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• 1 media/Bloods.jpg media/Dead Presidents.jpg 2023-07-19T15:34:36+00:00 Coming Home to a Nation on Fire 50 Ari Sesu Merretazon part 2 image_header 139 2026-01-25T23:06:12+00:00

  Part 2

  The second interview focuses on Merretazon's experiences coming home from Vietnam in the summer of 1968. He plotted the robbery of an armored vehicle transporting more than $300,000 in outdated currency that would be incinerated by the Department of the Treasury. Although no one was injured, Merretazon was sentenced to life at Lorton Reformatory, a federal prison outside of Washington D.C. Reports indicated that Lorton Reformatory consisted of more than 95% Black men.1 But during this time, he found a calling — advocacy for veterans. He organized for education opportunities and self-care programs for incarcerated people and founded the Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organization. Staffed entirely by incarcerated veterans, the IVAO became the first Veterans Affairs office inside a prison. Their efforts organizing for disability rights and veterans benefits captured the attention of the Washington Post in 1975 and eventually the White House.2 Merretazon met with President Jimmy Carter and later testified on issues facing incarcerated veterans before Congress in 1979.

  Coming Home in the Summer of 1968

  Higgins: I'm curious about how did the killing of an icon of nonviolence, of civil disobedience -- He was an anti-war activist. He was an organizer against poverty — how did that affect your own ideas about the United States?
  
  Merretazon: Well, you have to go back to the short bit of time, my last six months in the war. That's when the Black soldiers really came together. We really understood, we had a common bond, and we understood what was happening in Vietnam in terms of Black-white relationships. We always received the bad end of the deal. The worst jobs. The last to be promoted. Even in combat, when clearly, it can be seen that you made some heroic act that should have been acknowledged and they just don't do it. They'd give you a little commendation medal and stuff like that, but it had to be very obvious and the Black soldier had to totally put his life on line for the whole period of that particular battle. Look, the Black soldier in Vietnam was very heroic. Don't let anybody tell you that they were not. Some of these . . . Vietnam movies showed them in a cowardly mode, like Platoon. . .
  
  Coming home had that traumatic effect. I understood that DC was on fire. Martin Luther King had got assassinated. Other cities on fire. I knew I needed to take a step back, and I stayed with my mom and dad for 30 days. Then I went and enrolled myself into a computer operating course that flim-flammed me, took my money and ran off. . . 

  Disconnected after the War

  We actually disconnected because nobody was talking to me. It was just me and my readjustment issues, which was anger. Anger was not at anybody -- but at the federal government. My anger was because I had to fight two wars in Vietnam. One against the Vietnamese . . . and the racism in the military in Vietnam — All the soldiers who ended up in the stockade in Vietnam at Long Binh Jail. 95 percent of the Long Binh Jail population was Black soldiers. Now, there's something wrong with that. We all knew what was wrong with that. It was the racism in the military. You get the wrong end of the stick. You get the bad end of the deal.
  
  I came home understanding. . . We were going to come back and help our communities out. We used to talk about that. We used to reinforce each other about that. When I saw an opportunity to do that, that's what I did. I got back involved in my community, all the culture — being a descendant of African slaves in the United States. I went to work for the Post Office for a while, and during that dynamic year . . . In my reconnecting with my culture and the community, I saw an opportunity to bring some resources into the community level, that was the Dead Presidents [film] piece.

  
  An Act of Repair

  Higgins: I want to talk about that a little bit more because in Bloods, it talks about you donated some of the, I think it was $320,000 total that was robbed. What specific organizations did you donate that money to?
  
  Merretazon: Well, there was a Student Medical Center at Howard university. We gave them some money. We gave the Tip of Blackness also money. We gave the Capital East Business Management Associates some money. We was doing those types of things with the resources we had, and then there was just one of the participants decided to just start throwing money anywhere. . . One of the actors on my side of the fence, he started passing money all out in DC, New York, California and all that type of stuff, and that's what led back to our capture and incarceration.
  
