Biography
Maxwell "Max" Stanford (later Muhammad Ahmad) was a co-founder and national field chairman of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), a revolutionary Black-nationalist organization and a primary target of the FBI's COINTELPRO. On June 21, 1967, amid nationwide RAM roundups, he was arrested in Philadelphia, with police alleging the group planned to incite a riot. He was not convicted in connection with these arrests; he dissolved RAM in 1968, converted to Islam in 1970, and became a professor of African-American studies.
Right On! (Nov.-Dec. 1972) reported that Stanford was arrested on September 1, 1972, at about 8:35 p.m. at a San Diego Traveloge motel on New York warrants dating from 1967. The report places him in custody the following morning, when attorney Clifton Blevins was denied access until 1 p.m.; Blevins reported signs of a beating. Stanford was out on bail by publication, and an extradition hearing had been continued from October 11 to November 8. The actual bail-release date and disposition remain unverified.
Breakthrough Winter 1991 identifies Muhammad Ahmed, also known as Max Stanford, as a Revolutionary Action Movement founder and Malcolm X associate participating in the May 18–25, 1990 Havana symposium; the declaration’s signatory list spells the name Muhammad Ahmad. This is a source spelling variant and later organizing activity, not another imprisonment. Source: https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC501_scans/Break/501.break.20.win.91.pdf#page=30
Breakthrough reproduced a proposal that Max Stanford issued from jail in March 1968, calling for independent Black nationhood and an international human-rights indictment of the United States. This establishes a dated point during his imprisonment and his continuing political activity, but does not establish a new arrest, original admission or release date.
Original contemporary source 1 ; Original contemporary source 2 ; Original contemporary source 3.
Inner City Voice (March 1968) distinguishes the June 21, 1967 arrest and a subsequent bail release in Philadelphia from extradition to New York in August 1967, when Stanford was held at Queens House of Detention, Kew Gardens. It reports an incident there on December 25, 1967. A contemporary government report reprinted in the Congressional Record on July 8, 1969 states that he was released from prison in May 1968. Its stated July 1967 custody start differs from the later August extradition/admission; the August date here identifies the documented New York stage, and the complete period remains unmeasured. The earlier June arrest row is preserved separately; its exact bail-release date is unknown.
