Gary Freeman

Douglas Gary Joseph Freeman is an African American now living in Canada. First-born child of Joseph Pannell Sr., a WWII Naval veteran, and Pauline Adams whose grandmother was born into slavery, he grew up in Washington, D.C., a segregated city know for police brutality. As a high school student he became involved in the Civil Rights movement and then at Howard University turned to Revolutionary Black Nationalism. Frederick Douglass was his first hero, but Malcolm X and Martin Luther King forged his ideological development and political activism, which led him to Chicago where he worked with a local South Side African American organization. Targeted by Chicago?s Red Squad for elimination, he had to fight for his life on a South Side street. The gun-battle that ensued left an officer wounded and the author wounded and in prison.
The author began a long quest for justice which weathered repeated and renewed threats to his life. He fled to Canada ?illegally? and became Douglas Gary Joseph Freeman. Married with four children, he worked chiefly as a library professional He was arrested on July 27, 2004 on an extradition warrant. After an 11-year successful struggle for justice, he was returned home to Canada in January 2015.