His Escapes Mirrored The Ancestors From Centuries Ago
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
His breathing heavy, he heard guards searching through the forest, shouting his name. He couldn’t get caught. Because just like his fugitive ancestors, who escaped the plantation centuries ago, he too was a runaway - a successful one!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | His breathing heavy, he heard the sounds of guards searching through the forest, shouting his name. |
| 0:06.0 | He couldn't get caught. |
| 0:08.0 | Because just like his fugitive ancestors, |
| 0:11.0 | with escape the plantation centuries ago, |
| 0:13.0 | he too was a runaway, a successful one. |
| 0:17.0 | This is two-minute black history, |
| 0:20.0 | what you didn't learn in school. |
| 0:22.0 | In 1972, black panther Haran Abdul-Roof, formerly known as Russell Shobbs, |
| 0:34.0 | was accused of being involved in a 1970 attack on a Philadelphia police station |
| 0:39.0 | and sentenced to life in prison. |
| 0:42.0 | But he refused to accept that fate and managed to escape. |
| 0:46.0 | Twice. |
| 0:48.0 | In 1977, he freed himself from prison and lived off the land for nearly a month. |
| 0:54.0 | When he was finally recaptured, |
| 0:56.0 | it was a huge media event. |
| 0:58.0 | But he held his head high and told the press, |
| 1:01.0 | tell everyone that the slave has been caught |
| 1:04.0 | and I'm going back to the plantation. |
| 1:07.0 | And that reputation is what earned him a nickname imbued with black history. |
| 1:13.0 | Other incarcerated men started calling him Maroon |
| 1:20.0 | after escaped black Caribbean and Americans |
| 1:23.0 | who escaped from their plantations to live in free settlements. |
... |
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