Jalil Muntaqim

Jalil Abdul Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom)

Jalil was 19 years old when he was arrested. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. For the past 32 years, Jalil has been a political prisoner, and one of the New York Three (NY3), in retaliation for his activism in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Jalil was born October 18, 1951, in Oakland, CA. His early years were spent in San Francisco. Jalil attended high school in San Jose, CA, where he earned a scholarship to an advanced high school math and science program. He also received a summer scholarship for a San Jose State College math and engineering course. Jalil participated in NAACP youth organizing during the civil rights movement. In high school, he became a leading member of the Black Student Union, often touring in "speak-outs" with the BSU Chairman of San Jose State and City College.

After the assassination of Dr. King, Jalil began to believe a more militant response to racism and injustice was necessary. He began to look towards the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense for leadership. After moving back to San Francisco from San Jose, he was recruited into the BPP by old elementary school friends who had since become Panthers.

Two months shy of his 20th birthday, Jalil was captured along with Albert “Nuh” Washington in a midnight shoot-out with San Francisco police. When Jalil was arrested, he was a high school graduate and employed as a social worker.

While in San Quentin prison in California in 1976 before being moved to New York, Jalil launched the National Prisoners Campaign to Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of political prisoners in the United States. Progressives nationwide joined this effort, and the petition was submitted in Geneva, Switzerland. This led to Lennox Hinds and the National Conference of Black Lawyers having the UN International Commission of Jurists tour U.S. prisons and speak with specific political prisoners. The International Commission of Jurists then reported that political prisoners did in fact exist in the United States.

Jalil put out the call for the Jericho March on Washington in Spring 1998, which was answered by over 6,000 supporters demanding recognition of and amnesty for U.S. political prisoners. The Jericho Amnesty Movement (JAM) aims to gain the recognition by the U.S. government and the United Nations that political prisoners exist in this country, and that on the basis of international law, they should be granted amnesty because of the political nature of their cases.

Since in New York prisons, Jalil wrote and submitted a legislative bill for prisoners with life sentences to receive good time off their minimum sentences. This bill was introduced to the NYS Assembly Committee on Corrections. Jalil has filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of prisoners.

Jalil has received awards of appreciation from Jaycee's, NAACP, and Project Build for his active participation and leadership. After many years of being denied the opportunity to attend college, Jalil graduated from SUNY-New Paltz with a BS in Psychology and a BA in Sociology in 1994. He would like to pursue his Masters degree, but has not been allowed by DOCS.

During his imprisonment, Jalil has become a father and a grandfather. He states, "I came to prison an expectant father and will leave prison a grandfather."

Jalil has worked as an educator of other inmates and practices organizing and advocacy whenever possible to ensure the most adequate, humane treatment for all people. He has been repeatedly punished for these activities, through physical abuse, formal discipline, and numerous prison transfers. Jalil is presently working to develop a National Prisoners Afrikan Studies Project (NPASP), a new non-profit organization dedicated to educating prisoners.

Jalil can be contacted at:

A. Jalil Bottom 77A4283,
Auburn Correctional Facility,
PO Box 618,
135 State Street,
Auburn, NY
13024

Partial List of Writings by Jalil Muntaqim available online

"The Cold War of the 90's" in Issue #52 of Prison News Service, Sept. - Oct. 1995.
"The Criminalization of Poverty" is a chapter of Schooling the Generations in the Politics of Prison , edited by Chinosole (Berkeley, CA: New Earth Publications, 1996).
"America Reaps What it Sows" , commentary on the September 11th attacks in the United States
Reparations In Our Lifetime! June 22 2001
A Political Prisoner’s Journey in the U.S. Prison System, written in 2005

Also, check out these:

Jalil Muntaqim - A Voice for Liberation. This video was produced and edited by Eve Goldberg and Claude Marks in November 2002, based on an interview done in August 2000 by John O'Reilly and Nina Dibner with Jalil. VHS 20 minutes. $20

email me for details about ordering these items

A pdf version of this and other information regarding the New York 3 and Jalil Muntaqim can be viewed or downloaded by clicking here (30K)
A fifteen page package of documents pertaining to police and FBI conduct in this case can be viewed in PDF format by clicking here (1.7 megs)

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these page - if you do not have it you can download the latest version for free from the Adobe Website

We Are Our Own Liberators
At long last in 2003 Jalil Muntaqim's much-anticipated book We Are Our Own Liberators was published. It can be ordered from AK Press by clicking here.

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