The Soledad Brothers were three inmates at San Quentin State Prison charged with the murder of guard John V. Mills in 1970. George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo and John Clutchette were said to have murdered Mills in retaliation for the killing of three black prisoners by a guard, O.G. Miller, at Soledad prison in California.
Activist and author Angela Davis took up the cause of the Soledad Brothers after reading about the case in February 1970, and became the chair of their defense committee. Davis said, "The situation in Soledad is part of a continuous pattern in the Black community. Three Black men who were unarmed, who were not trying to escape, are killed, and this is called justifiable homicide...One white guard is killed, and this is immediately called murder."
On August 3, 1970 the Marin County Civic Center, which houses the Marin County Superior Court, was the scene of an assault by a group of African-American political activists led by Jonathan Jackson, the 17-year old brother of Black Panther militant George Jackson, demanding the release of the "Soledad Brothers". The group released several prisoners in the courtroom and took a number of hostages including the presiding judge, Harold Haley. A shotgun was taped to the judge's neck. While they were attempting to escape, Haley and prisoners William Christmas, James McClain, and Jonathan Jackson were killed as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse.
On August 21, 1971, days before his trial in the guard's killing, the 29-year-old Jackson launched an uprising at San Quentin with a 9mm pistol. Gun in hand, he released an entire floor of prisoners from the maximum-security wing, crying, "This is it, gentlemen, the Dragon has come!" In the ensuing melee, three guards were killed, as were two prisoners suspected of being snitches, before George Jackson was killed by a guard.
The Soledad Brothers made sensational headlines on August 7, 1970 when George Jackson’s 17-year-old brother Jonathan burst into a Marin County courtroom with a machine gun, freed three San Quentin prisoners and took Judge Harold Haley as a hostage to demand freedom for the Soledad Brothers. Haley, prisoners William Christmas and James McClain, and Jonathan Jackson were killed by police fire as they attempted to drive away from the courthouse.
Jackson was buried with full honors as a Field Commander of the Black Panther Party and mourned as a revolutionary hero...
