the SHADOW issue #37 ________________________________________________________________________________ |
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the SHADOW issue #37 ________________________________________________________________________________ |
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| M ore than three thousand mourners, friends, relatives, clients and admirers gathered at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on November 19 for a memorial dedicated to the life of Bill Kunstler.
T he multi racial audience consisted of people of all ages, from all walks of life, from all over the country. They included former clients whom Bill had represented and sometimes saved from going to jail: former Black Panthers, Panther 21 defendants, a woman who sung for change in Grand Central Station, a man who got a year for one marijuana joint and later received a governor's pardon, and even columnist Juan Gonzalez, who was arrested during a student take-over at Columbia University in 1969. Others included activists and lawyers who chose their path because of Bill's influence and others were just plain admirers. One of them said that Bill was not a lawyer, "he was a great human being who just happened to practice law." I nside, Bill's wife Margaret Ratner said | "Bill didn't want a funeral," so she announced that the evening would be "a selection of the things Bill liked." What followed were a combination of testimonials, recollections and celebrations of Bill's life as a movement lawyer. T he service began with an Indian drum circle followed by Clyde Bellecourt, founder and National Director of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Bellecourt told of Bill's efforts on behalf of those framed in the Wounded Knee shootings in 1973, in which [describe]. Bellecourte said that Bill had been given the Indian name "Wombly Kibajwe" (Soaring Eagle, or eagle that watches over you) by the tribal chiefs. B eside his wife Margaret, other members of Bill's family appeared, including his daughters Sarah and Emily, both of whom read poems, his grandchildren and his daughters from a previous marriage. |
 | B eside his wife Margaret, other members of Bill's family appeared, including his daughters Sarah and Emily, both of whom read poems, his grandchildren and his daughters from a previous marriage. Bill's fellow activist attorneys Arthur Kinoy, Michael Ratner, Elizabeth Fink and Ron Kuby related their experiences with Bill. Kinoy, a co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told of the method he and Bill employed during the civil rights struggle in the 1960s by which they were able to get kangaroo cases in the state courts removed to |
| the federal courts where they could succeed, by using a statute from the days of Reconstruction following the Civil War; Ratner read an epitaph Bill wrote in 1992; Fink described cases she and Bill worked on together; Ron Kuby said "William Kunstler was my teacher, my law partner, my friend." Kuby is continuing the work he and Bill did together in their law firm. S pecial pre-taped testimonials came from political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier. Mumia, facing death after being framed for killing a Philadelphia police officer, said "A look at the extraordinary life of William Moses Kunstler is like a roll call of radical American history during the 20th century...Cases that seemed impossible yielded to the counselor, a warrior whose weapons were words..." The audience responded with shouts of "Free Mumia!!" Peltier, serving a life sentence after being framed in the death of an FBI agent during Wounded Knee, said, "This is not a good-bye, but `I will see you later.'" V eteran political activists David Dellinger and Angela Davis also | appeared. Dellinger, a anti-war activist defendant of Bill's in the Chicago Seven Trial of 1968, recalled that the last time he had seen Bill was at a meeting to get Leonard Peltier freed. "Just before his death, he discussed the need for a large scale civil disobedience campaign for March 19 and 20 in Washington, DC, then continue in Chicago at the 1996 Democratic Convention in August 1996." He recounted Bill's experience of being sentenced by Judge Julius Hoffman for contempt of court in the Chicago Seven Trial. Davis, who met Bill while in jail in the early 70s, [describe her past legal troubles], now a professor at Vassar College, read from Bill's autobiography about the Attica Uprising of 1971 where Bill had been requested by prisoners to mediate an agreement between them and the prison administration. S everal artists performed the different types of music that Bill liked. Bernice Johnson Reagon sung a soulful ballad; Bill's neighbor Alice Playton sung a Cole Porter song; The Boys Choir of Harlem sang twice; Lenna Strompolos sung "I live for art, I live for love," Bill's favorite aria. The star performers of the evening were Richie Havens, who sang Quicksilver's "Whatcha gonna do about me?" and Pattie Smith, who sang "Lost in the Stars." |
| O ther celebrity performers included: Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; beat poet Allen Ginsberg, who read his latest poem "Ballad of the Skeletons"; actor Danny Glover, who read "Dream of Freedom" by Langston Hughes; newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, who said "Dying is no big deal. The least of us can manage that. It's how you live. William Kunstler lived with a seering energy, a love of right and a dislike of wrong." M ost inspirational was poet, writer and political activist Amiri Baraka. He said | "Bill stood up against the great behemoth of ugly, namely the US government, its corrupt and racist judicial system, and its American as apple pie gestapo police, FBI, CIA, DEA...Bill Kunstler was a law artist, but he was also a soldier...The Kunstler, the law artist, the soldier, the law Kunstler...Everyone who understands the world and wants to change it, will miss Bill." T he service ended as it began, with an Indian drum circle and ceremony in which everyone close to Bill was invited to join them onstage. The stage was quickly filled. |
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) was co-founded by Bill Kunstler and other movement lawyers in 1966 as a public interest and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a tool for social change. In his memory, the CCR has established the William Moses Kunstler Fund For Racial Justice to help continue his fight. The memorial organizers are requesting donations to continue CCR's ongoing racial justice litigation. Checks should be made payable to the William Moses Kunstler Fund For Racial Justice/CCR and mailed to: William Moses Kunstler Fund, Center for Constitutional Rights, 666 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10012.
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