly every division. People inside are talking to each other, reading the newsletter together in groups, and writing to DTS about the process of coming together. This has been an important development in organizing inmates in collective struggle, and we want to seize the moment, with hopes that these efforts inside can encourage the outside to step up. So given this, we want to outline a couple of suggestions for the readers, both inside and out.
If you got something to say to DTS, please write to us:
Those who have our phones be blowing us up sometimes (which is cool because we love you guys), but we can’t get to every call all the time. There are a handful of people who are being brought up as leaders in this struggle and we’d like to get on regular calls with people who are taking this stuff seriously to strategize. But generally, it’s much better to write to us.
Cracks is your voice to share with both the inside and outside:
When writing to Cracks, think of the newsletter as a way to deliver messages between divisions and to the outside. What do you want others to know? We suggest writing about how you’re getting organized in your div/deck, what are some of the obstacles in getting people organized both inside and out, and what are some things you’re fighting around and how. Write reports about protests you organize and tell people how they went. These will be useful for others trying to organize themselves and fellow inmates/families. We can’t guarantee everything submitted will get published, but we’ll do our best to put out the most pressing issues and, if needed, print add-ons for people to read.
Cracks is an organizing tool:
The newsletter should be a place we can collectively organize struggle. In our opinion, it’s the best way to do so at CCJ. It should be full of ideas from inmates and families on how to organize people and what we should be organizing people around. If there are disagreements or criticism about things put in this newsletter, write to us and we can put it in the next issue. It would be good if there was a debate of ideas going back and forth in Cracks. DTS doesn’t hold all the answers—we have a strategy we believe in—but it’s the masses of people who make history, and we want to hear from you about what you think is the best way forward when it comes to the collective struggle and liberation of people.
We look forward to continuing to publish Cracks and get it to those who need to read what it lays down. We look forward to hearing from new readers, contributors, and comrades in this struggle. The path ahead is a long one. The enemy is powerful. But we know the people are more powerful, especially when together. In the words of the great Chairman Fred Hampton: “If you dare to struggle, you dare to win. If you don’t dare to struggle, then goddamnit you don’t deserve to win.”
A Letter To The Outside
by a group of inmates in Division 11
The following is an excerpt of a letter written to Dare to Struggle from a group of inmates in Division 11. They have requested the letter be published in full (which you can read on our website, it is too long to fit here) to further expose the conditions inside the jail and the problems people are facing. The group of 19 inmates signed their names and booking number at the end of the letter. We at Dare to Struggle salute their bravery, them coming together, and publicly speaking out against CCJ. We will do our part to make sure this letter travels far and wide.
June 7, 2025
We – individuals here in custody at Cook County Department of Corrections (CCDOC) – are in extreme distress, fear, and in need of outside support to combat and help with the torture we endure on a daily basis.
We must popularize desires for justice and increase people’s receptivity to the testimonies of the oppressed individuals in custody here at CCDOC, by recognizing embodied, unconscious and conscious structures of racial discrimination, violence, widespread fears of retaliation for practicing our Constitutional Rights, intensified forms of punishment, psychological warfare, inhuman treatment, superior oppression strategies, religious discrimination, and so on!!!
There are many issues we (individually and as a collective) undergo here at CCDOC that go underexposed. Within this letter are issues we experience, which are ongoing. First we want to provide a list of some key issues. Just to give a brief synopsis before we get into full detail.
- We forego years of being here at CCDOC still awaiting discovery. There are individuals here in custody 12+ years, discovery still ongoing, and no charges have been verified. CCDOC is also known for holding innocent individuals for years, and IDOC (Illinois Department of Corrections) for 20+ years, only to dismiss their cases on false arrests/charges. We are being held against our will.
- CCDOC is confiscating our mail. They will lie and say our incoming mail is saturated with drug paraphernalia. Now granted, drug paraphernalia does get into Cook County Jail, but it is mainly transported through and by CCDOC’s own employed Correctional Officers, which has been proven. But the problem is they confiscate books shipped directly from Amazon, knowing we all know Amazon doesn’t ship or produce drug paraphernalia products. We’ve even had Correctional Officers inform us their co-workers take our material home and some even sell them. We lose money. And these books aren’t cheap. Some even range $100+.
