DOCSLIB.ORG

'Any Name That Has Power': the Black Panthers of Israel, the United

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
'Any Name That Has Power': the Black Panthers of Israel, the United ‘Any Name That Has Power’: The Black Panthers of Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States, 1948-1977 by Anne-Marie Angelo Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ William Chafe, Supervisor ___________________________ Tina Campt ___________________________ Sarah Deutsch ___________________________ Adriane Lentz-Smith ___________________________ Rebecca Stein Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2013 ABSTRACT ‘Any Name That Has Power’: The Black Panthers of Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States, 1948-1977 by Anne-Marie Angelo Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ William Chafe, Supervisor ___________________________ Tina Campt ___________________________ Sarah Deutsch ___________________________ Adriane Lentz-Smith ___________________________ Rebecca Stein An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2013 Copyright by Anne-Marie Angelo 2013 Abstract The US Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was an organization of the Black Power Movement, a cultural and a political nationalist movement central to the history of the African-American Freedom Struggle. The Black Panthers’ anti-imperialist politics, militant visual style, grassroots strategies, and community programs appealed within and beyond the United States. Between 1967 and 1972, people of color struggling under class and ethnic oppression in six countries outside the United States formed Black Panther Parties inspired by the US Panthers. In the United Kingdom, West Indians, West Africans, and South Asians formed a Black Panther Movement in 1968 and in Israel, a group of Mizrahi (Arab) Jews founded a Black Panther Party in in Jerusalem in 1971. This dissertation examines these two movements with reference to the US Black Panthers in order to place local, national, and global histories in dialogue. This study adopts a transnational framework that conceives of Black Power as a movement of global migrants. From 1948 to 1967, over two million people from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean migrated to the UK and Israel. These migrants’ overlapping experiences of displacement and class- and ethnic-based oppression led them to establish Black Panther groups in their new home countries in order to raise their political concerns under a collective banner. These people chose to become Black Panthers specifically because the US Black Panther Party offered a name and style that connected their global brothers and sisters to a range of grassroots strategies promoting interethnic solidarity and the collective advancement of black communities against the social structures that iv fostered racism. Through the examination of oral histories, photographs, letters, fliers, passport stamps, films, court cases, and surveillance files, this study focuses on how these global Panther activists represented themselves and their politics in the public sphere. Both the British and Israeli Panther movements first organized in response to the city police’s harassment of youth in their neighborhoods. Their respective critiques expanded from an opposition to police brutality to systemic goals of improving housing, education, welfare, and employment for blacks. Both of the nation-states in which these groups emerged relied upon the US for military stability and economic support during this period, such that the British and Israeli Panthers saw confrontations with their respective governments as acts of resistance to American Empire. This dissertation, then, is at once a community study of two branches of a transnational social movement as well as a larger story. The broader narrative reveals how everyday people responded to the American Empire in the 1960s and 1970s, how the US Black Panthers translated black internationalist politics into urban neighborhoods, and how people outside the US constructed narratives about African-Americans as a way of making sense of racial formations at home. This work also demonstrates how foreign governments and media producers appropriated African-American history for a variety of in political purposes during this period. This examination enables a deeper understanding of the transnational black freedom struggle, as it centers the role that people of color outside the United States played in creating and sustaining Black Panther Movements that confronted American and British Empires from the grassroots. v Dedication For my mother, Patricia Ann Lynch Richards-Angelo, whose countless labors of love have made this one possible, and for my brother, Shawn Patrick Angelo, who inspires me. vi Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Becoming ‘Black Immigrants’ in Britain and Israel, 1948-67 ........................ 38 Chapter 2: Expeditions: Black Britons reconnoiter the African-American movement, 1964-69 ............................................................................................................................. 78 Chapter 3: ‘The only force that can quell it is International Black Power.’ An anti- imperialist Black Panther Movement materializes in London, 1967-69 ........................ 143 Chapter 4: ‘Black Oppressed People All Over the World Are One’: The British Panthers, shadow governance, and grassroots internationalism, 1969-1973 .................................. 219 Chapter 5: ‘A Jolt to Jews Both Here and Abroad’: The Israeli Black Panther Party and the Empire of Transnational Capital, 1971-1977 ............................................................ 297 Epilogue: The Egyptian Revolution, J14 protests, and London riots of 2011 ............... 369 Appendix A: UK Black Power organizations outside London, 1970-1971 .................... 391 Appendix B: UK Black Panther Timeline, 1969-1973 ................................................... 392 Appendix C: UK Black Panther newspaper issues by archival location, 1969-1973 ..... 413 Appendix D: Countries named in UK Panther newspapers, by order of first appearance, 1969-1973 ................................................................................................... 416 Appendix E: Israeli cities and towns with Black Panther activity, 1971-1977 .............. 418 Appendix F: Israeli Black Panther Party members identified ........................................ 419 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 420 Biography ........................................................................................................................ 