Ashanti Omowali Alston (born 1954) is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. From 1974 to 1985, he spent time in prison for bank robbery, which caused him to become further engaged in politics. He is currently on the Steering Committee of the Jericho Movement to free U.S. political prisoners. Alston resides in Providence, Rhode Island.
Early life
Alston grew up in the inner city of Plainfield, New Jersey, which he described as being, at that time, "Niggertown with all the customs and traditions of racism, sexism and powerlessness". Alston was 11 years old during the assassination of Malcolm X and 13 years old during the 1967 Newark riots, events that both took place near his hometown of Plainfield. In a 2010 interview, Alston said that he did not remember Malcolm X's death in 1965, but he began to understand the significance of Malcolm's legacy as rebellions occurred throughout the United States in 1967. Alston described seeing his older brother's copy of Malcolm X's autobiography with the subtitle "Former pimp, hustler, robber, who becomes leader of the Black Revolution", which demonstrated to him that "people that come from that kind of background can play a heroic role in the struggle." During this time, he became an anarchist, in contrast to the Marxism-Leninism and Maoism explored by the Black Panther Party.
Alston observed much sexism during his time in the Black Panther Party, despite the group's stated intention of gender equality, which he didn't fully realize until his stint in prison. However, he has acknowledged that some women still felt empowered by the Black Panther Party to fight sexism despite experiencing it within the party, recalling, "Sisters would tell you that because everybody had guns there were certain ways that they could tell a brother, 'you're not going to fuck with me, I'm not going to be your sexual object because I got a gun'."