H. Rap Brown dies at 82; former Black Panther leader was imprisoned for killing sheriff's deputy

"Like other more militant Black leaders and organizers during the racial upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brown decried heavy-handed policing in Black communities. He once stated that violence was as American as cherry pie. Violence is a part of America's culture, he said during a 1967 news conference. America taught the black people to be violent. We will use that violence to rid ourselves of oppression, if necessary. We will be free by any means necessary."

"Brown who later in life changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin died Sunday at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, his widow, Karima Al-Amin, said Monday. A cause of death was not immediately available, but Karima Al-Amin told The Associated Press that her husband had been suffering from cancer and had been transferred to the medical facility in 2014 from a federal prison in Colorado."

H. Rap Brown, later known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, died at 82 in a federal medical center while serving a life sentence for the killing of a Georgia sheriff's deputy. His widow reported he had been suffering from cancer and was transferred in 2014 from a federal prison in Colorado. Brown emerged as a militant Black Power leader, chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and in 1968 became minister of justice for the Black Panther Party. He criticized heavy-handed policing, voiced that violence could be necessary for freedom, was convicted after a 1971 robbery and shootout, converted to the Dar-ul Islam movement in prison, moved to Atlanta in 1976, opened a grocery and health food store, and became an Imam advocating submission to God and raised communal consciousness.

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