458 vii Figures Figure 1: Moroccan family alights at Haifa Port, September 24, 1954.............................40 Figure 2: West Indians arrive on the boat train at Waterloo Station, October 15, 1961 . ..40 Figure 3: Moshe Friedan, The Armistice Line at the edge of Musrara ............................. 69 Figure 4: Five Met Police officers arrest a black man in Brixton ..................................... 80 Figure 5: Linton Kwesi Johnson poses for Black Panther members' photograph ............ 84 Figure 6: Panthers in their Brixton house salute Black Power ......................................... 86 Figure 7: National Front member advertises National Front News in Brixton.. ............ 109 Figure 8: Armed National Guardsmen chase black boy on The Observer Review’s front page, 1967 ....................................................................................................................... 112 Figure 9: The Observer Review tallies US casualties of race-related violence in 1967 . 113 Figure 10: Algerian visa, August 18, 1971, validated in Algiers, September 1971 and Algerian visa, September 8, 1972, not validated. ........................................................... 132 Figure 11: Robert F. Williams' The Crusader 9, no. 3, (Peking: December 1967).. ...... 134 Figure 12: Obi Egbuna announces UCPA’s adoption of Black Power, August 28, 1967.. ......................................................................................................................................... 143 Figure 13: Stokely Carmichael speaks at Dialectics of Liberation Congress, London, July 22, 1967. .................................................................................................................. 161 Figure 14: Carmichael speaks on UCPA platform at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, 1967................................................................................................................................. 164 Figure 15: Obi Egbuna speaks to the press, September 10, 1967. .................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • National Museum of American Jewish History, Leonard Bernstein
    Narrative Section of a Successful Application The attached document contains the grant narrative and selected portions of a previously funded grant application. It is not intended to serve as a model, but to give you a sense of how a successful application may be crafted. Every successful application is different, and each applicant is urged to prepare a proposal that reflects its unique project and aspirations. Prospective applicants should consult the Research Programs application guidelines at https://www.neh.gov/grants/public/public-humanities- projects for instructions. Applicants are also strongly encouraged to consult with the NEH Division of Research Programs staff well before a grant deadline. Note: The attachment only contains the grant narrative and selected portions, not the entire funded application. In addition, certain portions may have been redacted to protect the privacy interests of an individual and/or to protect confidential commercial and financial information and/or to protect copyrighted materials. Project Title: Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music Institution: National Museum of American Jewish History Project Director: Ivy Weingram Grant Program: America's Historical and Cultural Organizations: Planning Grants 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Rm. 426, Washington, D.C. 20506 P 202.606.8269 F 202.606.8557 E [email protected] www.neh.gov THE NATURE OF THE REQUEST The National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) respectfully requests a planning grant of $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the development of the special exhibition Leonard Bernstein: The Power of Music (working title), opening in March 2018 to celebrate the centennial year of Bernstein’s birth.
    [Show full text]
  • 'The Left's Views on Israel: from the Establishment of the Jewish State To
    ‘The Left’s Views on Israel: From the establishment of the Jewish state to the intifada’ Thesis submitted by June Edmunds for PhD examination at the London School of Economics and Political Science 1 UMI Number: U615796 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615796 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 F 7377 POLITI 58^S8i ABSTRACT The British left has confronted a dilemma in forming its attitude towards Israel in the postwar period. The establishment of the Jewish state seemed to force people on the left to choose between competing nationalisms - Israeli, Arab and later, Palestinian. Over time, a number of key developments sharpened the dilemma. My central focus is the evolution of thinking about Israel and the Middle East in the British Labour Party. I examine four critical periods: the creation of Israel in 1948; the Suez war in 1956; the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 and the 1980s, covering mainly the Israeli invasion of Lebanon but also the intifada. In each case, entrenched attitudes were called into question and longer-term shifts were triggered in the aftermath.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Production in Andrea Levy's Small Island Author: Alicia E
    ENTERTEXT Identity as Cultural Production in Andrea Levy's Small Island Author: Alicia E. Ellis Source: EnterText, “Special Issue on Andrea Levy 9,” (2012): 69-83. Abstract Andrea Levy's Small Island (2004) presents a counter-history of the period before and after World War II (1939-1945) when men and women from the Caribbean volunteered for all branches of the British armed services and many eventually immigrated to London after the war officially ended in 1945. Her historical novel moves back and forth between 1924 and 1948 as well as across national borders and cultures. Levy’s novel, written more than fifty years after the first Windrush arrival, creates a common narrative of nation and identity in order to understand the experiences of Black people in Britain. Small Island—structured around four competing voices whose claims of textual, personal and historical truth must be acknowledged—refuses to establish a singular articulation of the experience of migration and empire. In this essay, I focus on discrete moments in the “Prologue” in Levy’s Small Island in order to think through the formation of discursive identity through the encounter with others and the necessity of accommodating difference. Small Island forecloses the possibility of addressing modern multiculturalism as a purported ‘happy ending’ in light of Levy’s formulation of the Windrush moment as disruptive, violent, and overwhelmed by flawed characters. Yet, through the space of writing, she also invites the reader to experience moments of encounter and negotiate the often competing claims on nationhood, citizenship, and culture. Identity as Cultural Production in Andrea Levy's Small Island Alicia E.
