At 19, Shane Lester entered a California prison for the first time.
He remembers spending days confined to an 8-by-12-foot cell, sometimes for 23 hours straight.
Recreation meant pacing inside what he described as a cage barely large enough to stretch his legs. He said isolation changed how he thought, trusted, and related to the world.
Now 56, Lester says one month each year reminds him that even in those conditions, healing was possible.
That month is Black August.
The annual observance traces its roots to California’s prison system. It was established by the Black Guerilla Family in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison to honor Black freedom fighters, particularly George Jackson, who was killed at San Quentin on Aug. 21, 1971, and Jonathan Jackson, who was killed Aug. 7, 1970, during the Marin County courthouse incident.
Over time, Black August grew into a month of remembrance, political education, physical discipline, and reflection. Participants often observe practices such as fasting, studying Black history, exercising, and community organizing.
Lester, now chairman of the Black August Organizing Committee in Sacramento, explains that Black August is more than a commemoration of incarcerated freedom fighters. It is a monthlong practice of discipline, remembrance, and community responsibility born inside California prisons and carried forward by generations of activists.