Guinea: Back in the Slammer Again

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Black Militant Stokely Carmichael was repeatedly in and out of U.S. jails during the turbulent 1960s. Last week Carmichael, 45, now known as Kwame Ture, was released after three days in a Guinean prison. A Guinean resident since 1969, Ture advocates uniting black African nations under a socialist government, by revolutionary force if necessary. His detention apparently stemmed from an aborted 1985 coup attempt against Guinean President Lansanah Conteh in which 18 people were killed and 229 injured.

Bob Brown, a member of Ture's Washington-based All-African People's Revolutionary Party, called the arrest a mistake. Brown said the party remains on friendly terms with Guinean leaders. In Miami, Ture's mother Mabel Carmichael spoke to her son by phone shortly after his release and said he told her he was "fine" and that officials had apologized for the arrest.