The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland on Eutaw Place in Baltimore was the gathering place for a number of activists, organizers and spiritual leaders from different parts of the United States as they paid tribute to Recent Ancestor Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (October 4, 1943 – November 23, 2025), once known to those of us who were “Sixties activists” as H. Rap Brown.

Organized by Sis. Tomiko of Aging People in Prison Human Rights Campaign (APP-HRC) and the Internet radio programs Africa 500 and The REvolution Is Black Love, the event drew attendees from Baltimore, Washington DC, South Carolina, Philadelphia PA, Atlanta GA, New York NY and Los Angeles CA.

Baba Mike Johnson, one of the co-founders (with Baba Bill Goodin and Baba David Murphy) of BlackMen Unifying BlackMen a decade ago, delivered the welcome and introductory remarks, reminiscing on his early days in the Civil Rights and Black Power marches and how Imam Jamil Al-Amin and other freedom fighters of the day had influenced his activism as well as his development as a Black Man.

Longtime educator and activist Baba Charlie Dugger, who sponsors the annual Garvey Day and Billie Holliday celebrations in Baltimore as well as numerous presentations during Kwanzaa, gave an invocation and libation to the Ancestors.

Guest speakers discussed the Imam’s commitment to activism as H. Rap Brown and his continued work for justice as he had become a devout Muslim Imam on the West End of Atlanta. 

Imam El-Hajj Mauri’ Saalakhan, a human rights advocate with The Aaria Foundation in the Washington, DC area, spoke about Imam Al-Amin’s transition from Black radical freedom fighter to respected Imam and how this did not mean the end of the repression he faced until his final days: “The opposition understood this as well.  H. Rap Brown became a bigger, more closely watched target after his spiritual transition.”  He noted Coretta Scott King’s request for a fair trial for the Imam and the vicious backlash that resulted, including predictions from the mass media that he “would die in prison, alone and forgotten. … While he did indeed die in prison, execution by medical neglect is what we call it, the other part of that prediction has proven to be false.  Our creator has revealed, in the final revelation for all humanity, the Qur’an, ‘Do not say of those who are slain in the way of Allah that they are dead.  They are alive receiving sustenance from their lord, though you do not perceive it.’  A Syrian poet wisely noted, ‘The blood of a martyr is not an ordinary blood.  It transfuses itself into the life of a people and energizes them.  We didn’t just bury a body on November 26, 2025 in South Florida.  We planted a seed, and the struggle continues.”  

Imam Ayman Nassar, founder of the Baltimore-based Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA), who works in youth development and leadership, connected the Imam’s work with Qur’anic passages to show that the beautiful struggle: “Indeed, the believers are those who believe in Allah, in God, and his messenger, and they have no doubts, then they exert effort with their lives, their wealth, for the path of God.  These are the truthful ones.”  Our lives are a continuum of struggles, and the Imam’s struggle was a lifelong one, “to uphold truth and justice in the face of tyranny.”  Imam Al-Amin exemplified “the exertion of effort with no hesitation and no doubt.”  He stressed the importance of following the proper principles, the proper spiritual directives, and the proper means, “with no hesitation, with no doubt. … They believed, they walked the talk, and they had no hesitation.  They knew that they are on the straight path, and they are going to just keep plugging through. … understanding that it’s going to involve discomfort.  Sometimes pain.  Sometimes losses.  Losses of life, or wealth, or both. … and intentions are sincere …”  Imam Al-Amin was in constant transformation, learning, growing and becoming more focused on “what truly counts.”  One must be peaceful but must also know when to be strong in the face of oppression.  One must work on their personal growth so as to be able to lead through submission and not through domination of others.  Baba Nassar related all of this to what he referred to as the Seven Criteria for a Beautiful Struggle, focused on the divine revelation that is perfect, that has no impurities, that has mercy for mankind and follows in the footsteps of the best man who walked on this planet, the Prophet, it must involve discomfort, the exertion of effort, the investment of wealth, and must be sincere.

