This week, Zolo Azania returns to Kite Line. He recently visited Indiana University’s campus, and gave a talk that we began airing last week. On that episode, he reflects on that visit and talks about his history, focusing on how learning to use the law improved his life. The efforts of Azania, his lawyers and supporters successfully freed him from death row and he was released in 2017.

Next, we hear from Don Abdul Roberts, who gave us advice in 2016 on one of our early shows. Don stresses the importance of using legal tools to help people free themselves from the system. As he says, it’s a bourgeois tool with working class implications.

Both Zolo and Don are former prisoners from the Midwest who organized outside and inside the prison walls. Zolo worked within the tradition of the Chicago and Gary Black Panther Party, and Don was a member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement. We appreciate their insights into the power of self-education and learning the law to use it against the system.

Our full interview with Don on Habeas Corpus is here.

You can listen to our previous episodes with Zolo Azania here.