ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses several issues that persistently demand attention. It describes the explicit threats that members of Peoples Temple made concerning mass suicide, before turning to initial news accounts of Jonestown, and the reasons the media initially reported them as mass suicide. The chapter examines the ongoing debate regarding the nature of the deaths: did adults voluntarily kill themselves and describes how should we characterize the deaths of the children. The chapter analyses within a broader discussion of the social stigma associated with suicide. It compares the revolutionary rhetoric used by Black Power movements in the United States with the language used by Peoples Temple. The discourse of both movements emphasizes a willingness to die fighting persecution and repression, and reveals an expectation that this will happen. The chapter argues that the members of Peoples Temple saw themselves as true martyrs in the cause of African-American liberation.