    [Show full text]
  • Israeli History "From Below" the Role of Children & Youth, Immigrants, Minorities and Professionals in the Shaping of a New Society 1948-1977
    Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism The Israel Studies International MA Program Spring Semester 2013 Israeli History "From Below" The Role of Children & Youth, Immigrants, Minorities and Professionals in the Shaping of a New Society 1948-1977 Thursday 13:00 – 16:30 Sede Boqer Campus Dr. Tali Tadmor-Shimoni Email: [email protected] Office hours: Sde-Boqer Campus, BGRI, Moran Building – Thursday 10:00-12:00 Dr. Paula Kabalo Email: [email protected] Phone: 08 659 6962 (office) Office hours: Sde Boqer Campus, BGRI, Moran Building – Thursday 10:00-12:00 Course Description and Objectives : This research seminar sheds light on the unheard voices of Israeli history. Individuals and groups that acted behind the scenes and shaped the Israeli cultural and social mosaic between 1948 – 1970s. At the center stage of the course, stand people with distinct class, cultural, ethnic, religion and generational characteristics. Throughout the course these people will serve as the voices of the new Israeli society, and their actions, challenges and struggles will provide an in depth understanding of Israel's social history. Amongst the groups and individuals that will be examined we can mention: immigrants, children and youth, Arab citizens, professionals from various fields that served as mediators between the state and its marginalized groups (educators, community activists and nurses ). Junctions in Israel's civic and constitutional history will be analyzed through the lens of these groups, such as – the struggle on the nature of the immigrants education, the Wadi Salib Riots, the students struggle against corruption, Al-Ard movement and the struggle for Arab rights of association, the first settlement actions in the Golan Heights and Gush-Etzion after 1967, grassroots political activism, in the radical left and right – Mazpen and the Jewish Defense League in Israel , the Israeli Black Panthers, the events and background the Land Day and more.
    [Show full text]
  • Squatting – the Real Story
    Squatters are usually portrayed as worthless scroungers hell-bent on disrupting society. Here at last is the inside story of the 250,000 people from all walks of life who have squatted in Britain over the past 12 years. The country is riddled with empty houses and there are thousands of homeless people. When squatters logically put the two together the result can be electrifying, amazing and occasionally disastrous. SQUATTING the real story is a unique and diverse account the real story of squatting. Written and produced by squatters, it covers all aspects of the subject: • The history of squatting • Famous squats • The politics of squatting • Squatting as a cultural challenge • The facts behind the myths • Squatting around the world and much, much more. Contains over 500 photographs plus illustrations, cartoons, poems, songs and 4 pages of posters and murals in colour. Squatting: a revolutionary force or just a bunch of hooligans doing their own thing? Read this book for the real story. Paperback £4.90 ISBN 0 9507259 1 9 Hardback £11.50 ISBN 0 9507259 0 0 i Electronic version (not revised or updated) of original 1980 edition in portable document format (pdf), 2005 Produced and distributed by Nick Wates Associates Community planning specialists 7 Tackleway Hastings TN34 3DE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1424 447888 Fax: +44 (0)1424 441514 Email: [email protected] Web: www.nickwates.co.uk Digital layout by Mae Wates and Graphic Ideas the real story First published in December 1980 written by Nick Anning by Bay Leaf Books, PO Box 107, London E14 7HW Celia Brown Set in Century by Pat Sampson Piers Corbyn Andrew Friend Cover photo by Union Place Collective Mark Gimson Printed by Blackrose Press, 30 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1R 0AT (tel: 01 251 3043) Andrew Ingham Pat Moan Cover & colour printing by Morning Litho Printers Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • CCMAC's Common People 2017
    The Clapham Society Newsletter Issue 397 May 2017 Our meetings are held at Omnibus, 1 Clapham Common North Side, CCMAC’s Common SW4 0QW. The bar at Omnibus is open from 7 pm, and meetings commence at 8 pm. Our guest will normally speak for about 45 minutes, People 2017 followed by around 15 minutes for questions and discussion, and the bar will remain open after the talk. Meetings are free and open to non-members. Non- members are invited to make a donation. PLEASE ARRIVE IN GOOD TIME TO ENSURE ENTRY. THERE IS A LIMIT ON THE NUMBER THE THEATRE CAN ACCOMMODATE AND YOU WILL NOT BE ADMITTED WHEN THAT NUMBER IS REACHED. Monday 22 May Ghostsigns. Fading on walls across the world are the ghosts of advertising past, still whispering the slogans of old. Once brightly coloured and promoting everything from Black Cat Cigarettes to Hovis Bread, these painted signs are now ‘ghosts’ of their former selves. Since 2006 Sam Roberts has been photographing, researching and archiving evidence of this outmoded form of advertising. In a richly illustrated talk he will offer a brief history and share the stories that ‘Common People’ will take place on Saturday 27 these signs tell, if you care to listen. May, the Bank Holiday weekend, from 2 pm until For more information about Ghostsigns visit ghostsigns.co.uk 7 pm. Now in its third year, the event celebrates the diversity of south London’s musical and spoken Monday 26 June word talent. Over the course of the afternoon there Black Cultural Archives: Past, Present and future.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in the Nineteen Sixties Countermovement
    Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato Volume 9 Article 15 2009 Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in the Nineteen Sixties Countermovement Melissa Seifert Minnesota State University, Mankato Follow this and additional works at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, and the Modern Art and Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Seifert, Melissa (2009) "Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in the Nineteen Sixties Countermovement," Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 9 , Article 15. Available at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol9/iss1/15 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research Center at Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato by an authorized editor of Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. Seifert: Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in t Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in the Nineteen Sixties Countermovement By: Melissa Seifert The origins of the Black Power Movement can be traced back to the civil rights movement’s sit-ins and freedom rides of the late nineteen fifties which conveyed a new racial consciousness within the black community. The initial forms of popular protest led by Martin Luther King Jr. were generally non-violent. However, by the mid-1960s many blacks were becoming increasingly frustrated with the slow pace and limited extent of progressive change.
    [Show full text]
  • Conclusion 60
    Being Black, Being British, Being Ghanaian: Second Generation Ghanaians, Class, Identity, Ethnicity and Belonging Yvette Twumasi-Ankrah UCL PhD 1 Declaration I, Yvette Twumasi-Ankrah confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 Table of Contents Declaration 2 List of Tables 8 Abstract 9 Impact statement 10 Acknowledgements 12 Chapter 1 - Introduction 13 Ghanaians in the UK 16 Ghanaian Migration and Settlement 19 Class, status and race 21 Overview of the thesis 22 Key questions 22 Key Terminology 22 Summary of the chapters 24 Chapter 2 - Literature Review 27 The Second Generation – Introduction 27 The Second Generation 28 The second generation and multiculturalism 31 Black and British 34 Second Generation – European 38 US Studies – ethnicity, labels and identity 40 Symbolic ethnicity and class 46 Ghanaian second generation 51 Transnationalism 52 Second Generation Return migration 56 Conclusion 60 3 Chapter 3 – Theoretical concepts 62 Background and concepts 62 Class and Bourdieu: field, habitus and capital 64 Habitus and cultural capital 66 A critique of Bourdieu 70 Class Matters – The Great British Class Survey 71 The Middle-Class in Ghana 73 Racism(s) – old and new 77 Black identity 83 Diaspora theory and the African diaspora 84 The creation of Black identity 86 Black British Identity 93 Intersectionality 95 Conclusion 98 Chapter 4 – Methodology 100 Introduction 100 Method 101 Focus of study and framework(s) 103
    [Show full text]
  • The NAACP and the Black Freedom Struggle in Baltimore, 1935-1975 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillm
    “A Mean City”: The NAACP and the Black Freedom Struggle in Baltimore, 1935-1975 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By: Thomas Anthony Gass, M.A. Department of History The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Advisor Dr. Kevin Boyle Dr. Curtis Austin 1 Copyright by Thomas Anthony Gass 2014 2 Abstract “A Mean City”: The NAACP and the Black Freedom Struggle in Baltimore, 1935-1975” traces the history and activities of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from its revitalization during the Great Depression to the end of the Black Power Movement. The dissertation examines the NAACP’s efforts to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation in a city and state that was “neither North nor South” while carrying out the national directives of the parent body. In doing so, its ideas, tactics, strategies, and methods influenced the growth of the national civil rights movement. ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the Jackson, Mitchell, and Murphy families and the countless number of African Americans and their white allies throughout Baltimore and Maryland that strove to make “The Free State” live up to its moniker. It is also dedicated to family members who have passed on but left their mark on this work and myself. They are my grandparents, Lucious and Mattie Gass, Barbara Johns Powell, William “Billy” Spencer, and Cynthia L. “Bunny” Jones. This victory is theirs as well. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation has certainly been a long time coming.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Georgians
