Lennox Hinds' Introduction to 'the Cat'
It is my honor and privilege to have been
asked to write this introduction to this remarkable collection
of poetry by the African cat once called David Rice, as he was
known in the 60’s and early 70’s when I was Director of the
National Conference of Black Lawyers and the nation was in
turmoil.
He and Ed Poindexter had been sentenced to the
life sentences they are still serving after conviction of the
1970 bombing death of an Omaha, Nebraska policeman.
They had been caught up in the anti-Black Panther
hysteria that swept the country during that period.
Unlike some of the other victims of political oppression
who I represented during that period, Rice and Poindexter’s
trial and early appeals did not have the benefit of national
legal support and public attention.
Their conviction had relied on the testimony of a
frightened teenager who admitted to the crime and evidence
allegedly seized in an illegal search of Rice’s house.
I will use Rice/Poindexter, as the case was then known in
my brief synopsis, but I will use the name “Mondo” to describe
the man I have come to know and admire over his many years of
struggle against his conviction and imprisonment.
The
Rice/Poindexter prosecution must be understood in the context of
the intense period of conflict between the police and
African-American communities throughout the nation during the
sixties and seventies.
In
Among the
most vocal critics of the continuing abuse of power by the
In
August 1970, Larry Minard was killed by a bomb, 15-year-old
In 1975 when I was National Director of the
National Conference of Black Lawyers and Vice Chair of the
National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, I
prepared amicus curiae briefs on behalf of each organization to
support the state’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Two lower courts had already unanimously ruled that the
dynamite used to corroborate Peak’s testimony, allegedly seized
from Rice’s home following the bombing, had been obtained by an
illegal police search.
In fact, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had held that
the conduct of the Omaha Police Department represented “a
negligent disregard…for the constitutional rights of not only
the petitioner, but possibly other citizens as well.”
But, in 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court refused
to rule on the issue of the illegal search but instead used the
case to set new procedural rules for appeals.
The Supreme Court ruled that, starting with the Rice
appeal, an appellant could not go directly to the Federal courts
to challenge an illegal search.
Thus, by changing the rules of legal procedure, the U.S.
Supreme Court nullified the favorable rulings of the lower
federal courts.
In 1980, attorneys for Rice and Poindexter
finally were able to obtain copies of FBI memos documenting the
prosecutorial misconduct at the time of the original trial.
The FBI, operating under instructions to “expose,
disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the
activities of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and
groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and
supporters,” had volunteered to help the Omaha Police Department
convict the two men as part of COINTELPRO, the national FBI
offensive against political activists, denounced in 1974 by
Congressional investigation.
As part of their efforts to “disrupt and
discredit” African American leadership, the Omaha FBI suppressed
tapes of the 911 call which summoned police to the site of the
bomb which would have enabled the FBI to provide the Omaha
police with voice analysis information about the caller.
An Omaha FBI memo, dated 10/13/70, stated that “Assistant
COP Glenn Gates of the Omaha PD, advised that he feels that any
use of tapes of this call might be prejudicial to the police
murder trial against two accomplices of Peak and, therefore, had
advised that he wishes no use of this tape until after the
murder trials of Peak and the two accomplices has been
completed.”
It took Rice and Poindexter’s attorneys
another year to get a copy of the tape from the Omaha Police
Department. But
subsequent multiple appeals filed for Rice using the new
evidence which documented the suppression of the exculpatory
evidence at trial were rejected by the courts.
By 1991, I was chosen to represent Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa. (This most appropriate combination of words from several indigenous African languages means “Wild (natural) Man Child of the Sun”. In his Preface to this volume he describes the evolution of his thinking which led him to change his name).
I was asked to represent Mondo before the
Nebraska Board of Pardons after the Nebraska Parole Board had
unanimously recommend that the life sentences for both
Mondo and
Poindexter be commuted to a given number of years so they could
be eligible for parole and subsequent release after 21 years in
prison.
Notwithstanding, the Board of Pardons refused to grant a
hearing, despite over 75 letters of support from local and
national individuals, elected officials and organizations, five
offers of jobs, housing and job search assistance, and despite
the presence of 125 supporters at the hearing.
Infractions in the prison including two charges that
Mondo, a vegetarian, had given the meat from his tray to other
inmates and two others for wearing a paper medallion of Africa
on a string around his neck, were the reasons given by the
Pardons Board for not granting him a hearing for the commutation
of his life sentence.
The Nebraska
Parole Board continued to unanimously recommend commutation of
their life sentences, leading the
As this volume of poetry goes to press, Mondo
we Langa and Ed Poindexter have spent 35 years in prison.
As even a cursory reading of this volume shows, the mind
and creativity of Mondo is as free as his body is imprisoned.
I would like to share some of my personal
impressions of Mondo, as I have come to know him.
He has always been a person who shares the rage of the
victims of racism and of police abuse and has always sought to
“right the wrongs.”
For these reasons the Black Panthers and the NCCF offered him
opportunities to struggle for justice for others.
A man of honor and firm conviction, after learning that
an arrest warrant had been issued for him, Mondo gave himself up
to the police because as he wrote he knew his innocence,
although he did not trust the court system which uses “legal
lynching as its rule of thumb.”
Since he was innocent, he wrote, “I had faith in you, the
people, that you would be able to see political persecution for
what it is…I had faith that you would be able to see through
the…window dressing public officials would go through to
disguise the move to silence two outspoken men and I have been
called a ‘fool’ for having such faith.
Ed has been called likewise by those who do not believe
there is such a thing as ‘power of the people.’”
Mondo’s particular focus continues to be the
African-American community.
He writes for both the “brothers and sisters,” and for
the general public.
Although, his collection of children’s stories Morning of the
Bright Bird and this collection of poems were dedicated to
“brothers and sisters,” while the essays published as A View
from Taney’s Place to the “general public”, all
can be enjoyed by everyone with an appreciation of
creativity and longing for justice.
Mondo’s writings are always political, even
when erotic. They
express his love of music and the beauty of athletes in motion.
He is a keen observer of events and people, individually
and as they interact.
He believes that all members of the global community
should participate in society.
All his creative work reflects the humor, both subtle and
outrageous, that enlivens his conversation.
In short, even though incarcerated, Mondo embraces life constructively and is a principled, courageous and articulate educator, leader and organizer in the continuing struggle for justice.
His life like that of Malcolm X’s is motivated
by a fundamental set of principles.
Malcolm said in 1964.
“We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting
for separation. We
are fighting for recognition as human beings.
We are fighting for human rights.”
Society could certainly benefit from Mondo’s
release among us to fight for human rights.
In the interests of justice I urge you to join him in the
continuing fight for his and Ed’s release and against the
illegal imprisonment of thousands of others in this country and
throughout the world.
Rutgers University Professor of
Criminal Justice
Senior Partner, Stevens, Hinds &
White P.C.
This introduction was originally written in
2005 but was not received in time to be included in the first
edition of the book.
