WHAT IS BLACK AUGUST?

Black August is a month dedicated to honoring the ongoing struggle for Black liberation, rooted in the revolutionary prison activism of the 1970s. It began inside California prisons as incarcerated political prisoners, including members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, sought to commemorate fallen comrades and strengthen their commitment to resistance. Observers engage in disciplined practices such as fasting, political study, physical training, and acts of solidarity. Far beyond a memorial, Black August is a radical tradition that calls for heightened political consciousness and collective struggle against systemic racism, state violence, and the prison-industrial complex.

August holds deep historical significance for Black resistance in the United States. It marks the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to the English colony of Virginia in August 1619—an event that set in motion centuries of racialized violence and exploitation. It also commemorates Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion, the most famous enslaved revolt in U.S. history, as well as landmark events in the modern civil rights era, including the 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Watts Rebellion. The month centers on remembering figures like George Jackson, a Black Panther and revolutionary whose 1971 assassination in San Quentin Prison galvanized national prison activism and inspired the original Black August observances.

At its core, Black August is a call to revolutionary discipline and sustained resistance. It rejects reformist or symbolic gestures that fail to challenge the root systems of white supremacy and capitalism. Instead, it embraces abolitionist principles, community empowerment, and political education as essential to Black liberation. The tradition insists that freedom is not a momentary achievement but an ongoing struggle—one requiring sacrifice, solidarity, and a commitment to dismantling the structures of oppression that persist today, especially within the prison-industrial complex.