    Subject Guide Black Georgians Ref. Wong/6/98 Ref. AN/3 Ref. EPHEMERA/292 Background The Georgian period covers the years 1714 to 1837, from the reign of King George I, the great grandson of King James I, through to the end of King William IV’s reign. For some, the Georgian period extends only until 1830, finishing with the death of King George IV. This subject guide, however, recognises the regency of King George IV’s brother, King William IV, which ended with his death in 1837. In 1837, Queen Victoria ascends to the throne, ending the Georgian period and introducing the Victorian period. The Georgian period was a time of immense growth and change in Britain, a pivotal point in British history. The emergence of Industrialisation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries changed the landscape and economy of Britain forever, through the introduction of steam engines, large-scale production factories, and the development of a new network of canals.1 During the eighteenth century, there were a number of pioneering individuals who worked relentlessly as abolitionists, poets, political leaders, and radicals. They actively challenged prevailing notions of white supremacy and the system of enslavement that, until then, was dominating British consciousness. A number of these individuals published first- person testimonies relating the horrors of enslavement. These forcefully drew attention to a trade that many in Georgian society were unable to fully comprehend. These prevailing notions of white supremacy were challenged in all aspects of British society, through the arts, politics and sports. Whilst there were a number of prominent figures leading and shaping the campaign for racial equality in Georgian Britain, there were a larger number of more “everyday” Black Georgians, working particularly as domestic servants.
    [Show full text]
  • Targeting Civilians in Colombia's Internal Armed
    ‘ L E A V E U S I N P E A C E ’ T LEAVE US IN A ‘ R G E T I N G C I V I L I A N S PEA CE’ I N C O TARG ETING CIVILIANS L O M B I A IN COL OM BIA S INTERNAL ’ S ’ I N T E R ARMED CONFL IC T N A L A R M E D C O N F L I C ‘LEAVE US IN PEACE’ T TARGETING CIVILIANS IN COLOMBIA ’S INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT “Leave us in peace!” – Targeting civilians in Colombia’s internal armed conflict describes how the lives of millions of Colombians continue to be devastated by a conflict which has now lasted for more than 40 years. It also shows that the government’s claim that the country is marching resolutely towards peace does not reflect the reality of continued A M violence for many Colombians. N E S T Y At the heart of this report are the stories of Indigenous communities I N T decimated by the conflict, of Afro-descendant families expelled from E R their homes, of women raped and of children blown apart by landmines. N A The report also bears witness to the determination and resilience of T I O communities defending their right not to be drawn into the conflict. N A L A blueprint for finding a lasting solution to the crisis in Colombia was put forward by the UN more than 10 years ago. However, the UN’s recommendations have persistently been ignored both by successive Colombian governments and by guerrilla groups.
    [Show full text]
  • A Nation of Law? (1968-1971) BOBBY SEALE
    A Nation of Law? (1968-1971) BOBBY SEALE: When our brother, Martin King, exhausted a means of nonviolence with his life being taken by some racist, what is being done to us is what we hate, and what happened to Martin Luther King is what we hate. You're darn right, we respect nonviolence. But to sit and watch ourselves be slaughtered like our brother, we must defend ourselves, as Malcolm X says, by any means necessary. WILLIAM O'NEAL: At this point, I question the whole purpose of the Black Panther Party. In my thinking, they were necessary as a shock treatment for white America to see black men running around with guns just like black men saw the white man running around with guns. Yeah, that was a shock treatment. It was good in that extent. But it got a lot of black people hurt. ELAINE BROWN: There was no joke about what was going on, but we believed in our hearts that we should defend ourselves. And there were so many that did do that. NARRATOR: By 1968, the Black Panther Party was part of an increasingly volatile political scene. That summer, the National Democratic Convention in Chicago was disrupted by violent clashes between demonstrators and police. The war in Vietnam polarized the nation and the political and racial upheaval at home soon became an issue in the presidential campaign. PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: This is a nation of laws and as Abraham Lincoln had said, no one is above the law, no one is below the law, and we're going to enforce the law and Americans should remember that if we're going to have law and order.
    [Show full text]