Mad Bomber Melville
is the long overdue biography of Samuel Melville, a white,
working class revolutionary, whose guerrilla bombings set in
motion a flood of armed revolutionary actions in the United
States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Once imprisoned, Melville became a key organizer and a crucial
element of the notorious Attica Prison rebellion, uniting prisoners
across racial barriers and making the ultimate sacrifice for
revolutionary change.
Mad Bomber Melville traces Sam Melville's short life and
rapid political development, highlighting a much-needed
example of
an undying and uncompromising struggle for justice and liberation.
"We are long overdue for the kind
of serious consideration of Sam Melville's political role
and development that Leslie
James Pickering has undertaken. Before Weather Underground
had formed, Melville, even without the resources and support
we had at elite universities, initiated armed propaganda attacks
on buildings (not people) of the corporations and government
responsible for war and plunder of the third world. Like all
of us, he had plenty of faults, especially at a time when we'd
had so little collective struggle on sexism and ego. As a prisoner,
Melville went on to become a searing and inspiring example
of a white radical willing to risk his life fighting alongside
Black and Latin struggles when he became a leader, and was
killed by police, during the earthshaking Attica prison rebellion
of 1971. This study reclaims an important, but largely unheralded,
piece of radical history, with valuable lessons about initiative,
shortcomings and growth in striving to be fully on the side
of the oppressed."
- David Gilbert, U.S. Political
Prisoner, Weather Underground Organization
Leslie Pickering's Mad Bomber Melville is featured in a four-part
story in Buffalo's ArtVoice! Click below to view.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Learn more about Leslie James
Pickering on his website.
Mad
Bomber Melville is available for $16.95 (U.S.). For bulk quantities and distribution
information please email
Arissa Media
Group. |
