Burn, Baby, Burn

On a March night in 2000, two deputy sheriffs serving a warrant were shot in Atlanta, Georgia. One was severely wounded while the other would die a day later. The shooting kicked off a large manhunt in search of the alleged cop killer. Four days later in Alabama, authorities found their man—Jamil Al-Amin. He was a Muslim leader with the title of Imam in the West End neighborhood of Atlanta.

He was also the man formerly known as H. Rap Brown. He was a charismatic Black radical in the late '60s. He was a household name—poised to be the next Malcolm X, a vanguard in the Black freedom movement. The work he did made him a target—followed and harassed by the FBI—even being directly named by J. Edgar Hoover as a specific enemy in the illegal government surveillance program—COINTELPRO.

Now Imam Jamil is currently serving a life sentence in prison for the murder and shooting that night in Atlanta. To the federal government and the state of Georgia, he’s a man paying the price for his violent crime. To his family and supporters, his current conviction and life sentence is just the culmination of a decades-long federal campaign to crush him and they continue to fight for his freedom.

Join hosts Obaid Siddiqui and Noor Wazwaz as they explore the complicated story of the iconic and forgotten American leader H. Rap Brown.

The program is part of Audible's Podcast Development Program.