John Sinclair (born October 2 1941 in Flint, Michigan) Detroit poet, ex-manager of the MC5, Chairman of the White Panther Party from November 1968 -July 1969 .; jailed during 1969 over the sale of two joints to undercover narcotics officers.
In July 1969 Sinclair was sentenced to prison for 9 1/2 to 10 years for the sale of two joints to undercover narcotics officers. While in prison he wrote the books Guitar Army and Music & Politics, which he co-wrote with Robert Levin. Through his writing he became a national symbol of the fight to legalize marijuana. On December 10 1971 John Lennon and Yoko Ono headlined the Free John Now Rally in front of 15,000 people at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Michigan. John and Yoko sung the song "John Sinclair" with lyrics including:
It ain't fair, John Sinclair
In the stir for breathing air
Won't you care for John Sinclair?
In the stir for breathing air
Let him be, set him free
Let him be like you and me
They gave him ten for two
What else can the judges do?
Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta set him free
Three days after the concert the Michigan Supreme Court released Sinclair and later overturned his conviction.
Sinclair was instrumental in the formation of the anarchist underground newspaper Fifth Estate in Detroit. Information on Sinclair is available in the John & Leni Sinclair Papers at the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan.
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