Black power, white blood

About this book

Black Power, White Blood is a powerful book about the corrosive influence of racial prejudice, both white and black, in one man's life, and about his quest for redemption. Born in 1949 in Jackson, Mississippi, a boy of mixed origins named Larry Michael Armstrong shared a supposed white father with three other children while enduring the taunts of those who knew the truth about his mother's tryst with a black man. By 1955 racial tensions were escalating in Mississippi; there was growing hostility toward the boy, and his mother's abusive husband was still seething at her transgression. That year the Armstrongs gave Larry up for adoption. He was shuttled off to Los Angeles to live with an older, childless black couple, the upright but aloof Spains. Renamed Johnny Spain, Larry cut off all contact with his mother and siblings. . In 1966 Johnny - by now a school delinquent, petty thief and gang member - killed a man during an abortive mugging. While in prison he came under the influence of George Jackson, became a leader of the Black Panther prison movement, and was the sole defendant convicted of conspiracy in the highly publicized 1975-76 trial of the San Quentin Six. But Johnny gradually underwent a profound spiritual transformation, becoming an ardent spokesman for prisoners' rights and racial harmony among inmates. Johnny was imprisoned until 1988 when, deluged by hundreds of letters from supporters ranging from prison guards to the mayor of Oakland, a federal court overturned his conviction. He now works as a community organizer in San Francisco.