Thank you to all of the community members who came out to support Earl on Monday. Thanks to community support, no conditions were placed on Earl ahead of trial.
The judge even acknowledged that “there’s clearly more to this case” then was found in the police report, an acknowledgment that is being interpreted as recognition that Earl’s arrest was clearly political.
He’s still charged with 1st degree criminal trespass even though he didn’t go inside the building, damage the premises in any way, or harm anyone. That’s right, he’s charged with 1st degree criminal trespass simply for sitting in his wheelchair and painting outside of the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) building where he’s celebrated for his role, alongside fellow elder Omari Tahir and others, in winning the Colman School building for the community.
The NAAM Scam’s own website names Earl as a community hero, …
… while they have him arrested for painting outside of the building they celebrate him for helping to win. Earl, Omari and others lived inside the Colman School for years without water or electricity as its very first artist-in-residence — from 1985 until 1998 when the activists were raided and dispossessed by an SPD SWAT team — enduring so much so that the building might become a world renowned African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center, complete with an instrument library and programming to develop the talent and skills of young community artists and keep youth off of the streets.
NAAM Scam and the Urban League colluded with the Gates Family, Norm Rice, the City of Seattle and the FBI to steal the Colman School from the activists whose vision, dedication and sacrifice over the course of 13 years won them a signed purchase and sale agreement with the Seattle School Board for the property. The Seattle School Board publicly accepted their down payment for the building at a public meeting documented by the Seattle Times, only to later return it.
The first director of the NAAM Scam is a proud FBI agent Carver Gayton (whose son is the policy advisor for King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay). Bill Gates’ mother Mimi Gates and former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice are both founding and current board members of NAAM.
Elders Earl and Baba Omari, supported by a younger generation of revolutionary black activists and their native, brown and white accomplices, began reoccupying the premises outside of the Colman School on Juneteenth 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd Uprising. It is long overdue that the City and the Urban League correct past injustices and pass the building on debt-free with a programming budget to the new generation of grassroots black activists and their accomplices who are the rightful inheritors of our courageous elders’ legacy of revolution and resistance to create a real African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center for today’s youth.
Come support Earl and the African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center at Earl’s next hearing on Oct 19, 10:30 am, Seattle Superior Court, Courtroom 1002
The African American Heritage Museum & Cultural Center 