White Antiracist.org - David Gilbert

David Gilbert
Gilbert joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1962. He was involved with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) after forming a chapter at Columbia University. Later, Gilbert joined the Weather Underground and went underground for 10 years. He was involved in a 1981 Black Liberation Army action attempting to take money from a Brinks truck. A shooting followed that left a Brinks guard and two policemen dead. Although there were no allegations of Gilbert being involved with the shooting or even having a gun, he was sentenced under New York State's "felony murder law" to 75 years to life (Thompson, 2001). Gilbert regrets the deaths of the guard and the policemen, and wishes that during the trial he and his codefendants were capable of expressing pain for the loss of life. He also believes that it is a "shame that the very grave errors of inaction, of not fighting hard enough, are rarely even noticed. What were the costs, in terms of violence, of the terrible passivity of most of the white Left during the FBI and police campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, whose acts of annihilation against Black liberation resulted in the murder of dozens of Black activists and the decimation of the movement that has been the spearhead for social change in the U.S.? What was the toll from radicals' inaction while the FBI orchestrated the murders of sixty-nine AIM [American Indian Movement] members and supporters around the Pine Ridge Reservation ...?" (Thompson, 2001, p. 98-99). While in prison, Gilbert has continued his antiracist actions. When he was at Auburn prison, Gilbert set up a model peer education program. He also joined seven other prisoners in signing a public letter calling attention to the beating of a prisoner at Comstock Prison (Thompson, 2001). In 1987, at Auburn, Gilbert started (with two other prisoners) the Prisoners' Education Project on AIDS. When he was transferred to Comstock in 1990, he started a mutual support group for prisoners with AIDS. He continued his AIDS activism at Comstock. Throughout his work, Gilbert has tried to be "an antiracist pole and a presence among white prisoners...[He says his] central point is to develop a social base among white people, while maintaining close contact with Black people. I try to create a little more space to be less racist" (Thompson, 2001, p. 271. 272). David uses writing as one form of resistance. Please see: http://www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/davidgilbert/ for more information on David and links to his writing. For the story of another white antiracist prisoner, see Marilyn Buck page. References Thompson, Becky. (2001). A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Gilbert joined the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1962. He was involved with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) after forming a chapter at Columbia University. Later, Gilbert joined the Weather Underground and went underground for 10 years. He was involved in a 1981 Black Liberation Army action attempting to take money from a Brinks truck. A shooting followed that left a Brinks guard and two policemen dead. Although there were no allegations of Gilbert being involved with the shooting or even having a gun, he was sentenced under New York State's "felony murder law" to 75 years to life (Thompson, 2001). Gilbert regrets the deaths of the guard and the policemen, and wishes that during the trial he and his codefendants were capable of expressing pain for the loss of life. He also believes that it is a

"shame that the very grave errors of inaction, of not fighting hard enough, are rarely even noticed. What were the costs, in terms of violence, of the terrible passivity of most of the white Left during the FBI and police campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, whose acts of annihilation against Black liberation resulted in the murder of dozens of Black activists and the decimation of the movement that has been the spearhead for social change in the U.S.? What was the toll from radicals' inaction while the FBI orchestrated the murders of sixty-nine AIM [American Indian Movement] members and supporters around the Pine Ridge Reservation ...?" (Thompson, 2001, p. 98-99).

While in prison, Gilbert has continued his antiracist actions. When he was at Auburn prison, Gilbert set up a model peer education program. He also joined seven other prisoners in signing a public letter calling attention to the beating of a prisoner at Comstock Prison (Thompson, 2001). In 1987, at Auburn, Gilbert started (with two other prisoners) the Prisoners' Education Project on AIDS. When he was transferred to Comstock in 1990, he started a mutual support group for prisoners with AIDS. He continued his AIDS activism at Comstock. Throughout his work, Gilbert has tried to be "an antiracist pole and a presence among white prisoners...[He says his] central point is to develop a social base among white people, while maintaining close contact with Black people. I try to create a little more space to be less racist" (Thompson, 2001, p. 271. 272). David uses writing as one form of resistance. Please see: http://www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/davidgilbert/ for more information on David and links to his writing.

For the story of another white antiracist prisoner, see Marilyn Buck page.

References

Thompson, Becky. (2001). A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.