Black Against Empire

by Joshua Bloom

  35. Statement quoted in Ferreira, “All Power to the People,” 154.

  36. Ibid., 154–60, quote on 160.

  37. Urban Research Corporation study cited in the Report of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1970), 109.

  38. Rodney Stark, “Protest + Police = Riot,” in Black Power and Student Rebellion: Conflict on the American Campus, ed. James McEvoy and Abraham Miller (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1969), 170.

  39. Homer Bigart, “Cornell Faculty Votes Down Pact Ending Take-Over,” New York Times, April 22, 1969, 1; John J. Goldman, “Faculty at Cornell Bows, Will Drop Charges on Negroes,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1969, A1.

  40. “5 Policemen Wounded at North Carolina A. & T.,” New York Times, May 23, 1969, 28; James T. Wooten, “Cops Disperse Carolina Snipers,” New York Times, May 24, 1969, 1; “Copter Breaks Up Berkeley Crowd,” New York Times, May 21, 1969, 1; John Kendall and William Endicott, “Berkeley: Birth, Growth of ‘War,’” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1969, A1.

  41. Kirkpatrick Sale, SDS (New York: Random House, 1973), 512–14.

  13. VANGUARD OF THE NEW LEFT

  1. The treatment of Los Siete de la Raza in this chapter draws from coverage in the Black Panther, various issues 1969; and Jason Michael Ferreira, “All Power to the People: A Comparative History of Third World Radicalism in San Francisco, 1968–1974” (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2003).

  2. “S.F. Pigs Attempt to Arrest Entire Brown Community,” Black Panther, May 19, 1969, 14.

  3. “Los Siete de la Raza and the Black Panther Party,” Black Panther, June 28, 1969, 2; Huey P. Newton, “Los Siete de la Raza,” Black Panther, June 28, 1969, 2; see also “Free Los Siete,” Black Panther, November 1, 1969, 8.

  4. La Raza’s seven points are reprinted in Ferreira, “All Power to the People,” 307.

  5. See Basta Ya! in the back eight pages of the following issues of the Black Panther: August 16, 1969; September 6, 1969; and September 20, 1969. On the roles of Lopez and Amador, see Ferreira, “All Power to the People,” 301.

  6. For the Red Guard’s ten-point program, see “Red Guard,” Black Panther, March 23, 1969, 9; for the genesis of the Red Guard, see Jason Luna Gavilan, “The Right Place at the Right Time: The Making of an Afro-Asian American Coalition—A Strategic Genealogy behind the Black Panther Party’s Alliance with the Yellow Power Movement,” 2001, unpublished manuscript in Joshua Bloom’s possession. See also Steve Louie and Glenn Omatsu, eds., Asian Americans: The Movement and the Moment (Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 2001); Fred Ho, Legacy to Liberation: Politics and Culture of Revolutionary Asian Pacific America (N.p.: Big Red Media, 2000); William Wei, The Asian American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993).

  7. Iris Morales, “¡Palante, Siempre Palante!: The Young Lords,” in Andrés Torres and José E. Velásquez, eds., The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998), 212; Jimenez quoted in “Interview with Cha Cha Jimenez, Chairman—Young Lords Organization,” Black Panther, June 7, 1969, 17. See also “Cha Cha Jimenez Accused of Kidnapping Own Child,” Black Panther, June 7, 1969, 17; “Pigs Block Cha Cha Jimenez,” Black Panther, October 18, 1969, 3. Archival materials on the Chicago Young Lords, including oral histories conducted by the Lincoln Park Project and the Center for Latino Research, are available in the Young Lords Collection, DePaul University Archives, Chicago.

  8. David Perez, in Young Lords Party and Michael Abramson, Palante: Young Lords Party (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), 65. See Carmen Teresa Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics: The Young Lords in Philadelphia,” in Torres and Velásquez, The Puerto Rican Movement, 107. They coined the phrase “Tengo Puerto Rico en Mi Corazón” (I Have Puerto Rico in My Heart), which spread quickly through Puerto Rican communities across the United States. Pablo Guzmán, “La Vida Pura: A Lord of the Barrio,” in Torres and Velásquez, The Puerto Rican Movement, 157.

  9. Black Panther position in Carletta Fields, “Persecution of the Young Lords,” Black Panther, May 19, 1969, 14; “Interview with Cha Cha Jimenez,” 17; see also “Cha Cha Jimenez Accused of Kidnapping Own Child,” 17; “Pigs Block Cha Cha Jimenez,” 3; for the date of the seminary takeover, see George Dugan, “Church Assembly Applauds Forman,” New York Times, May 16, 1969.

