On August 24, despite receiving hundreds of calls and letters from around the world in support of Diop Olugbala (see a letter from a supporter in the UK), judge Roxanne Covington handed down the political verdict - guilty of felony aggravated assault on a cop.

Video of the March 19, 2009 incident shows police physically attack Diop and other City Hall protesters. Police snatch his protest banner, choke and punch him in full public view. Yet Diop is the one now facing a ten year prison sentence!

The charges, trial and verdict are clearly political. Diop is known in Philadelphia and across the country as a bold and outspoken Uhuru Movement leader, demanding economic development for the black community and an end to police terror and mass imprisonment of African people.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, October 13. We need to jam up the judge's office with as many calls and letters as possible.

Join the March for Black Justice on October 13

Africans around the world will march just before Diop's hearing on Wednesday, October 13. Marches are planned in Philadelphia, Toronto and London, UK so far.

Philadelphia • 8am
Start at 8th & Market
End at Criminal Justice Center, 13th & Filbert

London, UK • 1pm
Start at Bond Street Tube
End at United States Embassy, 24 Grosvenor Square, WC1A 1AE
Info: 077-2306-7486

Download and distribute the march leaflet
» Philly (PDF 2MB)
» London (PDF 4MB)
The Campaign to Free Diop is part of the larger struggle to end the war being waged on the African community.

Police beatings, frameups and shootings are daily occurrences in the black commmunity. But the police are not the only criminals in the justice system.

The DA defends the criminal activity of the police in court while they work overtime to prosecute African people.

Judges take money under the table from private prisons in exchange for more convictions.

Public defenders and many paid lawyers do nothing to protect their clients' interests.

Together these forces maintain a prison industry that generates trillions of dollars for the US economy at the expense of African people. Only a court system controlled by the African working class will bring forth justice or Africans!

We are marching to jail the crooked cops, judges and lawyers!

March demands

1. Free Diop Olugbala - all charges dropped, no sentence!
2. Reparations to the African community - $1 billion for economic development, not police, prisons and courts
3. Independent investigation of all cases of Africans who have been brutalized, framed up and killed by police, judges and attorneys
4. Jail the police, judges and attorneys found guilty of crimes against the people
5. Immediate release of all African people in prison due to the corruption of Philadelphia's criminal justice system