  Higgins: Because that's federal money and you're trying to give it back to the community, did you see it. at the time, as an act of reparations?
  
  Merretazon: Yeah. Absolutely. I saw it as an act of repair. The federal government is the major enslaver of descendants of Africans here in the United States. I always been clear about that. I always be in the clear about Blacks and white relationships in this country, and if you're not clear about why you're in the military, you'd never get clear. They promote that there's no races in the military, if it is, low and whatnot, don't believe that. Government developed a system around it where those below the command can still engage in those type of relationships. Denied promotion, denying of good jobs or in the military or what is it? MOS's and that type of thing, promotions.
  
  My whole thing was I'm ready to go back into the workplace now. I enrolled in school, got hired at the Post Office, and I'm socializing with people at the Post Office. I come to find out what's going on. I understood what was going on. I thought I could make it happen — get all the resources to come back to our community, and I did without putting anybody's life in danger. It had high social community notoriety about the crime. It was a lot of publicity. . . . Nobody's life was put in danger. The guard and the driver of the truck, they said they'd never feared anything.

  
  Hollywood Portrayal

  Higgins: It's been awhile since I've seen the Hollywood version of that story, but it doesn't seem to fit what you're talking.
  
  Merretazon: It doesn't fit. Look when I went out to Hollywood to the producer's premier, where all the producers come together and watch the movie and make comments, whatever, I stood up, I said, 'That's not my story.' I told him, it's not my story. They told me, 'we said it's loosely based on your story.' That's how it went down. I took my position on that and they took theirs, and we got along. I got paid. Obviously, they made a pay of $20 million off the movie and maybe more now because it's still out there.
  
  Higgins: For someone who's trying to understand the struggles of Black Vietnam veterans, how would you explain that difference between how Hollywood portrays it versus reality?
  
  Merretazon: Well, you see Hollywood usually, very rarely show and depict Blacks in leadership in the military in those movies. They either make a squad leader, some lower level like that, down on the ground type folks. Even there, there is really no real Black leadership is allowed.That type of thing just connected me with my readjustment problems because I came back home angry. I was angry when I came home. Based on what I understood was happening . . . and I said, 'I've got to do something.' I just didn't feel right, having that presence again in my community and not doing anything. Because in Vietnam, where we came out in the field, the Blacks talked about what we would do when he came home. I was committed to that, and I did something, and I was going to go out and let them know that did my piece. I did that to a certain degree in terms of connecting with a few of the veterans that came home with me.

  The Trial

  Higgins: Let's talk about from the trial until your incarceration. What was that experience like for you?
  
  Merretazon: Well, I tried, I didn't testify. I didn't get on the stand. None of us got on the stand and the law's basic issue was to distinguish what extra crime was committed, whether or not it was an armed robbery or just a mail robbery. Because the sentence structure is different for both. For mail robbery, which we actually did. . . That was a mandatory five years. You couldn't get no more than five, but you had to get five. They knew the crime got a lot of publicity . . .
  
  The courts decided they're going to make an example of us and gave me 10-30 years. . . . I realized that it was a losing battle for me to continue to go up against that system as one individual, because I protested and everything as an individual. I wasn't cooperating with none of the system. . . . I stayed in the hole [solitary confinement] for quite awhile, in and out. I wouldn't work. They finally decide and say, ' . . . this is a veteran and so we got to be a little sensitive with him."
  
  When I came back out of maximum security the last time, instead of putting me into one of their regular jobs . . . I was able to manipulate the situation where I end up just being a custodian around the main office of the prison. I would just sweep up . . . I loved that because it gave me all my independence. That took 30 minutes. My time was totally mine from that point on in that incarcerated environment. That's what every man in prison wants: being able to have his own independent space, and time, and not be hounded into working. . . There is no law that required us to work while incarcerated. At least it wasn't in DC. I say, 'look, I don't have to work.' Okay, I came here to do my time. That's the attitude I had for a while.

