Atlantans stand up for Mutulu Shakur, political prisoner and stepfather of Tupac

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Best known to many as the stepfather of Tupac Shakur, 65-year-old Mutulu is one of the foremost activists within America's black liberation movement. But after serving 30 years in federal prisons across the country — including the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary — his eligibility for mandatory parole in Victorville, California has faced challenges.

Which is why his community of supporters in Atlanta have joined a nationwide campaign called Mutulu is Welcome Here. Initiated by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the campaign intends to highlight the support for Shakur in the hopes of influencing a positive result on the day of his hearing, April 7, 2016.  A five-minute talking head documentary filmed in Atlanta shares the campaign’s name.

“The powers that be believe the community would not welcome him back and we wanted to create something contrary to that opinion,” Atlanta-based filmmaker Artemus Jenkins says. Mutulu is Welcome Here, the mini-doc he filmed, features a host of locally-based artists and activists expressing their support for his release.

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“Mutulu is welcome here because he is the heart and soul of the African Liberation struggle and part of the pantheon of comrade leaders who, in our prior generation of struggle, led us by great example,” one supporter says in the short.

His 1988 conviction on racketeering charges stemmed in part from allegations that he masterminded the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur and a 1981 robbery of an armed Brinks truck, leaving a guard and two police officers dead. He spent years on the FBI’s Most Wanted List before being arrested in 1986. Shakur, who continues to maintain his innocence, believed he was due for release February 10, 2016.

A recent Associated Press story about the possibility of Shakur’s parole reflects the same government bias he’s been up against. It characterizes him as the mastermind behind “a trail of bloodshed,” but makes no mention of the extensive work he did at Lincoln Detox in South Bronx as a doctor of acupuncture to curb an influx of heroin addiction by natural means in the ’70s.

In a recent letter to friends, family, and supporters, Shakur addressed the need to offer an alternative to this characterization.

“The parole commission is charged with determining whether or not I am a threat to the community and society as a whole. Its function is limited in scope and subjective by nature. The presumption is that the commission represents the society as a whole and accepts the parole commission’s perspective on what constitutes a threat to society. If the parole commission fails to consider the will of the community as well as the desire of the broader society at large for healing and reconciliation, then we have an obligation to ensure the parole commission’s process remains as informed, fair, impartial and unbiased as possible.”
During his time in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, Shakur was a frequent call-in guest and supporter of Atlanta community radio station, 89.3 (WRFG-FM). He also worked with faculty and students at Georgia State University, according to a Mutulu is Welcome Here campaign coordinator Zayd Malik, and helped produce and release Dare 2 Struggle, the Tupac tribute compilation album released 10 years after the rapper’s death.

The footage for Mutulu is Welcome Here was shot in front of the Atlanta federal prison, where he served most of his bid. “If he is released he will be living with Afeni Shakur in California and expected to regularly visit the Atlanta area,” Malik says.