Baba Khalil Abdulkabbir came from New York to speak about his interaction and work with Imam Jamil Al-Amin.  Having been inspired in his teens by the man who was at the time known as H. Rap Brown, he would come into Islam in his twenties in Brooklyn with the Dar al Islam Movement, a network of American Muslims in Brooklyn dedicated to raising the status of the community, build autonomy and establish places of worship, schools and governing bodies according to the tenets of Islam, and he began interacting with those who were incarcerated in New York state prisons.  He had met H. Rap Brown at that time (around 1972) and was impressed with his calmness, humility and perspective despite his having been targeted, prosecuted and incarcerated in Ossining, New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility at a young age, already branded as dangerous by the powers that be.  Imam Jamil was influenced by the Dar al Islam Movement, and “the amazing thing that Imam Jamil did … was 0hat he showed that people of faith can still hold on to and continue on the road to revolutionary change.  You don’t have to think that, because you are religious, that you just pray and that you just fast, but also there are also things that are within your faith practice that is about raising your status as an individual …”  Imam Jamil would found a number of masjids across the country modeled on the Dar al Islam Movement.  His work would help form the 1993 Islamic Shura Council that brought together the four major American Muslim organizations, including Imam Warith Deen Muhammad’s.  Imam Jamil Al-Amin was always engaged in helping others, always asking “What can I do for you?”, which is a lesson we can all learn from in seeking ways to work more effectively with each other.  He closed his remarks with a quote from one of Imam Jamil’s writings, “Truth is the cry of all but the discipline of the few.  There is no worse lie than truth misunderstood by those who say they know.  Truth is a trust; falsehood is a treason.  Truth is absolute.  Truth is never relative. … To speak the truth is a part of faith.  In a time of universal deceit, to speak the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Baba Waziri Mustafaa Taqwaa Waliuddin of the Jericho Movement-Atlanta spoke about the political prisoners as “the heartbeat of the struggle”.  Having always known him as the Imam he became rather than the SNCC revolutionary he had been in his youth, Baba Mustafa noted that Imam Jamil was always “there in real time … still doing grassroots work in the community” and not hiding in the church or mosque.  Having been raised never to compromise, even as he found himself facing a stint of incarceration of his own, he had learned not to talk to the police, not to romanticize the struggle, not to romanticize revolution and “not to live in a bubble either”; as he embraced the mantle of being a New Afrikan Muslim, he learned to embrace activism and Islam as a “culture of resistance”, he learned that “just because you lick the slave master’s boot, won’t liberate you, won’t stop him from coming and knocking at your door.”  Islam showed him that “the first revolution is inside yourself. … If we don’t liberate ourselves, we can’t liberate nobody. … We’ve got to be accountable for our actions. … We can no longer think we are safe from a diabolical system … that will show you no mercy.”  Imam Jamil Al-Amin, as well as all our political prisoners, are “the heartbeat of the struggle, and they need our assistance.”  Baba Mustafa challenged us to show up for our communities with the same commitment and enthusiasm that was shown in the recent No Kings Marches.  July 4, 2026 will see a mobilization to freedom against ongoing genocide and celebrating 250-plus years of resistance in Atlanta, Georgia.

Attorney Mama Efia Nwangaza began her remarks with excerpts of several freedom songs reminiscent of the marching songs that strengthened the people as they faced batons, rubber bullets, firehoses and police dogs during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, followed by the greeting “Free The Land”.  Having been active in the freedom struggle during the Imam’s heyday as H. Rap Brown, she called us all to follow the Imam’s example by noting that “his mantra, ‘To be Black is necessary but not sufficient,’ challenged us all to struggle as did he. … November 23 is not the day he died; in fact it’s the day that he spoke loudest, for which he is echoed and multiplies.  It is our duty that we not allow him to be silenced or forgotten.”