  Organizing Veterans in Prison

  Higgins: What prison were you incarcerated in?
  
  Merretazon: D.C. Department of Correction. It had a facility outside of D.C., about 26 miles outside of D.C. called Lorton Reformatory, the infamous Lorton Reformatory. It's no longer existing. It was crazy. . . It was like 26 miles from DC, and so it's closer to home than most prisons.
  
  The last time I went to the hole, it dawned on me my status of being an honorably-discharged veteran, and that I could use that to organize around, and they would have to respect my organizing. I organized around Veterans Affairs in prison . . . called Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organization.
  
  Higgins: Quick a follow-up question, Ari. I'm really interested in the effects of solitary confinement on human beings. But it seems to me that if you're dealing with undiagnosed trauma, and PTSD, you had that stemmed from the Vietnam War, that would be especially hard to deal with. How did you survive or cope with a year-and-a-half in the hole?
  
  Merretazon: That's over different time frames of that five years. . . Total, a year-and-a-half in the hole. It's about 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. There was a rare amount. That's been about over the five years, probably about a year and a half in the hole. I realized I was working against myself.
  
  When I came back up to the general population, I realized there was other Vietnam veterans. Twenty-five percent of Lorton Reformatory were veterans. I decided to organize — and that's in my blood — and so I organized them into what we call the Incarcerated Veteran Assistance Organization, and it was approved by the VA. We had an office approved by the VA inside the prison. For that development, I was acknowledged at the White House by Jimmy Carter. . . That type of commitment to veterans that I had [was because] we went to war together. Anytime you go to war with somebody, and they're on your side, and you all survive, there's a very close blood, love, bond. That's what happened — That's what blood love is all about in the war. You're willing to die for the man next to you. Simple as that.

  Full Interview Part 2

  
  
• 1 media/Bloods.jpg media/Air Merretazon and Jimmy Carter.jpeg 2023-07-19T16:28:49+00:00 Justice for Veterans 37 Ari Sesu Merretazon part 3 image_header 139 2026-01-25T23:07:41+00:00

  Part 3

  The third interview with Merretazon dives more deeply into his advocacy for incarcerated veterans and explores his work with the Vietnam Veterans of America after his release from prison. He earned a certificate from the Antioch School of Law as a legal technician. With his background and connections to Congressman Ron Dellums, Merretazon investigated the significant number of incarcerated veterans without disability benefits and set up programs for veterans in prisons across the United States. In the 1980s, he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas and worked with Daisy Bates, Arkansas chapter president of the NAACP, and relaunched the historic African American newspaper, the Arkansas State Press. But in the 1980s, Ari faced many obstacles to providing services to incarcerated veterans in the South.
  
  The interview also discusses how Ari’s traumatic brain injury occurred and how it has impacted different aspects of his life. Then, Ari reflects on his relationship with his children. A central topic of the interview is reparations. Ari discusses many challenges he faced with organizations like N’COBRA, the IBW 21st century group. Ari then discusses the differences between reconciliation and reparations. The interview concludes with Ari’s connection to his culture and how he remains connected to his African roots.
   

  Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organization

  Higgins: I'm really curious about this moment because, as you know, I've written a book about the history of incarcerated veterans,1 and what you're talking about is really the first time incarcerated veterans organized together, and forced the VA to recognize disability benefits for incarcerated veterans that had not been done before you, and this other group. . . . How did that happen? How did you reach out to the VA? Was there a representative who visited the prison? Tell me about the process.
  
