When student, youth and activists, of all ages and backgrounds, camped out in front of Philadelphia's city hall May 11-12--it wasn't for fun.  It was to draw attention to the case of Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal and to mark the 16th anniversary of the police bombing of MOVE, which killed men, women and children and devastated a city neighborhood.

With tents pitched in front of city hall, protesters again declared their conviction that Mr. Abu Jamal did not kill police officer Daniel Faulkner in December 1981.

"we need people to understand that we can never forget Mumia, we can never forget our warrior, that we are obligated to stand up and fight for those who have stood up for us and that we can never allow this government to forget the May 13, 1985 bombing of men, women, babies and animals," said Ramona Africa, the only surviving adult member of the bombing that took 11 lives.

"Our struggle is not merely to save Mumia's life, but our struggle is also associated with the reality that Mumia is a symbol of the worldwide struggle against the death penalty, against the injustices that people of color face in the judicial system in this country, against police brutality and all the issues related to race associated with this case," noted activist Larry Holmes.

The demonstration was not without controversy as the city initially denied organizers permits to hold the rally. It was not May 11, the day the event was to begin, that a judge upheld the rights of the protesters to assemble.

A statement written by Mumia Abu Jamal and read by Ramona Africa during the May 12 demonstration concerning the police bombing of MOVE, a radical back-to-nature group, said: "The police bombing of MOVE was more than a historical moment. It was a historical continuum. It was not extraordinary, except for the weaponry used, but is a clear reflection of events that happened all throughout American history ... just because it's legal don't make it right."

The distinction between what is legal and what is right is a poignant one because the oppressor makes the laws and always codifies, or interprets laws to his benefit.

It has been battles against legal slavery, legal segregation, legal separate but equal, legal go to the back of the bus or the employment line, that have yielded gains for Blacks and others in American society.

The presence of Blacks in America, slaves in the "land of the free and the home of the brave," has always been a contradiction. It showed up at the country's inception, for as the founding fathers declared all men were created equal, they promptly classified Blacks as 3/5ths of a human being.

It was legal but it didn't make it right.

Likewise today it may be legal to jail Black girls in greater and greater numbers, or for an officer to order an innocent motorist to pull over. Still when the decisions to execute the law come from the basis of racism, these actions may be legal but they will never be right.

Only justice will make things right and only justice will bring peace. And until justice is given, someone will always rise to challenge those things that are legally right, but totally wrong.