08/31/2026
Black August is a time to honor Black freedom fighters, political prisoners, and generations of Black people who have resisted prisons, policing, and state violence.
We understand that all Black people are political prisoners. Black people live under systems that surveil, police, criminalize, and control our lives. From slavery to Jim Crow to modern policing and mass incarceration, the carceral state has always been used to control Black people. Corey Ruiz was murdered by the state under these conditions.
This Black August, Freedom, Inc. and Freedom Action Now have been organizing, studying, and fighting for our people:
- We fought for justice for Corey Ruiz and continue demanding community control over the police.
- We hosted the Frontline Organizing School, bringing young people together to study organizing, political education, principled struggle, and direct action.
- We wrote letters of love and support to Black political prisoners.
- We are reading Assata Shakur’s autobiography and studying the history of Black liberation struggles.
- Alongside the Free the 350 Bail Fund, we have bailed more than 55 people out of the Dane County Jail.
- We continue fighting to destroy the carceral state and build life affirming services for our people.
For us, Black August is about understanding that the struggle our ancestors and elders were fighting is not over.
Our people are still being killed by police. Our people are still sitting in cages because they cannot afford their freedom. Our families are still being separated. And when we organize against these conditions, the state still responds with surveillance, intimidation, misinformation, arrests, and violence.
Black August is a reminder that our people have always fought back. And we are still here. Still organizing. Still resisting. Still building. Still fighting to get our people free.
Free the people. Free them all. All power to the people.