  Merretazon: It's a process. Lorton Reformatory had this thing. We developed this thing about inmates' self-care programs. It's part of rehab. And a lot of people's going out of the prison for singing songs as inmate choirs, and would have gone out, there's a group called Inner Voices I think, maybe do all these type of plays . . . If they don't go in and out of the prison, we definitely should go in and out of prison. We ended up using the leverage of our veteran status to bring in, where everybody could participate, the Federal City College. We set up a basic campus at Lorton Reformatory where anybody could participate and enroll in the college. We did that based on the fact that the law said that, if I have benefits, that becomes your property, and that as a veteran, you're entitled to all of these things which is free education, and stuff like that. It was on us veterans to make the contact with those higher education institutions, those apprenticeship training programs, those work release programs, and develop a relationship where we could do through engaging in education, and in a better frame of mind, and be back into our communities as a contributor instead of a predator. Let me put it that way.
  
  Higgins: Sure. Just to get the specific dates. What years were you incarcerated?
  
  Merretazon: From 1969-1976.

  Incarcerated Veterans Organizing for Disability Rights

  Higgins: This is at the same time that the Department of Justice does its first study trying to identify how many incarcerated veterans are imprisoned.
  
  Merretazon: What year was that you found? 
  
  Higgins: They started the study in 1979 and then they published it in 1981.
  
  Merretazon: That was because of the work we was doing in Lorton Reformatory. We raised a lot of hell. We got a lot of coverage in the Washington Post newspaper before we actually begin to make that happen for better than in prison.2 Once we were able to get apprenticeship training programs inside the institutions, higher education inside the institutions, then we had the foundation to apply for our benefits. That was the first thing first: develop the relationship with the higher education institutions and the various types of apprenticeship programs that was out there and apply for our benefits for that type of training.
  
  Higgins: It was unprecedented. Whenever you actually got your disability benefits, was it full 100 percent or was it a reduced amount out of that total? I think today it's 10 percent.
  
  Merretazon: Let me tell you how it happened. I didn't apply for my veteran benefits until 2010. That was long after I was out of prison, long after I've been in the parole, long after I finished walking down 25 years on unsupervised parole. When I came out of prison, I was part of the staff of the Vietnam Veterans of America. I think we had offices over on 18th and K Street somewhere. I was handling the incarcerated veterans part because that's the resources I connected with on the inside . . . I had US Congressmen as my outside coordinators. Ron Dellums and Bill Lawson who was part of the President's staff. The president at that time was Jimmy Carter. Bill Lawson, the President's staff came to visit me in prison because he thought it was such a unique thing to be involved in, and he wanted to make sure it gets as much exposure as possible through his responsibilities at the White House. We made it happen that way. It's just my conceptualizing that concept of inside, outside. The inmates going to deal with the issues on the inside. Our community and representatives going to deal with and make sure it happened from the outside in terms of setting up the structure for veterans to receive their benefits, and we were successful in that.

  Invitation to the White House

  That effort carried my work to the White House of Jimmy Carter. I was acknowledged at the White House by Jimmy Carter and Bill Lawson. I hope Bill Lawson has opportunity to see this video because he was my outside corner. He was a major piece. I don't think we could have done it without some real good, strong outside resources and that was happening. He was working in Jimmy Carter's White House and Ronald Dellums, United States Congressman from Berkeley, California.
  
  Higgins: You met Carter while you were incarcerated?
  
  Merretazon: Yes. Exactly.
  
  Higgins: Can you talk about that. What was that day like? Like how long did you interact with the president?
  
  Merretazon: News got out that veterans were organizing in Lorton Reformatory. That hit the Washington Post. . . Those who was concerned or had some responsibilities for veterans in terms of resource access, they made contact with us from that point. They'd come down and visit and want to talk to us because veterans were going in and out of prison as well . . . to see the college. We had a satellite campus inside the prison. We had laid the foundation. Men who wanted to do other types of things, your programs and whatnot that serve the community, they would come to us and say, 'how do you develop the program? Can you help us out?' I lay it out for them. They go get approval from the administration and then they got their program going out and like Inner Voices [choir] and that was a very notable group. They did all types of skits and stuff like that about men in prison, so they became very popular in D.C. I'm glad I had the opportunity in being involved with them and setting the foundation of how to engage the system based on our willingness to give back to the system even while incarcerated,

  Locating Incarcerated Veterans

  Higgins: Do you recall much about testifying before the Senate. . .
  
