SOFFIYAH ELIJAH is a human rights lawyer and Harvard law professor. She has been working tirelessly on behalf of the San Francisco 8 for more than 5 years.

FRANSISCO TORRES is one of the San Francisco 8. He was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York. A Vietnam veteran, he has been an activist since his discharge from the military in 1969, and has been active in veterans and community affairs.

CLAUDE MARKS is the director of the Freedom Archives, producers of Legacy of Torture. He is active in the work supporting the San Francisco 8.

EVENTS:
(more detail and additional events will be posted here)

Friday February 13

4-6pm at Hull House, 800 S Halsted

6:30 - 8pm DePaul University, at the Schmidtt Academic Center room 161, 2320 N Kenmore Ave (at Belden Ave)

Sponsored by the DePaul Peace Studies Department

Saturday February 14

1-4pm at the Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E Oakwood

Sponsored by Black People Against Police Torture, Co-sponsored by the /Coalition Of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU)

with Cliff Kelley as moderator

6-9pm at Batey Urbano, 2620 W Division

• sponsored by the National Boricua Human rights Network(NBHRN) and theTamms Year Ten coalition
• 6-7pm: SF8 presentation
• 7-9pm:witness the play Crime against Humanity followed by Q&A to include SF8 speakers

Sunday February 15

12 noon brunch at MessHall, 6932 N Glenwood

2:30-4:30pm at Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W 95th St, Chicago, IL 60628

The San Francisco 8 (SF8) are eight former Black community activists who dedicated themselves to working for the protection and improvement of their community. Most of them were members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in the 60s and 70s.

In January 2007 they were arrested in California on charges dating back to 1971. They were charged with a conspiracy alleged to have existed between 1968 and 1973, and the killing of a police officer that occurred in 1971. Similar charges against the same men were thrown out in 1973, after it was revealed that police tortured them into confessing.

In 2003 the case was re-opened and the men were subpoenaed to a series of grand juries. In 2005 they asserted their Constitutional right to refuse to testify and were jailed for civil contempt. Upon their release, they founded the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights (CDHR) to publicize the human rights abuses perpetrated by government agents.

The arrests and torture were the product of COINTELPRO — an FBI program designed to disrupt, neutralize and destroy radical movements, from the Black Panthers to the Young Lords to anti-war activists — by infiltrating organizations, framing people with false criminal charges, and assassinating charismatic leaders.

COINTELPRO is not a thing of the past - it continues to operate today.