On this day, December 13, in the year 1971, the Michigan Supreme Court, on its own motion, ordered 1960s activist John Sinclair released from the ten year prison sentence he was serving for possession of two marijuana joints. The Court would later overturn his conviction, upholding Sinclair’s contention that Michigan’s marijuana statute, as then written, was unconstitutional. In the 1960s, John Sinclair was an outspoken civil rights activist in the counterculture movement. Influenced by Black Panther leaders Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, Sinclair was one of the founders of the White Panther Party, eventually serving as its chairman. In 1970 the FBI referred to the White Panthers as “potentially the largest and most dangerous of revolutionary organizations in the United States.” As an activist leader, talented writer, poet and manager of the band MC5, Sinclair was viewed by law enforcement as a person who needed to be silenced. ... https://youtube/watch?v=tRcpEN755lI
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 11:37:05 +0000
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