A New Graphic Novel Shows the History of the Black Panther Party – Electric Literature

David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson’s graphic novel The Black Panther Party may be the first introduction to the revolutionary party for some. For others, it will provide additional context to the history. The graphic novel spans from the founding of the party by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in the mid-’60s to its unfortunate demise when members were murdered, ostracized, or imprisoned. It covers the constant government attacks to the Party—cue J. Edgar Hoover, who stated the Black Panthers were the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country”—and its internal strife, against a background of increased racial tensions throughout the nation. Walker and Anderson’s collaboration reveals that the Black Panthers weren’t without faults, yet the organization’s focus from the beginning was always giving Black communities the strength and power to be informed of and fight for the rights they deserved. From food pantries to educational programs to a newspaper circulating relevant and under-reported news affecting Black people, the Black Panthers served their community first, which seemed radical to those who never thought Black people deserved basic rights in the first place. 

The B.L.A. ( Black Liberation Army ) 1970s to 1980s History | newafrikan77

I see a lot of interesting info about the BLA and I thought I would share this…

After the social upheavals of the 1960s failed to trigger the vast systemic changes many protesters sought, the early 1970s saw a number of militant groups form secoret underground cells that pledged to use violence in an attempt to fight for civil rights, end the Vietnam War and, in the minds of the hard core, trigger a violent revolution in the streets of America.

While groups like the Weather Underground, the Black Liberation Army and the Symbionese Liberation Army were vehemently anti-war, their core motivation was rallying the black community toward open revolt. It was a time when police brutality was rampant—far worse than today, by most measures—and white police officers rarely were prosecuted when they killed black civilians. The underground groups of the ‘70s thus made police their first and most frequent targets. The Weather Underground did so with bombs, until one went off accidentally, killing three of its members, leading the group to disavow murderous violence.

Why I Can’t Celebrate Kwanzaa

This is pretty much how I feel… even though I ain’t much for celebrations and all that…. we can party when the war is won…

 

I don’t do Kwanzaa. I just don’t. I never have, and the very thought of it evokes some difficult memories and feelings for me.

It’s not the holiday’s religious trappings or its Afro-syncretic fusion of Jewish menorahs, Swahili words, Kemetic, Christian and other rituals. I understand people do have a perfect human right to adopt or make up the cultural and religious practices that suit them. Rastafarianism, Voudon, Santería, and Candomblé all borrow from multiple traditions, as does Islam from Judaism and Christianity, and Christianity from Judaism, Greek and Roman sources, and so on. So I have no quarrel whatsoever with those who celebrate and find value in Kwanzaa.

How the pigs abuse ‘gang’ labels

We’re always used too make new laws about BS

Curtis Austin: A Different Kind Of Cat: Black Panther Party

I’m about to read his book Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party as well….

Dr. Curtis Austin, Associate Professor, Dept of History, University of Oregon delivered this talk “A Different Kind of Cat: The Black Panther Party and Revolution in America”, Thursday, April 18, 2019

Sponsored by the Black Student Union.

Black History Is Filled With Agents And Informants. Here Is How To Identify Them

Good info here…

Before you do anything, share this post with your Black Facebook Groups, forums, and to your Twitter followers by hitting the share buttons above! After you read this, you will understand why doing so is critical to our movement!

Carbondale police shootout with Black Panthers 43 years ago

I personally didn’t know about this….

CARBONDALE, IL (KFVS) – The date was November 12, 1970, the time was very tense with racial issues raging throughout southern Illinois.

At the intersection of 401 North Washington and Evergreen in the early morning hours 43 years ago Tuesday, those tensions erupted in gunfire.

5 Things History Books Won’t Tell You About the Young Lords’ Activism

Another example of a street organization from Chicago expanding into other things… coincidence? I think not….

Inspired by the Black Panthers, the Young Lords was a Chicago street gang-turned-national political and social action organization fighting for the liberation, self-determination and justice of Puerto Ricans, Latinxs and Third World people in the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. The members were largely the children of Puerto Rican migrants, a growing population in barrios across the Northeast who journeyed to the United States mainland in search of economic and housing opportunities. Instead of possibility, they saw poverty, discrimination, and exploitation.

Fake black activist social media accounts linked to Russian government

Who didn’t see this coming???? smh

A social media campaign calling itself “Blacktivist” and linked to the Russian government used both Facebook and Twitter in an apparent attempt to amplify racial tensions during the U.S. presidential election, two sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. The Twitter account has been handed over to Congress; the Facebook account is expected to be handed over in the coming days.

The FBI’s War on Black Bookstores

Intellectuals will not win a revolution… the people will… but it will start a movement…

In the spring of 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover announced to his agents that COINTELPRO, the counter-intelligence program established in 1956 to combat communists, should focus on preventing the rise of a “Black ‘messiah’” who sought to “unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement.” The program, Hoover insisted, should target figures as ideologically diverse as the Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), Martin Luther King Jr., and Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.