Baba Tyronne Morton, longtime prison activist and psychologist, spoke about Tawhid, the Islamic principle of the Creator’s absolute oneness, and drew comparisons to Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s consistent struggle for truth.  “When you’re fighting for the truth, you’ve got to be constant. … you’ve got to have patience. … And … the most important thing is sincerity.”  He spoke of parables, “the way that Allah communicates with us to get us to understand. … If you’re conscious, you understand.  If you’re not conscious, you’re in trouble.”  He noted that in American culture, we operate on the lowest plane of existence, the material plane “because the devil has distracted us from [everything] but materiality. … And that was done purposely a long time ago.  Why?  Because when you’re distracted [to] materiality, you have no time for the remembrance of Allah.  You have no time because you’re out there hustling, doing what you’ve got to do to survive.  So, we live in a world right now where we are basically imprisoned based on somebody else’s way of thinking and doing.  If you don’t understand the culture that you are a part of, if you don’t understand American culture, you are an imprisoned person … because culture carries the values, culture carries the principles that give you your perspective on life, what reality is, what reality is not, what’s right, what’s wrong.  Culture does that.  So whoever set up the culture, set you up.  Set me up.”  Connecting this to Imam Jamil Al-Amin, he noticed that the system had set up Black men in particular into a certain way of thinking and behaving.  “He understood that the culture was set up with a certain message for Black people: ‘Nigger, you ain’t nothing.  Nigger, you ain’t about nothing, and we’re going to keep our foot on your neck as long as we can.’ … During the enslavement period, they did it through a system.  They locked us in.”  Nowadays, the culture does it in a more sophisticated manner, “locking us into a material universe, devoid of Tawhid.”  Imam Jamil Al-Amin was “trying to find another mode of thinking and behaving” that he did not find in the Panthers, SNCC, the Civil Rights Movement or the street organizations, that would equip him to discern those who were true from those who were false, and to fight those who practice evil.  The prison system tested him in ways that many of us are not prepared to be tested.  He understood that to deal with anything, one must deal with Tawhid.  “This Brother was true, true to the cause.”  We live in a system right now that forces us into a struggle between what is right and what is wrong, and most of us are lost.  Imam Jamil Al-Amin was a living parable of jihad, of struggle, and his faith helped see him through, even in prison, helping him leave the materialistic existence behind to live on the plane of spirituality with higher beings.  “Allah said when you don’t remember him, he won’t remember you.”

Imam Abdul Salaam Muhammad, Representative of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan in Baltimore from Muhammad Mosque No. 6, also spoke about Imam Jamil Al-Amin.  After giving all praise to Allah and thanking Him “for all of his messengers and all of His prophets” and giving thanks for The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and The Honorable Louis Farrakhan and the “second chance” to get to know Imam Al-Amin, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and the Black Panther Party through the Nation of Islam and Afrikan American Muslims, he likewise thanked Sis. Tomiko and the organizers of this gathering for the remembrance and exaltation of Imam Al-Amin and the opportunity for all of us to participate in it.  Reflecting on his first meeting, at age 25, with Imam Al-Amin in Washington, DC at an event in support of Ancestor Kwame Ture as he was battling illness, he noted Imam Al-Amin’s comment that “the essence of love are the principles upon which life in the universe are based, and those principles are freedom, justice and equality.  And those who truly love struggle, the struggle for these principles, and since these principles are eternal, those who struggle for these eternal principles ultimately find eternal life.”   He connected this to Sheikh Saalakhan’s earlier remarks that we should “not speak of those who are slain or die in the way of Allah as being dead; nay, they are alive; we just can’t technically perceive it.”  Imam Al-Amin “lived his life for freedom, justice and equality, but he did it in the strongest of ways.”  This connects with the platforms of the Nation of Islam and other revolutionary organizations calling for freedom for our Political Prisoners and for the right of People of Afrikan Descent to determine our own path and destiny as a people, to live free from US and western oppression.  He urged us all to not “let his work or any other work of our Ancestors or leaders of the modern time die.  That is the proper use of social media, to use it to educate.  That’s the proper use of podcasts now, to indoctrinate the minds of young people that are binging on foolishness, and the filth and degeneracy and hot topics of the world where they’re destroying Black leaders and Black People at every turn.”  He closed with a prayer and an official letter from The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to the family, friends and followers of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, “a great friend and a Brother. … the greatest revolutionary in the Civil Rights Movement. … He is among those who have been falsely accused of murdering a police officer, but he was never a criminal in our eyes, and he died a fierce, uncompromising Brother.  We in the Nation Of Islam will always revere him and keep him in our honor as an Ancestor inspiring us to continue in the struggle and until every one of our people and all of those unjustly imprisoned will be set free.  May Allah grant him protection and have mercy on him.  May the historians write the truth concerning this wonderful Brother.  May Allah’s peace surround his wife and his sons and grant peace to all who stand for justice and righteousness.”

