Biography
Republic of New Afrika citizen jailed for civil contempt in the 1980s after refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury investigating the Black Liberation Army and related activity. Listed as a North American political prisoner in PFOC Breakthrough magazine. Documented in PFOC Breakthrough magazine.
Initial raid detention distinguished from grand jury confinement
The original May–June 1982 Coming of the Troops, page 1, names Gaines in the October 27, 1981 Mississippi arrests. New Afrikan's December 1983 Birdtown account says she was subsequently released. The initial arrest and temporary detention now have a separate row; no exact discharge day is inferred. Original 1982 newsletter; Original New Afrikan, page 7.
The July 7, 1983 opinion in In re Sunni-Ali explicitly names Gaines among the MCC civil contemnors denied furlough; that is proof of existing confinement, not its starting day. New Afrikan page 7 subsequently names the resisters and says all were free except Mack and Delaney. The court and exhaustive group update support a 1983 release at year precision only, not another participant's October 19 date. January 1 is a placeholder, not an actual event. Earlier material in the same issue describes then-current confinement; its later all-free update is distinguished rather than ignored. Original court opinion.
No source-identified photograph was found in the reviewed pages. Namesake law-enforcement officials and athletes are not substituted.
Breakthrough’s Spring 1982 editorial individually names Jerry Gaines among three people then imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with the federal grand jury investigating the Brink’s case and Black Liberation Army activity. This adds a contemporary observation of the later contempt confinement before the already documented June–July 1983 MCC litigation. It does not establish the contempt admission day or prove continuous custody from the separate October 1981 raid detention.
