Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 4

1.0.' 4 Wednesday.December9.1981 Philadelphia Daily News Cop and Newsman Asscmed KM? a -Man ff Mmj He went from West Cook to Mumia Abu Jamal, from Black Panther spokesman to radio newsman, from fatigues and jeans to suits and ties. Mumia Abu Jamal seemed as if he would never stop changing. Those who were close to him had long ago learned to disregard the surface changes. While family, friends and colleagues watched him move from confrontation tactics to a more conventional life and then, in recent years, back to his activist roots, Jamal always remained the same to them: concerned, activist, peacetui. Now he is in critical condition at locks and as he had in the 1960s, took to wearing fatigues and boots, abandoning the more formal clothing he had worn in the mid-1970s.

Recently, Jamal had worked as a stringer for radio station WDAS. But, according to one black journalist who was close to him, Jamal did not get along with some WDAS staff members and because of that, was able to do only part-time work. Acel Moore, an associate editor at the Inquirer and friend of the accused, said Jamal had recently been driving a taxi cab part-time and may have been driving the cab before the incident this morning. AFTER LEAVING WUHY, he was hired as a consultant to the station for a special report on MOVE for the station's afternoon talk show, "Fresh Air." But the show never aired. Jamal's radio career began at the Temple University radio station, WRTI-FM, where, through 1973, he did a commentary show on black affairs.

At the time that he worked for WRTI, the station became a battleground between students and activists who wanted it programmed for the black community and other students who wanted a more conventional station. The activists were criticized at the time by Philadelphia Magazine. But ironically, the same magazine reported last January that Jamal's WUHY show brought "a special dimension Continued on Page 12 This story was reported by Kitty Caparella, Fred Lowe, Linn Washington, Dave Bittan and Stephen Braun. It was written by Braun. him as a brother." She said he has showed up at most recent court appearances of MOVE members.

"He has elected to help us out and get our story to the public," she said. Jamal also showed up when MOVE members made a recent appearance on a WHAT talk show hosted by Mary Mason. PETERS AND others who have observed Jamal say that he also grew enamored of the Jamaican-based Rastafarian religious movement, which worships the late Ethiopian King Haile Selassi as a deity and advocates the frequent use of marijuana. He was a member of the board of directors of the Marijuana Users Association of America, a group based in Philadelphia with the goal of legalizing marijuana use. But the group broke up last January because of lack of funds.

"I think the reason the organization is failing is because the people in this city who smoke herb are not supporting it," Jamal said at the time. "I'd hate to see the organization die because I like to see people stand up for what they believe." Jamal, like many Rastafarians, grew his hair in long, spiky dread Jefferson Hospital, wounded by a police bullet and charged in the murder of a 26-year-old Philadelphia policeman. Jamal's friends were uniformly shocked. Daily News columnnisl Chuck Stone said: "I can't tell you how stunned I am about this. Mumia has always been a peaceful person.

You would never hear him raise his voice. When you would call his home, he'd say before talking." "We will continue to stand by him," said Joe Davidson, president ol the city's Association of Black Journalists and Bulletin City Hall bureau chief. "We want to know all of the facts." UP UNTIL November, Jamal had served as president of the association for a year and during his tenure, said Daily News City Hall reporter Linn Washington, Jamal urged the orani-zation to become "more active and out front." Jamal most recently had been a radio stringer for radio station WDAS. Before that, he worked with WUHY radio as a reporter and commentator. He left the station in March after a disagreement with news director Nick Peters.

Peters said Jamal agreed to leave his position after disagreements between the two men over Jamal's "trouble showing objectivity and fairness on several stories over a period of months." Jamal often reported on housing, prisons and other stories involving poor people and minorities. "Anyone who knows him knows he has a lot of talent, he had an incredible voice, he was a very good writer and he could do wonders with a microphone," Peters said. PETERS SAID his disagreements with Jamal were mainly over Jamal's strong sense of advocacy. "He saw his advocacy on certain stories as being no different than Daily News columnist Jack McKinney's feelings about the Irish Republican Army." The show, called "91 Report," won several local broadcasting awards, including one from Sigma Delta Chi, the national journalism fraternity. America Rodriguez, who worked with Jamal on the show, said he "had a really finely honed analytical sense." She said Jamal distinguished himself reporting on the North Philadelphia reaction to the Pope's arrival in 1979 and in continuing coverage of the MOVE organization.

But as he covered MOVE, Jamal also grew close to the group, say those who know him. When several MOVE members went on trial for manufacturing bombs last summer, Rodriguez said, she saw Jamal in the City Hall pressroom selling copies of the organization's newspaper. First Day. MOVE member Laverne Sims Africa said today that "Mumia was not a member of MOVE, but we consider Pete Dexter appears on Page 6 iw- Iff (A 32 I Photog-aphed by Prentice Cole Mumia Abu Jamal (with dreadlocks) outside federal court in May Jamal in 1969 photo at Panther headquarters here.