  10. Morales, “¡Palante, Siempre Palante! 212; Liberation News Service, “Panthers and Young Lords Serve the People,” reprinted in Black Panther, October 11, 1969, 5.

  11. Carlton Yearwood quoted in Michael T. Kaufman, “Black Panthers Join Coalition with Puerto Rican and Appalachian Groups,” New York Times, November 9, 1969, 83; photo caption above “Pigs Bust Nine Young Patriots,” Black Panther, June 7, 1969, 15; for a picture of the Young Patriots’ surprising mix of symbols, see “The Patriot Party Speaks to the Movement,” Black Panther, February 17, 1970, 12. Hampton quoted in David Hilliard and Lewis Cole, This Side of Glory: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story of the Black Panther Party (New York: Little, Brown, 1993), 229–30. According to Hilliard, a lot of Jesse Jackson’s best lines are taken from Fred Hampton.

  12. Yoruba in Young Lords and Abramson, Palante, 74–75.

  13. Miguel “Mickey” Melendez, We Took the Streets: Fighting for Latino Rights with the Young Lords (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003), 77–86, 103.

  14. Central Committee of the Young Lords Party, “History of the Young Lords Party,” in Young Lords and Abramson, Palante; for the thirteen-point program, see 150.

  15. David Perez in Young Lords and Abramson, Palante, 65–66.

  16. Joseph P. Fried, “East Harlem Youths Explain Garbage-Dumping Demonstration,” New York Times, August 19, 1969, 86; Melendez, We Took the Streets, 100–108.

  17. Morales, “¡Palante, Siempre Palante!” 214; Melendez, We Took the Streets, 113–16.

  18. Michael T. Kaufman, “Puerto Rican Group Seizes Church in East Harlem in Demand for Space,” New York Times, December 29, 1969, 26; Arnold H. Lubasch, “Young Lords Give Food and Care at Seized Church,” New York Times, December 30, 1969, 30; Melendez, We Took the Streets, 126, 129.

  19. Guzmán, “La Vida Pura,” 164–65.

  20. Whalen, “Bridging Homeland and Barrio Politics,” 112, 117–18; “The Young Lords Organization on the Move,” interview with Rafael Viera, chief medical cadre, Black Panther, February 17, 1970, 6; Central Committee of the Young Lords Party, “History of the Young Lords Party.”

  21. “The Young Lords Organization on the Move,” 6; Young Lords and Abramson, Palante, 101; Guzmán, “La Vida Pura,” 158; Melendez, We Took the Streets, 150.

  22. Huey Newton in Huey Newton Talks to the Movement about the Black Panther Party, Cultural Nationalism, SNCC, Liberals and White Revolutionaries (Chicago: Students for a Democratic Society, 1968). This pamphlet reproduces an interview, “Huey Newton Talks to the Movement,” originally published in Movement, August 1968. The pamphlet was reprinted by Students for a Democratic Society in August 1968. SDS distributed the pamphlet nationwide in coordination with “Free Huey!” actions; see New Left Notes, November 19, 1968, 8. Philip Foner also included a reprint of Newton’s statement in The Black Panthers Speak (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1970; repr. New York: Da Capo, 1995), 50–66 (quote on 54).

  23. Foner, Black Panthers Speak, 54.

  24. Ibid, 55.

  25. Bernardine Dohrn, SDS Inter-Organizational Secretary, “SDS & Panthers to Celebrate Huey’s Birthday,” New Left Notes, February 15 1969, 1.

  26. SDS resolution at the Austin National Council, “The Black Panther Party: Toward the Liberation of the Colony,” New Left Notes, April 4, 1969, 1, 3.

