THE REAL LEGACY OF STAN WILLIAMS
by Mary Moore
(Written for NORTH BAY PROGRESSIVE January 2006)
Vigiling outside of San Quentin as the state waits to kill in our name is
not for the feint of heart yet close to three thousand caring souls showed
up on the night of December 12, 2005 to bear witness once again to this
medieval practice rooted in vengeance and revenge. I traveled down in a van
loaded with strong and outspoken women of a certain age which helped me
slightly to hold onto whatever sanity I had left after watching the barbaric
and prolonged leadup to the execution of Stan Williams. According to the
people who were with him at the end, Stan says he was prepared and I suspect
that was true.
The powers that be donıt make it easy for us to be present. While there
could be plenty of parking available, the spaces are all blocked off and
made inaccessible. Even the possession of a handicapped parking plaque (we
had two between the seven of us) isnıt good enough for this situation. Most
people end up parking at least two miles away. It is cold, dark, sometimes
very wet and the mood is somber as one would expect. There is barely enough
room to move around much less sit anywhere yet the people we encountered in
this crowd were cooperative, thoughtful and respectful to those who
obviously needed to do so. The few outhouses that are available are back
about half a mile so most of us stand, crammed up against each other and
hold it. Thatıs just the way it is and the complaints we heard were not
about our physical comfort. We were a crowd of very sad folk who had
collectively done everything we could to stop this act that was being
performed in our name. We were of all races, genders and ages which is
atypical of your usual anti war demonstrations. That part was comforting to
me.
Although the vigil started during the day after Arnold finally refused
clemency it began picking up late as most people intended to stay until
after midnight. Our group arrived about 9PM along with a solid mass of
humanity streaming to the ³quaint² little village of San Quentin. The
speakers that included many young men who had been influenced away from gang
banging by Stan Williams were non stop and inspirational to those with minds
still open. At one point the crowd separated like the Red Sea as Angela
Davis made her way to the podium. I wonıt take up space here by going into
the ³facts² about Stanıs case as Iım assuming that since you are reading
this in the PROGRESSIVE you already know them. Instead I want to pass on the
themes from speaker after speaker that resonated with me and which I feel
hardly ever get discussed.
The much bigger story of Stan Williams is about the circumstances he was
born into and how he dealt with them. Although he was born in Louisianna his
formative years were spent in Los Angeles. Iım somewhat familiar with the
area in L. A. that became his ³territory². It is known as the central
section below Wilshire but north of what is known as South Central. I lived
in this area (Pico and Fairfax) in the late 60ıs. It was known then as an
area in transition and we moved in during the white flight from what was
then a predominantly Jewish area. By the time we moved there it was a mixed
neighborhood several miles from the predominantly Black areas of Compton and
Willowbrook. My daughter attended Louis Pasteur Jr. High which by then was
about 80% black as it was fed by elementary schools further south. Stan must
have been about 12 then. Drugs, certainly pot, were present but nothing on
the scale that started when crack cocaine began appearing on the scene in
urban and poor areas all over the country. It would take another whole
article to go into that story but suffice to say that it wasnıt the black
folk that created this epidemic. While some may have become relatively well
off by dealing drugs, the bigger fish who made the real money didnıt live in
those communities. For background on that epidemic find Gary Webbıs series
over a decade ago in the San Jose Mercury and then research why he was fired
from that paper and if you want to go even further find out why he
³committed suicide² a year ago.
The rivalries created in the black community over drugs, money and
powerlessness became vicious gangs with black men killing each other in a
classic divide and power scheme by those profiting from keeping it that way.
Stan would be the first to admit to buying into that concept and he did it
well along with his pal Raymond Washington. The young people today who have
been influenced by his writing and his phone calls understand these dynamics
well and will continue to educate their peers and that will be Stanıs
legacy. But the points made over and over by many of the speakers at the
Dec. 12 vigil were about WHY Stanıs voice had to be silenced. By bringing
together those that need to be in solidarity with each otherby making peace
among these false enemieshe was overcoming the divide and conquer tactics
of those in power. He was undoing the plan and that was dangerous. If the
reader feels this is paranoid thinking go rent the movie TRAFFIC and start
your research there. The dumping of drugs like crack cocaine into poor
communities of color was no accident and white liberals need to start
understanding that.
The death penalty is clearly outdated and inefficient and probably most of
you reading these words are against it. But the story of Stan Williams is
more than an example of why it is wrong for the state to kill in our name.
It is more than his story of redemption. The bottom line is the lesson of
how threatening it is to the powers that be when someone like Stan finally
gets the ear of a community who has been exploited, manipulated and
devastated and starts the process of self healing. That is his legacy to
young people and that is powerful.
Rest in peace, Stan Williams.
(After a public memorial in Los Angeles, Williams ashes will be flown to
South Africa where they will be scattered)