Zulu mentioned on Indymedia (2007) by Robert King

We found this on Indymedia.US (from Austin Indymedia) posted in 2007. So we repost this to archive it on Zulu's website:

Struggle is Like a Second Skin: Robert King Wilkerson on Kenneth “Zulu” Whitmore

Austin, 03.07.2007

The Angola Three – Robert King Wilkerson, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace – have gotten much attention for their activism and the way they were scapegoated by a racist, archaic southern justice system.
But they point out that their cases are hardly unique – there are many others in Angola, the infamous Louisiana prison known as “The Farm” – who also describe being targeted for speaking and acting out against the system.

Kenneth “Zulu” Whitmore was arrested in 1975 for robbing a shoe store. While in custody, prosecutors said an informant named him a suspect in the 1973 armed robbery and murder of Marshall Bond, the elderly ex-mayor of Zachary, La., a small town not far from Angola. Bond, a grocery store owner at the time, was beaten to death and robbed of $1,000 while visiting his horses.

Whitmore says the prosecutor wanted him to make a deal and testify against another suspect, a man named “Donahue,” in exchange for a short prison term.

“The DA told me outright, you are going to take the stand against this guy and say what I have prepared in that confession for y’all,” says Whitmore, who has now been in Angola for 29 years. “And I am going to give you five years. You will not go to Angola, and you will be out in two and a half. I told him I don’t have any idea what you are talking about. He said, ‘I am the district attorney and my word is three against yours. I can do what I want to you. Now help me get this guy or I will send you to Angola for the rest of your life.’ I refused and they immediately started beating me with sticks.”