Robert Hillary King

Robert Hillary King, aka Robert King Wilkerson, is part of a trio of American political prisoners collectively known as The Angola Three.

King’s membership in the only prison-recognized chapter of the Black Panther Party, and his work organizing against prison injustices, resulted in his being targeted for retaliation by prison officials. Despite overwhelming evidence exonerating him, prison-snitch testimony alone convicted him and he received a life sentence for the death of a fellow inmate. King’s tenacity in proving his innocence came to fruition when a Federal Appeals Court finally adjured him “probably innocent.” In February 2001, after thirty-one years of imprisonment and twenty-nine continuous years of solitary confinement, King walked out of the gates of Angola a free man.

From the moment of his release, he has worked tirelessly to spread word about the innocence and the continued plight of his two remaining comrades, both held in solitary confinement for thirty-six years. King has spoken at universities, conferences and other venues. He has made appearances on radio and television, traveled to seven foreign countries, and addressed members of the European Parliament. He has worked to win the release of his comrades, the release of all political prisoners, and an end to the new slavery that is the Prison Industrial Complex.

Upon his release King was quoted as saying, “I may be free from Angola, but Angola will never be free of me!”

by Marion Brown, former Black Panther and prison activist

Robert H King on Democracy Now! Talking about the pending release of Albert Woodfox

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Praise

“For a person to go through 29 years in one of the most brutal prisons in America and still maintain his sanity and humanity, that’s what makes people want to listen to Robert.”
—Malik Rahim Cofounder of Common Ground Collective

“Friendships are forged in strange places. My friendship with Robert King and the other two  Angola 3 men Herman Wallace and  Albert Woodfox is based on respect. These men, as Robert reveals in this stunning account of his life, have fought tirelessly to redress injustice, not only for themselves, but for others. This is a battle Robert is determined to win and we are  determined to help him.”
—Gordon Roddick,  Co-founder of The Body Shop and activist

“When there is a train wreck, there is a public inquiry, to try to avoid it recurring. Robert King’s conviction was a train wreck, and this book is perhaps the only way the world will get to understand why. There are more than 3,000 people serving life without the possibility of parole in Angola today, some as young as 14 when they were sent there, and many of them innocent but without the lawyer to prove it. We owe it to them, and others in a similar plight around the world, to read this book.”
—Clive Stafford Smith, Director, Reprieve

“King uses his own history to show how the racial and economic hierarchies in mid-20th century Louisiana condemned most Black people to lives of insecurity and fear.”
—Colorlines

“Told in a straightforward manner, this gripping tale has humor and all the innocence of a child’s voice, a more mature young man’s, evolving finally into the voice of an adult trying to plant his flag in ripe soil to claim a piece of the planet for himself and his kin. Unlike Ralph Ellison’s protagonist, King doesn’t evaporate or melt into the darkness. He fights, he yells, he refuses to take the beatings, whether ideologically or physically. He never gives up hope.”
—San Francisco Bay View

“Three aspects of this book make it accessible and applicable: King’s aptitude for storytelling—non-linear, conversational, straightforward, and insightful—his eventual explanation of the Black Panther Party’s significance and power, and the details of his own legal battles fought from behind prison bars, specifically the appeal that led to his release in 2001 after 29 years of solitary confinement in Angola State Penitentiary, a/k/a “The Last Slave Plantation.”
—WIN Magazine

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Praise

The Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation tells the gripping story of Robert King, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, men who have endured solitary confinement longer than any known living prisoner in the United States. Politicized through contact with the Black Panther Party while inside Louisiana’s prisons, they formed one of the only prison Panther chapters in history and worked to organize other prisoners into a movement for the right to live like human beings. This feature length movie explores their extraordinary struggle for justice while incarcerated in Angola, a former slave plantation where institutionalized rape and murder made it known as one of the most brutal and racist prisons in the United States. The analysis of the Angola 3’s political work, and the criminal cases used to isolate and silence them, occurs within the context of the widespread COINTELPRO being carried out in the 1960’s and 70’s by the FBI and state law enforcement against militant voices for change.

Narrated by Mumia Abu-Jamal, The Angola 3 features interviews with former Panthers, political prisoners and revolutionaries, including the Angola 3 themselves, and Bo Brown, Geronimo (ji Jaga) Pratt, Malik Rahim, Yuri Kochiyama, David Hilliard, Rod Coronado, Noelle Hanrahan, Kiilu Nyasha, Marion Brown, Luis Talamantez, Gail Shaw and many others. Portions of the proceeds go to support the Angola 3. Features the music of Truth Universal written by Tajiri Kamau.

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Book Events

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Reviews

• Desde lo mas bajo del monton
• Angola 3 in La Presse
• The Meaning of Freedom in Abort Magazine
• The Meaning of Freedom: A PMR Review
• A Black Panther’s Fight for Freedom Behind Bars
• The Angola 3 in Political Media Review
• Black Panther Robert Hillary King Tells His Story
• From the Bottom of the Heap in SF Bay View
• Le Confinement Solitaire:
• The Angola 3: Torture in Our Own Backyard
• From the Bottom of the Heap in Political Media Review
• Terms of Imprisonment
• A Hard-Won Freedom: From the Bottom of the Heap
• A Black Panther’s Fight for Freedom Behind Bars
• Book Review: From the Bottom of the Heap: Youth Justice
• From the Bottom of the Heap in Publishers Weekly
• Civil Rights Campaigner to Get Honorary Degree
• A Hard-Won Freedom
• A Black Panther’s Fight for Freedom Behind Bars
• 37 years of solitary confinement: the Angola three

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Interviews

• Solitary Confinement: Punishment Or Cruelty?
• Free Angola 3 member Albert Woodfox! End Louisiana’s Campaign of Vengence!
• Black History Month message of hope from famed former Black Panther Robert Hillary King
• Robert Hillary King on The Marc Steiner Show
• Robert King @ The Outer Limits of Solidarity talk, 4/6/2012 @ UC Hastings
• Robert King interviewed by Terry Kupers on the Psychological Impact of Imprisonment— Angola3news

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Mentions

• The Angola 3: Torture in Our Own Backyard
• In the Land of the Free: The Angola 3 Film in The Guardian
• Southern Injustice: Herman Wallace dies
• 37 years of solitary confinement: the Angola three

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Blog

• How Albert Woodfox Survived Solitary
• A wrong that must be righted: behind the bars of Angola