Bill Ayers

Leaving the beautiful Adirondack mountains later today—we were here to celebrate the life and legacy of John Brown, to lay a wreath on the grave where he lies with his wife and several children under the gaze of the high peak, Mt. Marcy, also known as the Cloudsplitter. By the mid-1800’s there’d been talk and argument and compromise about slavery for many years, with self-liberating Blacks forcing a crisis and the openings of a new narrative. When John Brown’s army—tested inKansas and active in the Underground Railroad—invaded Harper’s Ferry, the gauntlet was down and there was no turning back. John Brown Lives! is an extraordinary organization doing important work in prisons (the main business in upstate NY) and keeping the spirit of John Brown alive. JBL! hosted the weekend remembrances and gave the “The Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award” to a social justice environmentalist, Katie Morgan, the intrepid activist lawyer Soffiyah Elijah, and the revolutionary poet Martin Espada. JOHN BROWN LIVES!