  Merretazon: Well, at first, we had to convince the Senate that the issue was worthy of a hearing to be held. We did our work around the demographics of veterans in prison. We had a relationship with the Congress Ron Dellums. He was our outside coordinator, believe that. We had a Congress person who understood what was going on, who was committed to assisting Blacks in prison. . . . US Congressman Ronald Dellums from Berkeley and I think he's from Berkeley, California, or Oakland, one of the two. Through his law and just of being a US congressman and a very popular one at that, we were able to move in and out of prison pretty good. People from the President's office came down to visit us. That gave us a lot more protection and freedom around to move within the administrative processes and procedures of the prison.
  
  Higgins: You were on the ground actually doing the research and finding out how many incarcerated veterans were in person? . . . How long did that take?
  
  Merretazon: Well, first, I started with the prison I was in. I was incarcerated. All we had to do is get the data on that. Then push that. As it's pushing that forward, we found out that almost every prison in the United States, they had like 20-25 percent Vietnam veterans. That talks about the readjustment issues from coming home from war back to society. When Senator Alan Cranston called the Hearing on Readjustment Problems with Vietnam veterans, I was in the forefront of testifying for the issues of the incarcerated veterans.
  After that, the federal government put in place what we call the Vietnam Vet Centers so that veterans can go and talk to each other and share their experiences of readjustment experience with each other. I think there's about 14 was put online around that time, 1980. That shows the farthest city I could find. I've bounced South. I chose Little Rock, Arkansas out of all the options of cities that the veterans would be established. I chose Little Rock, Arkansas. I didn't want to go to D.C. I didn't want to stay in D.C. I didn't want to stay in Philadelphia. I didn't want to stay into the major cities because they have so much more resources. I felt that based on my experience inside of prison with veterans and being a veteran, that the worst conditions of veteran exist in the Southern prison, Angola, Arkansas State Prison, Parchman, in Mississippi, Prison Farm.
  
  We used the administration of the Lorton Reformatory to engage administrators of those institutions. Instead of set it up as an example of what they could do was debated in their prison. We went that route, and we were very successful. In fact, even here in Philadelphia. The veterans out at — I can't think of the name of this prison out in Philadelphia. [Eastern State Penitentiary] I set up the Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organization there.

  Experiences at the Little Rock Vet Center

  Higgins: Talk about your experiences and your time in Little Rock, Arkansas. Were you also involved with veterans and education at the time?
  
  Merretazon: Yes, absolutely, because I went to Little Rock initially in 1987, the Vietnam Vets Center. There, with announcing the opening of the Vet Center, all the veterans came out of the neighborhoods and trying to get help that they knew they didn't have opportunity to receive, and so we had a nice clientele there in Little Rock. Of course, we serving the central part of the state. In fact, any veteran could come to Little Rock, to the Vet Center [despite discharge status], and receive services. All that person had to do was be a resident of the state of Arkansas.
  
  Higgins: What was that like for you working with the Vet Center?
  
  Merretazon: It was rough because the first 90 days were very, very rough because I had a team leader who happened to be a psychiatrist. That's all, he did it while he was in the Army, and I didn't see any real understanding or appreciation for combat soldiers, but nevertheless, he looked at them as dependents as opposed to we all being veterans and helping each other.
  
  I made my name serving veterans in prison, incarcerated veterans. I went there with expectations that I could continue to work with veterans in prison. He would not allow me to do it, and we struggled. He refused to allow me to go into the prisons and assist veterans, in which I had made a very significant name and reputation of doing, and brought the whole issue of incarcerated veterans to the national spotlight. He refused to allow me to deal with veterans in prison. That didn't go too well, so I ended up challenging that, and he terminated me, and subsequently engaged some legal matters, and we settled that matter. But then I went back to legal services.

  
  Full Interview Part 3