H. Rap Brown Captured: Black Panther Legacy Ends

Federal marshals captured Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown of the Black Panthers, on March 20, 2000, after a manhunt that followed the shooting death of Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen and the wounding of Deputy Aldranon English outside Al-Amin's grocery store in Atlanta four days earlier. Born Hubert Gerold Brown on October 4, 1943, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he had been one of the most incendiary figures of the 1960s Black Power movement. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1967 to 1968, he earned the nickname "Rap" for his fiery rhetoric and was famously quoted as saying that "violence is as American as cherry pie." He was arrested multiple times for inciting riots and fled the country in 1970, spending time in Africa before converting to Sunni Islam and changing his name. He settled in Atlanta in the 1970s and became a community leader and imam, running a grocery store in the West End neighborhood. His followers described him as a reformed man who had turned from revolution to religion. The shooting of the two deputies in March 2000 shattered that narrative. Al-Amin fled but was captured four days later in a rural Alabama town. His trial in 2002 ended in conviction for murder and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. The case provoked intense debate about whether his prosecution was just or politically motivated, with supporters arguing that he had been targeted by federal surveillance for decades and critics pointing to the physical evidence and witness testimony. He remains imprisoned. His conviction closed a turbulent chapter that spanned from 1960s Black Power activism to religious transformation and ultimately to violent crime.