Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal (EMAJ) is a network of teachers and educators who have advocated and organized for Mumia Abu-Jamal since 1995. Its members have participated in numerous fund drives, campus teach-ins, educational events and protest actions.
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row in Pennsylvania for twenty-four years, receiving a conviction and death sentence in 1982 for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer, Daniel Faulkner. EMAJ works with the many other organizations and movements that find Abu-Jamal’s conviction and sentence to be wrong from numerous perspectives. EMAJ thus works with countless thousands of others who also demand justice and a new trial for Abu-Jamal: heads of state from France to South Africa, Nobel Laureates, the European Parliament, city governments from Detroit to San Francisco to Paris, France, religious leaders, artists, scientists, the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and Amnesty International.
The purpose of EMAJ is to mobilize educators into the broad public movement seeking freedom and justice for Mumia, doing all we can as teachers (1) to educate about Mumia’s case, (2) to stop all plans to execute Mumia, and (3) to overturn Mumia’s conviction, whether this comes about through a judicial mandate for his immediate release, through an evidentiary hearing, or through a new trial.
EMAJ has its origins in June 1995, just after the Pennsylvania Governor – then, Tom Ridge – signed his first death warrant on Mumia. EMAJ was originally organized under the name “Academics for Mumia Abu-Jamal” (AMAJ), but changed its name to “Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal” (EMAJ) in 2001. Many argued that “educators” better named the full range of teachers in our collective who work with all groups, ranging from pre-school to professional schools, from elementary to doctoral level programs.
Immediately after signing of the first death warrant in 1995, more than 500 members (mostly university and college professors) paid for and signed a major ad in the Philadelphia Daily News, calling for a stay of execution for Abu-Jamal, the removal of Judge Sabo from the case, and the granting of a new trial. In addition, seven professors, the majority being local Philadelphia faculty, spoke out against Abu-Jamal’s execution at a July 1995 press conference in downtown Philadelphia.
