Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka was the poet and playwright formerly known as Everett LeRoi Jones who was arrested and beaten by Newark police during the July 1967 Newark rebellion and charged with unlawfully carrying two revolvers. An all-white jury convicted him in November 1967, and in January 1968 Judge Leon Kapp imposed the maximum sentence, reading Baraka's poem "Black People!" aloud in court as justification — a move that drew national protest from writers and civil-liberties advocates. The New Jersey Appellate Division reversed the conviction on April 21, 1969 and ordered a new trial.