Biography
Mobile, Alabama activist (also known as Casmarah Mani), a former member of the prison group Inmates For Action, who The Black Panther Vol. 15 no.5,6 (1976) reports was beaten in an attempted police lynching (an officer tried to hang him from a tree) and then charged with robbery and held at Mt. Meigs Prison.
Diamond participated in the IFA prisoners’ litigation challenging conditions in Alabama’s prisons in 1973. The historical study describes his case as part of the group’s effort to challenge punitive isolation after earlier court orders had failed to stop mistreatment.
The Vulcan Historical Review, volume 20 (2016), 20th Anniversary Issue, University of Alabama at Birmingham, PDF page 106; The Vulcan Historical Review, volume 20 (2016), 20th Anniversary Issue, University of Alabama at Birmingham, PDF page 117.
The Black Panther’s May 15, 1976 report explicitly identifies Glenn Diamond as Casmarah Mani and describes him as a former Inmates For Action member and a leading member of Mobile’s People’s Community Hall. The report states that Diamond and James Jones had circulated a petition seeking the removal of patrolman Michael J. Patrick before the police beating and attempted lynching. Diamond was subsequently held at Mt. Meigs Prison.
The Black Panther, May 15, 1976, volume XV no.5, PDF page 7.
The Black Panther’s May 22, 1976 report identifies Glenn Diamond and James Jones as Mobile People’s Community Hall and Inmates for Action activists. It describes the March 28 attempted police lynching of Diamond and reports that he was transferred from Mobile County Jail to Mt. Meigs Prison on May 3, without his lawyer’s knowledge, while awaiting trial. That intermediate transfer is not an initial admission or a release.