- We are getting sick from the water and air here at CCDOC!
- We receive in-person visitations where our loved ones – parents, grandparents, children, and spouses – come to visit us, to give support, inspiration, comfort, and hope. But CCDOC staff make them wait 1 hour and more only for them to see us for all of 15 minutes. And on top of that, they (CCDOC staff) disrespect our family and support systems. They speak to them with aggression, use profane language, and become argumentative, etc. And if a Correctional Officer had a conflict with an individual in custody, whether verbal or because of a written grievance against that officer, that same officer will target that individual’s family who came in person, even to the point of ending their visit.
- We don’t get any proper hair products to properly maintain strong and healthy hair. Everyone’s hair is falling out. People with full heads of hair are now bald. We can’t maintain proper self-care here at CCDOC. And most people who are forced to cut their hair have become depressed!
- The food here at Cook County Department of Corrections is very disgraceful, disappointing, and disreputable! People really need to see the food we have to force ourselves to eat to avoid hunger pains. You wouldn’t feed your cat or your dog the food CCDOC provides. It’s that bad. Literally, the rats don’t even bother most of it. And that says a lot! The flipside to that is CCDOC has the funds for better and healthier meals. CCDOC gets paid roughly $52,000 for every individual in custody per year. You do the math. CCDOC holds roughly 5,000 individuals. Then to add to that, to get fruit you have to be on specific religious meal plans. Now why is that? We also receive hair in our food, spoiled milk, cold dinner trays, outdated snacks, and so on.
- CCDOC commissary prices are extremely offensive and shameful. The prices for food here at Cook County Jail are 2x, 3x, even 4x the prices at the prisons. And here at CCDOC we haven’t even been convicted. It doesn’t make any sense! We’ve also attached Cook County Jail commissary pricing list, so you can see for yourself.
Can you PLEASE do what you can to get this noticed. Please! Life at CCDOC is cruel and inhuman. If this doesn’t get exposed it will just continue. The world needs to know. CCDOC is a big business, formed by systemic racism, superior oppression, extortion, punitive punishment, and so much more. WE REALLY NEED HELP!!!
40 Inmates Take Action Against CCJ Slop in Division 8!
On June 26th, at least 40 inmates inside Cook County Jail’s Division 8 stood together and took collective action against one of their biggest concerns: the food. CCJ is known to serve inmates some of the worst food imaginable—a low-calorie diet that often makes inmates sick. Inmates have said in the past they wouldn’t feed CCJ’s meals to a dog, often forcing inmates to rely on commissary to eat if they’re able to access it. “Something has to give,” an inmate leading the collective action told us. “Enough is enough. We have to get documentation first. Once we get documentation then, I feel like anything goes, but I need the document first. And I keep saying ‘luck’ but I thank God at least enough people was willing to take a stand and come together, and now I hope that I can build off that moment in the same dormitory.”
Inmates in Division 8 decided they were ready to fight. Standing together, they collectively submitted grievances about the quality of the food. “It’s important because enough is enough, and the only way change is gonna happen is if we take a stand. Another stance like that, I believe, will get the attention of the right people down here. If we all say, ‘Look, we gon’ take a stand right here, and we ain’t gonna move unless these conditions are met’—I know that gots power. I believe if we force they hand, then they will do something.”
Inmates, through a collective struggle, are learning how to work together and assert their rights and dignity as human beings. This is just the beginning of a larger fight against the conditions inside the jail. Dare to Struggle salutes the inmates in Division 8 who are taking a collective stand against mistreatment and raise the demand that all inmates deserve decent meals fit for human beings—every day, for every inmate. We’ll continue to report their efforts, build support for them on the outside, and fan the flames of struggle at CCJ.
