Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, Formerly Known As H. Rap Brown, Passes Away At 82

Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, has passed away. He was 82.

Amin’s son announced his father’s passion in a video posted to Facebook.

“From Allah we come, surely to Allah is our return. I lost my father today. Ya Allah, please accept my father Imam Jamil Al-Amin as a shaheed, a martyr, a dedicated servant to You,” Kairi Al-Amin. “Ya Allah, please make his grave spacious and reserve for him the most beautiful spot in Your paradise, please grant him peace, Ameen. It’s no longer free, my father, my father is free.”

Kairi Al-Amin also asked for privacy during the family’s time of grief and shared a prayer for his father in the video caption.

Born Hubert Gerold Brown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he was a prominent figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s. Brown was widely known for his militant rhetoric. Famously, he said that “Violence is as American as cherry pie.”

Brown eventually succeeded Stokely Carmichael as the fifth national chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1967. As chairman, he removed “Nonviolent” from the group’s name. He also served briefly as the Black Panther Party’s minister of justice. 

Brown was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list before he was apprehended. During his time in prison in the early 1970s, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Jamil Abdullah al-Amin. 

After his release, he served as an Imam and community activist in Atlanta, Georgia, but was convicted for the 2000 shooting of two sheriff’s deputies. He was given a life sentence.

Imam Omar Suleiman, a noted Muslim scholar,  also paid tribute to  Al-Amin on Instagram. He shared that he attempted to free him from prison.

“For years, we fought to free him. Today he is free,” Suleiman wrote. “From prison to paradise, God willing. He never lost his dignity, his voice never shook. His innocence was proven, but the system didn’t care. We cared and we loved. And InshaAllah, we will continue to move forward with his legacy.”