Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun

Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun has been imprisoned in Limestone Correctional Facility in Harvest, Alabama since 2001.

In that quarter-century, he has become a prolific writer, documentarian, author, and organizer of incarcerated people within Alabama’s prisons. Shortly after coming to prison, Ra-Sun joined “Halifax County Law School” at Holman Prison, a law class founded by another incarcerated activist and eventually began teaching classes on the Constitution, rules of criminal procedure, rules of evidence, and appellate procedures, as well as GED classes. Ra-Sun has become a sharp and sought-after legal mind within the prisons, both in supporting other men challenging unjust convictions and in filing pro-se litigation against the state for civil rights abuses within its prisons.

In 2013, Ra-Sun founded the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), an inside-the-walls civil and human rights organization that has since spearheaded prison labor strikes, boycotts, protests, and social media campaigns in Alabama and around the nation. Ra-Sun has also focused on peer-to-peer development through radio and social media platforms, including a series of interviews conducted by Ra-Sun with incarcerated men, connecting their individual experiences with wider systemic issues and serving as political education for viewers both inside and outside the prisons. For his activism, Ra-Sun has been targeted by the Alabama Department of Corrections, which he documents through posts on social media and FAM’s blog.