Have you ever heard of Marilyn Buck? I hadn’t.
I often ask myself: What does it mean to be a good ancestor? What actions can I take in this life that will contribute to justice and liberation for future generations? In my search for both knowledge and meaningful action, I’ve been studying the history of freedom fighters—those who have risked everything in the struggle for justice.
It’s easy to find stories of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color who have put their lives on the line for freedom. But finding white people who have done the same? That’s much harder. For too long, racism and white supremacy have been framed as problems for People of Color to solve, when in truth, they are problems white people created—and ones we must take responsibility for dismantling.
If you are on a path toward becoming an active participant in the fight for liberation, don’t sit back and wait for others to take the lead. Stand up. Take action. Let Marilyn Buck’s commitment to freedom and justice for all be an inspiration. Here is her story.
Marilyn Buck was not born into revolution. She grew up in a conservative, middle-class family in Temple, Texas, where nothing in her early years pointed toward the life she would one day lead. But by the time she was a young woman at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1960s, the world was changing, and so was she. The civil rights movement, the anti-war protests, and the growing calls for justice ignited something in her—a commitment that would come to define the rest of her life.
Buck rejected the privilege she was born into and instead aligned herself with those fighting against systemic racism and U.S. imperialism. She joined the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and later became involved with the Weather Underground, a radical group committed to militant resistance against the U.S. government. By the early 1970s, her activism had deepened. She provided material support to the Black Liberation Army (BLA), purchasing firearms under a false identity. In 1973, she was caught and sentenced to ten years in prison.
But prison did not stop her. Granted furlough in 1977, Buck disappeared underground, immersing herself further in revolutionary work. She supported both Black and Puerto Rican liberation movements, engaging in actions that would soon make her a high-priority target of the U.S. government. In 1981, she was arrested and later convicted of participating in the Brinks armored truck robbery, an operation that left two police officers and a security guard dead. She was also accused of helping Assata Shakur escape from prison and was linked to other radical actions. For this, she was sentenced to 80 years behind bars.
For the next 25 years, Buck lived behind concrete walls and steel bars, but she did not stop fighting. She turned to poetry, using words as her new weapon against oppression. Through her writing, she spoke out against mass incarceration, systemic racism, and the struggles of political prisoners. Her work appeared in activist and literary publications such as Sojourners and Break de Chains, inspiring a new generation of revolutionaries.
In 2010, after serving more than two decades in prison, Marilyn Buck was granted parole due to terminal illness. On July 15, she walked free. Just weeks later, on August 3, she died of cancer.
Buck was a revolutionary who sacrificed her freedom for justice. Her life is a testament to the complexities of radical politics in America—where justice, resistance, and violence have always been deeply entangled.
Even in death, her poetry and writings live on, continuing to challenge, provoke, and inspire those fighting for a more just world.
