Published Books


In the 1960s, Roland Sheppard regularly attended Malcolm X’s meetings in Harlem. He is one of the few remaining people who personally witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom. Purchase the e-book.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Dream’ is not possible under the ‘nightmare’ of capitalism. The system of capitalism is based on the exploitation of labor, and racism is required to divide and weaken the working class. As Malcolm X said, “Racism is profitable. If it was not profitable, it would not exist.”
The previous Civil Rights Movement offers valuable lessons for today: if we don’t let them divide us; if we keep our politics independent of the Republican and Democratic Parties and the Government; if we rely only upon our own power in the streets, in the schools, and at work; if we take up the struggles of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the many other heroes of the movement, we can win. — Roland Sheppard
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation—they want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. — Frederick Douglass
The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. — Malcolm X

Roland Sheppard Speaking Against Gentrification, San Francisco City Hall, 4/26/06
My name is Roland Sheppard, and I am a retired business representative of Painters Local #4 in San Francisco. I have been a lifelong social activist and socialist. Prior to my being elected as a union official in 1994, I worked for 31 years as a house painter. My web page stands for the quality of all people. These essays are written from my ground-floor view as a participant in the Antiwar movement, the Black Liberation Movement, the Women’s Movement, and the struggle for workers' democracy and freedom for all humanity. For Socialism!
These are my essays from my perch on the Painter’s Ladder. I was in the words of Robert Tressell, a Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, a phrase that Tressell used in his book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, to explain the exploitation of workers under capitalism who willingly sell their labor and donate the surplus value, which their labor produces, to the boss. (Hear A Lecture About The Ragged Troussard Philanthropist.)
I have led a unique life. I am one of the few people remaining who were at the Audubon Ballroom when Malcolm X was assassinated.
House painting was my vocation, but working for a better world has been my lifelong avocation. I became especially interested in the environment when I was diagnosed with cancer due to my work environment as a painter.
I learned how to write essays when I first got a computer in 1998. Using the internet and my word processor, I was able to put together all the medical legal arguments on my breakthrough workers’ compensation case in California, proving that my work environment, as a painter, had caused my cancer. During the course of the five-year struggle, I won a $300,000 settlement of my court case and, incidentally, I learned how to write.
In my retirement, I am writing about my life experiences as a socialist, as a participant in the Black Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social movements. My essays are based upon my involvement in the struggle for workers' democracy and freedom for all humanity. It is my hope that these essays, which I regularly update when I discover more facts, will help future generations of Freedom Fighters.
Yours for freedom,
Roland Sheppard, [email protected].