Bro. Elijah Miles spoke on behalf of The Tendea Family.  In 2015, following the unrest of the Freddie Gray uprising in Baltimore, The Tendea Family was conceptualized by its Founder, Chairman Elijah Miles, who gathered like-minded individuals dedicated to the uplift of Baltimore City on the campus grounds of Morgan State University.  He expressed his gratitude to activists such as Imam Jamil Al-Amin as well as the veteran activists presently working in the community and the dedicated teachers who instilled in him a sense of justice and struggle for having “paved the way” for a younger man such as himself to take leadership for his people today.  Even though we don’t have a bunch of 20 year olds, 30 year olds, 16 or 14 year olds, it is my pledge, and Tendea’s pledge that, if it’s the last thing that we do, we’re going to keep this work going for a new generation.  Because the greatest thing we can do, even though we now offer words and memories, the greatest thing that we can do, for all of our freedom fighters and Ancestors, is to continue to work towards liberation.  And so, that’s my commitment, my pledge, and I want all of you to know … that your work hasn’t been in vain, that your work has produced Tendea Family and your work will continue to produce other young people that will study the efforts and strives that you’ve made, and that, when it’s all said and done, that we will reach liberation.” 

Dr. Umar Johnson traveled from Philadelphia to attend the event (“There’s a special energy in Baltimore, Maryland”), noted that he had not had the honor of meeting many of the freedom fighters of Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s time (“I stand on the shoulders of the departed ones”) and spoke at length about our need as a community to honor Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s work by remembering “what we owe ourselves” as well as what the oppressor owes us by becoming more committed to the internal reparations manifested by “teaching our children where they come from … who they are [and] what the struggle was before they were born”, important requirements that he sees lacking in our community as a trained school psychologist; committing to our community-building work; establishing our own schools, hospitals, grocery stores and other much-needed infrastructure that our community needs; and less enamored with consumerism among the general populace and empty self-promotion by those who seek to take the mantle of leadership in our community.  “Things will only get better when Black People make them better. … We need to get serious, we need to get focused, we need to get organized as a community. … Ancestors will come, ancestors will go, but we have to make sure that the work continues.  And the best way to make the work continue is to make sure we’re building institutions for our children in which they can be taught that legacy.  The reason that they don’t know H. Rap Brown is we don’t have enough schools that teach them H. Rap Brown.  The reason that they don’t know H. Rap Brown is we no longer have the study groups we used to have that teach them H. Rap Brown. … We’ve got to build Councils of Elders in every Black community.  The Elders have not done your work yet. … It is time for you to institutionalize your wisdom and give it back to the babies.”

