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FREEDOMWAYS     FOURTH QUARTER 1971

happiest moments of my life. At last I had found a philosophy in Dialectical Materialism that truthfully and courageously tackled the all-important problems of human bondage from the standpoint of science. As far as I am concerned, Karl Marx is one of the greatest scientific humanists that ever lived. I became a Marxist because I hate human slavery, and Marx was the only philosopher who put his knowledge and his wisdom to the service of oppressed humanity. Once again I was ashamed, I was ashamed fro having accepted all the lies and vile slander about Karl Marx at face value. In all my reading I have never read a 20th century western philosopher who had a kind word for Marx. Even Bertrand Russell in his monumental work on the history of western philosophy, rarely passes up an opportunity to belittle Marx and make his work seem trivial. All the so-called authorities discussed the ideas of Marx in a most artificial and disgusting manner, but in my opinion these so-called authorities were mere pygmies throwing pebbles at a giant.
And this concludes my intellectual autobiography, which is a brief summary of my activities over a nine-year period. For the sake of brevity I left out my academic activities so I will just state here that I have currently earned 21 college hours at Missouri University through the prison college training program which began in 1969.

II

This second part of my autobiographical notes will deal with my experiences as a black prisoner. I don't have the time and space to tell it all so this will be just a general discussion.
First of all, in prison a person is subjected to the most savage conditions, and one is simply not allowed to function as a human being. From 1961 through 1964 I was living in a cell with five other men. We all had to use the same toilet and wash bowl. There was absolutely no privacy. Sometimes when I would be trying to study, the radio would be blasting and people would be talking very loud about pimping, shooting dope, selling dope, homosexuals, and so on. 
Prison officials have absolutely no regard for convicts as human beings. When a guard talks to you, he talks to you in a most degrading manner and tone. He says, "Hey, boy, where do you think you're going? Get against that wall! Put your hands up! Empty your pockets! You want to go to the hole for not shaving? Get a shave, you son-of-a-bitch! I see we are going to have to beat this nigger's ass for being smart! Hey sunshine, get your ass over here!" In most cases an inmate's

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