  27. Foner, Black Panthers Speak, 54. Although about two-thirds of the attendees at the SDS National Convention supported the resolution, the fact that one-third did not is telling. Against the tenuous alliance of SDS’s dominant leadership bloc, which was ideologically diverse but in agreement about supporting the Pant
hers, the opposition to the resolution came from a bloc of ideologically unified and disciplined Progressive Labor Party activists, who at this time argued for the importance of class over race and other considerations. Ironically, readers may recall that the Progressive Labor Party sent members of the Revolutionary Action Movement to Cuba in the early 1960s and helped black revolutionary nationalism build a foundation in the United States. But by 1969, the Progressive Labor Party had turned against the North Vietnamese and also against the Black Panther Party, arguing that the Left in the United States should focus on organizing workers and de-emphasize questions of race. This was a highly ironic turn of position at a time when draft resistance and the Black Panther Party and its anti-imperialist politics were the core of a greatly expanding and influential New Left. Progressive Labor did not walk away from the anti-imperialist New Left but sought to undermine it by fighting tooth and nail for the completely unrealistic notion that the newly politicized students of the New Left, who had found their identity as revolutionary actors in draft resistance and in support of the Panthers, ought to stop organizing around the Vietnam War and against racism and instead seek to organize workers. It is quite possible that this obstructionist position was due, in part, to the manipulations of the FBI. A serious study of the causes of Progressive Labor’s obstructionist turn would be invaluable for understanding the late 1960s and its repercussions. Progressive Labor’s obstructionist turn fragmented SDS and contributed significantly to the demise of the New Left. But the important thing about SDS’s endorsement of the Panthers as the “vanguard” is exactly that the New Left could not desert the Panthers any more than it could desert the Vietnamese and still be the New Left, because the alliance linking the New Left, rooted in the practices of draft resistance, to the political activities of the Panthers was the practical foundation for the New Left’s revolutionary morality, the basis for its identity. This was not a class basis for a superstructure in orthodox Marxist terms as much as a practical political basis for a political ideology.

  28. Black Panther, May 31, 1969. Most of these images depict the People’s Park campaign in Berkeley.

  29. Ibid.; flier announcing United Front Against Fascism conference 323–690721–000, H. K Yuen Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

  30. To see the change in the Ten Point Program, compare the old version in Black Panther, June 28, 1969, 21, to the new version in Black Panther, July 5, 1969, 22. For use of the word fascism, see, for example, “Capitalism Plus Racism Breeds Fascism,” Black Panther, June 14, 1969, cover story and articles on 2 and 17. On March 3, 1969, the Black Panther featured coverage of the Vietnamese resistance, publishing a photo of North Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh on the cover. This was the first time the Black Panther featured a nonblack liberation struggle on its cover. Such coverage of various nonblack international and domestic liberation struggles was frequent thereafter.

  31. Earl Caldwell, “‘Fascism’ Decried at Black Panther Conference,” New York Times, July 21, 1969, 48; Earl Caldwell, “Panthers’ Meeting Shifts Aims from Racial Confrontation to Class Struggle,” New York Times, July 22, 1969, 21; Earl Caldwell, “Panthers,” New York Times, July 27, 1969, E6; Earl Caldwell, “3,000 Radicals, Mostly Whites, Open Panther-Led Unity Parley,” New York Times, July 20, 1969, 43. Names of other participating organizations come from articles in the Black Panther.

  32. Bobby Seale quoted in Earl Caldwell, “‘Fascism’ Decried at Black Panther Conference,” 48. “Chairman Seale Sums Up Conference,” transcript of speech, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 4.

  33. “Elaine Brown Presents a Letter from Sister Ericka Huggins,” transcript, Black Panther, August 2, 1969, 5; “Field Marshal Don Cox at the Conference,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 11; “Ron Dellums at UFAF Conference,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 11; Father Earl Neal, “U.F.A.F. Conference: Religion Versus Fascism,” transcript of speech, Black Panther, August 9, 1969, 16; “Jeff Jones at the Conference,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 9; “Atty Bill Kunstler Speaks at UFAF Conference,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 10.

  34. “Roger Alvarado Speaks to Intellectuals,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 5;” Oscar Rios of Los Siete Speaks at UFAF Conference,” transcript, Black Panther, August 2, 1969, 8; “Habla Señor Martinez,” transcript, Black Panther, August 2, 1969, 6; “Young Patriots at UFAF Conference,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 8; “Penny Nakatsu, A Japanese American Speaks Out against Fascism,” transcript, Black Panther, August 2, 1969, 8; photo of Panther/Patriot lineup captioned “Patriots and Panthers Stand United against Fascism,” Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 11. Preacherman wore a beret displaying one pin of Huey P. Newton and another of a Confederate flag. In his remarks, he suggested that racially specific groups represent their own racially specific communities as part of a broader revolutionary alliance. The Panthers highlighted the Young Patriot Party at the conference because they wanted to send New Left groups like SDS the message that the proper role of revolutionary whites is to organize in poor white communities.

  35. Charles R. Garry, “Defender of Political Prisoners and Human Rights,” transcript, Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 12; Caldwell, “Panthers’ Meeting Shifts Aims,” 21; Earl Caldwell, “‘Fascism’ Decried,” 48; “Big Man” Howard, “Editorial Statement,” Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 7.