Dr. Maulana Karenga, initiator of the annual Afrikan American Afrikan-centered commemoration we know as Kwanzaa, gave a keynote address online over Zoom.  “We must speak truth and justice, and walk in the way of light. … We are here to pay homage … to Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.”  He wished health, peace and blessings to the Imam’s family, and he brought greetings from the Organization Us.  He thanked Sis. Tomiko for organizing this event.  As he gave homage to Imam Al-Amin’s work and legacy, he spoke of the meaning of Imam Al-Amin’s name.  “Jamil speaks to his beautifulness, inward and outward.  It’s the same as in Swahili, when we say Zuri, or in Zulu … or in Ancient Egyptian, Neter.  It’s not just beautiful on the outside, it’s goodness on the inside.  He was a good person, and therefore, he was what we would call in the community, “a beautiful Brother”.  Second, his name is Abdullah … servant of Allah … his commitment to give of himself to Allah, to offer his life … to submit to the will of Allah for good and justice … his commitment to live a righteous life to reflect God’s will.  His name Al-Amin, the sincere one, the genuine one, the trustworthy one, one who we can rely on, and count on in times of need, in times of testing and struggle, and always, and anywhere, at any time. … I will always see him as … a Sixties Soldier, conscious, courageous, committed to the Black freedom struggle … a fearless leader of a generation.”  He quoted a line from the Husia that instructs us that “we are all morally obligated to bear witness to the truth, and to set the scales of justice in their proper place among those who have no voice, and he did that.”  Imam Al-Amin “raised our people and challenged them to stand up, step forward and continue the liberation struggle. … a shield and a sword, a pillar of peace, and a constant call to righteous and relentless struggle.”  He recounted meetings at SNCC Headquarters in different parts of the country, where Imam Jamil Al-Amin did his work, “making sense, doing work as he was saying this … making a case for togetherness … a master rapper, skilled in the spoken word … and he lit fire to falsehood.”  Dr. Karenga recalled Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s words that we must not expect to be given justice by our enemy, and that “I can find only three places for a righteous man in an evil society: on the battlefield fighting his enemy, in a cell imprisoned by the enemy, or in his grave, free from his enemy.”  Dr. Karenga noted that “Imam Jamil committed himself to be both a Shahid and a Mujahid as he became a Muslim.  He wanted to be a witness … for good in the world, and he was.”  The consciousness for continued struggle is exemplified in the Qur’anic passage, “We are on the battlefield for something good … and for the weak and the oppressed upon men …”  Dr. Karenga noted three key and interrelated aspects of the righteous work that Imam Jamil Al-Amin had undertaken: “Mujahid, a righteous warrior; an Imam, a righteous guide; finally, a Shahid, that did not volunteer but was ready to offer, and did offer his life and his death, in witness … to his faith, in witness to his people, in witness to the will and work of Allah God for justice and good in the world.”  Dr. Karenga encouraged us all to ask ourselves, “How can we best honor him except by trying to learn the lessons of his life and legacy, and … live them in our own particular way?”  Dr. Karenga noted Imam Al-Amin is known and honored for his work as “a spiritual guide, a teacher, a counselor … who continued to work for the people, his religious community and the good of humanity … in work of peacemaking, peacekeeping, mediation, prevention and resolution of conflict, fostering conciliation, and building relationships of mutual respect, mutual commitment and mutual good … keeping of peace to bring good into the world.”  The commitment to Islam as a religion of peace reminded Dr. Karenga of passages from The Husia and the Qur’an: “You are committed to fight against those who would fight against you, but do not be aggressive, for Allah loves not the aggressor.”  The concept of struggle, often referred to in revolutionary circles as jihad, was also discussed, and the importance that the first level of struggle is within, “to strengthen ourselves, spiritually and ethically, so that we can weather all storms. … As a moral spiritual teaching, Imam Jamil teaches us that ultimately, we are confronted in our struggle for the good of society and the world, with certain questions, because we want a good soldier; we don’t want just any soldier.  We don’t want the soldier that we see on a live stream committing genocide, wiping out people without any sentiment except blood lust.  We don’t want that.  So, we have to ask ourselves, What do we bring in to being a good person?  How do we raise a people?  How do we [bring] consciousness and awareness among humanity that makes us strive for the best?  He concludes, It begins with us. … We have to struggle internally to make sure we’re strong enough to overcome hardship and suffering without compromising and walking away from the battle before the struggle is won.”  Imam Jamil Al-Amin exemplified jihad, struggle, as a young man, as an imam, and as a political prisoner, from Mujahid to Shahid, to make the world more humane, and this must be the goal of anyone who considers themselves a revolutionary.  As such, Dr. Karenga told us that Imam Jamil Al-Amin left us four key lessons: “The first is, we must be spiritually grounded, ethically grounded, in whatever faith we are, ground yourself in the best of what it means to be Afrikan and to remaking the world.  Speak that special truth to the world.  Make your own unique contribution to how we reconceive and reconstruct this world.  And at the heart of all of it is this … to speak truth, to do justice, to care for the poor and vulnerable among us, to have a rightful relationship with the environment, to constantly struggle against evil, injustice and oppression, and to always raise up, praise and pursue good. … Second, is the practice of the Afrikan ethical imperative to love and serve the people.  Service is an ethical imperative. … Serve God, so He can protect and provide for you; serve your Brothers and Sisters, so you can be respected for it, serve a wise person so they can teach you wisdom, serve anyone so you can benefit from it, and serve your mother and father so you can go forward and prosper. … All the great people you know is because they served.  They gave their lives and their deaths for the cause of good for all of us.  Third thing, is the beauty in diversity.  [This is what we called] unity in diversity.  And Imam Jamil taught this and practiced this, in his SNCC days, in his early days and in his latter days.  He brought us together, as he brings us here, today. … The fourth one, is struggle. … Be able to suffer and persevere without breaking, without compromising, without walking away from the battlefield before the struggle is won, without seeking a comfortable place in oppression while all of our people are suffering.  Struggle is part of nature. … We are born in struggle.  Struggle is one of the defining aspects of the human personality.  We struggle when we come into being; that’s called birth.  We struggle to make the most out of things; that’s called life.  And we struggle not to go out of being; that’s called quest for immortality.   And it is in our doing good in life and our quest for immortality that we are rewarded … in the afterlife. … Let me end by saying this: this is our duty, to know our past and honor it; to engage our present and improve it; and to imagine our own future and to forge it in the most ethical, effective and substantive way. … Our Honored Ancestors teach us, our sacred texts teach us: continue the struggle, keep the faith, hold the line, love and respect our people and each other.  Let us practice the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles.  Seek and speak truth, do and demand justice, in positive concern for the well-being of the world, and all that are in it. …” 