Inmates at CCJ are standing up. What will you do to support them? Join Dare to Struggle and build a movement against CCJ’s horrible treatment and conditions!
A Report Back from the Outside
On May 18th, we held our first speakout against conditions and mistreatment at CCJ in front of Division 10, where families and loved ones go for visitation. We chose this location to bring the fight directly to the jail, in the face of the guards, and to encourage participation from families and friends headed to or leaving from visitation. A speakout is essentially a kind of rally where people are encouraged to take the mic and “speak bitterness” (share their stories and condemnation directly to the people responsible). Speakouts are a good way to build confidence among the people, give them a platform to talk their shit, and consolidate them. In the lead-up, Dare to Struggle spent a couple of weeks flyering at the courthouse and at visitations, and we reached out to our contacts to invite them to come and speak out. On the day of the speakout, some sheriffs tried to tell us to move from the sidewalk, to which we replied: fuck off. They backed off and decided to watch the speakout nearby from their cars. We had a few families come and speak out against the conditions at CCJ as well as someone who had been inside before speaking out about how they were treated. Children wrote messages about CCJ in chalk in front of Division 10 which read: “CCJ Hell On Earth!”, “Boo Cook County”, “Love you Mom”. While the speakout was going on, we invited visitors to join us and speak out, and we gave them issues of Cracks.
On June 1st, Dare to Struggle organized a People’s Tribunal Against Tom Dart, again outside of Division 10. With Sheriff Tom Dart being the head of the jail, we decided to put him on trial for the crimes committed against inmates and families. We spent time beforehand flyering and trying to build up the event, messaging inmates to invite their families. We set up a life-size cutout of Dart as a set list of speakers gave testimony against him and the crimes the people are charging him for. The tribunal had the testimonies of several individuals whose lives have been ruined by Tom Dart and his jail: Vicki Willis (mother of Alteriq Pleasant) spoke about how CCJ stole her son’s life in 2022, Grant Hatter (brother of Raheem Hatter) spoke about how CCJ stole his brother’s life in 2021, and family members of people inside gave testimony about the horrors their loved ones are facing on a daily basis. The most impactful part of the tribunal was the playing out loud of recorded testimony from inmates currently inside CCJ who called in to DTS beforehand to record their testimonies against Tom Dart. Visitors coming in and out would stop and listen, joining in occasionally to speak or hold signs that read “Punish Abusive COs,” “Jail Tom Dart,” and “CCJ: No More Stolen Lives!” Kids got to doing chalk slogans again in front of the jail. The verdict at the end of the people’s trial for Tom Dart: GUILTY FOR CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE! We still plan to deliver this verdict soon to the President of the Cook County Board, Toni Preckwinkle. While this was by far our most exciting and well-attended event, many people’s families who had confirmed being there (to DTS directly or through their loved one inside) didn’t show up. We understand shit can come up for people, but we want to stress the importance of showing up and encourage inmates to talk with their loved ones about the importance of getting involved with DTS.
Lastly, on July 13th, in response to the increases in commissary, Dare to Struggle called for a speakout at the jail to expose and denounce these increases. As we’ve laid out before, the way commissary works at CCJ is via extortion of families, and inmates are forced to rely on commissary because the provided food is shit. The increases in commissary are a way to bleed more out of those on the outside to provide basic things for their loved ones. Even though we’d heard from the inside that commissary was only increasing on a few items, we still went out to agitate people about the increases, seeing this as an attack on inmates and families. We spoke out in front of Division 10 and distributed our newsletter. We didn’t have a great turnout as we didn’t do great outreach for the event itself, but nevertheless, we spoke to families about the increases and the need to get organized to fight back. We ended by going over to the outside of Division 11 (on the 31st Street side) with our megaphones to make some announcements to the inmates there. We told inmates to bang on the windows if they could hear us and agreed with what we were laying down—that inmates need to start to come together, organize themselves, and fight back against the conditions (we had a lot of banging). It’s hard for us to know if guys in 11 can hear us when we’re out there, so please, write to us and let us know.
Dare to Struggle 