IndyTV Interview with Robert Hillary King, Black Panther and Only Freed Member of the Angola 3
Primary tabs
On April 11, 2009, Robert Hillary King, Black Panther and only freed member of the Angola 3, spoke to an audience at the First Universalist Church of Rochester. His talk touched on organizing in prison, his experiences with prison and solitary confinement for 29 years, his new book, From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King, and the struggle to free the other two members of the Angola 3.
In 1970, a jury convicted Robert Hillary King (also known as Robert King Wilkerson) of a crime he did not commit and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. While locked inside Louisiana’s notorious Angola State Penitentiary, an 18,000-acre former slave plantation, he became a member of the Black Panther Party, organizing prisoners to improve conditions. In return, prison authorities beat him, starved him, and gave him life without parole after framing him for a second crime. He was thrown into solitary confinement, where he remained in a six-by-nine foot cell for 29 years as one of "the Angola 3." In 2001, the state of Louisiana grudgingly acknowledged his innocence and set him free.
IndyTV caught up with Mr. King and interviewed him before his speaking engagement.
Video: Watch the interview; click me.
Audio: King's Candy: A New Orleans Kitchen Vision
Related: Black Panther and Former Angola 3 Prisoner Robert Hillary King to Speak