Several local community activists and grassroots community members also gave brief reflections on the Imam’s life and the importance of a real understanding of the concept of jihad as consistent struggle within oneself as well as within the greater society.  Among the local speakers were Nana Akua Akomfo Nyamekye, current Queen Mother of Baltimore City and advocate for political prisoners who had served with Marshall “Eddie” Conway in the Baltimore Black Panthers and the Soul School, and as such was an ally of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and who reminded us that we must support activists like MOVE’s Mama Pam Africa and that “the work is never done”; Baba Ade Oba Tokunbo, also a member of the Black Panther Party from his days in New York and is the founder of the Baltimore-based Organization of All Afrikan Unity Black Panther Cadre (OAAUBPC); Baba Charlie Dugger, longtime Baltimore area educator, activist and sponsor of the annual Marcus Garvey Day an Billie Holliday celebrations; Baba Bill Curtis, local activist and vendor of Afrikan-centered paraphernalia including the red, Black and Green flags seen across the city; Mama Kilolo Watkins, member of the Maryland Council of Elders; Ras Tre Subira, community activist, educator and photographer who provided the photography and videography of the event through his company Black Mission Media; Bro. Vernon Streater, founder of Unity TV and provider of the livestream of the event; Baba King Teasdell of the Souls of Life Society; and several others, some of whom had known him as younger people.

 A special table that served as something of a shrine to Ancestor Jamil Al-Amin was arranged by the African Diaspora Ancestral Commemoration Institute (ADACI).  Security was provided by members of The Tendea Family, who have provided similar services for Pan Afrikan community events across Baltimore.  As mentioned above. videography and photography were provided by Ras Tre Subira of Black Mission Media, and the livestream was done by Bro. Vernon Streater, founder of Unity TV.

Much gratitude to the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland, 1307 Eutaw Place in Baltimore that made this event possible by providing the space, and their representative, Baba Marc Rollins (pictured above, second from left), who was present to assist throughout the event.