May 10th: Brad Will

Brad Will was an American anarchist  involved in a variety of types of social justice activism in the United States of America, including squatting advocacy and freeganism.

In 2006 he went to Oaxaca, Mexico to document a Teacher’s Strike.

Brad was shot and killed in Oaxaca, Mexico on October 27, 2006. He was videotaping during a protest, when gunmen approached the barricade he was near and opened fire. The gunmen appear to have been local officials or at least associated with local officials.

May 9th: Nat Turner

Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 56 deaths of white people. Turner was smart and also very religious. He believed he was destined to do something, and that signs pointed towards a rebellion against slavery.

Turner started with a few fellow slaves, and then went from house to house freeing slaves and killing white people. Eventually around 70 slaves and freed blacks were involved. They actually avoided attacking some homes of poor white people, thinking they had more in common with the blacks.

May 8th: Gabriel

Gabriel was an enslaved blacksmith in the Richmond, Virginia area who was planning a slave revolt in 1800. Someone snitched, and as a result Gabriel and 26 others were murdered- hung at the Negro Burial Ground in Richmond- the place that is currently covered by 1-95 and a VCU parking lot.

While Gabriel and the others were not able to actually begin the revolt, the threat of a revolt was enough to scare many white people in Virginia.

May 7th: George Jackson

George Jackson was serving a prison sentence when he became politically active. He first studied socialism, and then joined the Black Panthers. He wrote 2 books, Blood in My Eye and Soledad Brother,  while in prison which gained him international attention.

In January of 1970 he was convicted of killing a prison guard within the Soledad prison, in retaliation for the shooting death of 3 black inmates. He and 2 others were moved to solitary confinement, and became known as the Soledad brothers.