  36. Coordinating Committee of the Mexican Student Movement at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, a major university in Mexico, “Solidaridad al UFAF de Mexico,” statement reprinted in Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 10; Tokyo Communist League, “Message to UFAF Conference from Japan,” statement reproduced in Black Panther, July 26, 1969, 10; statement of support from Sweden, reproduced in Black Panther, August 2, 1969, 11; statement of support from Denmark, reproduced in Black Panther, August 9, 1969, 17.

  37. Letters came in from Salt Lake City, Utah; Albany, New York; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toledo, Ohio; Sunflower, Mississippi; Keatchie, Louisiana; Erie, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; St. Louis, Missouri; and Austin, Texas, among other cities. “Part II, SF 157–1204,” 15, folder: “David Hilliard’s FBI trial,” box 32, HPN Papers, cited in Robyn Ceanne Spencer, “Repression Breeds Resistance: The Rise and Fall of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA, 1966–1982” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2001), 182.

  38. Spencer, “Repression Breeds Resistance,” 182.

  39. “Black Panther Tells It Like It Is. U.F.A.F. Women’s Panel: Roberta Alexander at Conference,” transcript, Black Panther August 2, 1969, 7.

  40. Ibid.

  41. Marlene Dixon and Carol Henry in Caldwell, “3,000 Radicals, Mostly Whites,” 43.

  42. David Hilliard, conversation with Joshua Bloom, May 3, 2011.

  43. Eldridge Cleaver, “Message to Sister Ericka Huggins of the Black Panther Party,” Black Panther, July 5, 1969, 12.

  44. Ibid.

  45. Deborah Johnson [Akua Njeri], “Seize the Time, Off the Slime,” Black Panther, December 13, 1969, 4.

  46. Candi Robinson, “Message to Revolutionary Women,” Black Panther, August 9, 1969, 23.

  47. Adams quoted in Tracye Matthews, “No One Ever Asks a Woman What a Man’s Place in the Revolution Is: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Black Panther Party” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 1998), 293, 357.

  48. Akua Njeri [Deborah Johnson], “Difficulties of Being a Single Mother in the Black Panther Party,” in My Life with the Black Panther Party (Oakland: Burning Spear Publications, 1991), 45. Njeri also alludes to her differences with local leadership of the Party after Fred Hampton was killed, but the fact that local political tensions in Chicago may have exacerbated the situation for Njeri do not diminish the general point that the Party failed to systematically support Panther mothers with child care and other needs.

  49. Huey P. Newton, “A Letter from Huey to the Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters about the Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements,” Black Panther, Augu
st 21, 1970, 5.

  50. Ibid.

  51. Ibid.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Bettye Collier-Thomas and V. P. Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2001); Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, and Ella Shohat, eds., Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997); Anne McClintock, “Family Feuds: Gender, Nationalism, and the Family,” Feminist Review, no. 44 (Summer 1993): 61–80.

  54. Malika Adams, interview by Tracye Matthews, cited in Matthews, “No One Ever Asks a Woman,” 269.

  55. Angela Davis, interview by Tracye Matthews, ibid., 123.

  56. Rosemari Meali, interview by Tracye Matthews, ibid., 266.

  57. Janet Cyril, interview by Tracye Matthews, ibid., 271.

  58. Ibid., 262.

  59. Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Pantheon Books, 1992), 194

  60. Ericka Huggins, interview by Tracye Matthews, cited in Matthews, “No One Ever Asks a Woman,” 127.

  14. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE

  1. Jean Tainturier, “A la Conférence de Montréal,” Le Monde, December 3, 1968, 3.

  2. Ibid.; Seale quote from Raymond Lewis, “Montreal: Bobby Seale—Panthers Take Control,” Black Panther, December 21, 1968, 5.

  3. Lewis, “Montreal,” 5; Bobby Seale, “Complete Text of Bobby Seale’s Address,” Black Panther, December 21, 1968, 6.

  4. Lewis, “Montreal,” 5; David Hilliard, interview by Joshua Bloom, June 29, 2005.

  5. “Intercommunalism: February 1971” (conversations with Erik Erickson at Yale), in The Huey P. Newton Reader, eds. David Hilliard and Donald Weise (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2002), 184. The conversations were originally printed in full in In Search of Common Ground: Conversations with Eric H. Erickson and Huey P. Newton (New York: Norton, 1973).