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The FBI and the Black Panthers
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Discusses the FBI war against the Black Panther Party including the use of COINTELPRO ...... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses the FBI war against the Black Panther Party, including the use of COINTELPRO, the assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, and efforts to create a split between Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver.
Paper Introduction:
The FBI War against the Black Panther PartyIntroduction As stated by Charles Jones and Judson Jeffries the Black PantherParty BPP was arguably the leading Black leftist organization in theAfrican-American liberation struggle because it captured the imaginationof oppressed people throughout the world The thesis explored in thisqualitative literature-based analysis is that the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation FBI undertook a focused overt war targeting the BlackPanther Party using such weapons as illegal surveillance assassination and media propaganda to discredit this movement and to put an
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Austin, Up Against the Wall- Violence in the Making andUnmaking of the Black Panthers (Fayetteville, AK: University of ArkansasPress, 2 6) 193,[12] Ward Churchill, op. It did so because of a perceptionthat the BPP was a threat to the United States. cit. "The Black Panther Party." Spartacus Educational. Vander Wall. [16] Yet Chicago Police SergeantDaniel Groth said "there must have been six or seven of them firing. Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998.Newton, Huey. The Panthers therefore argued forinternational working class unity and supported joint action with whiterevolutionary groups. Laura Pulido views the BPP as a nationalist movement that was besetby intra-organizational conflicts, including a famous split between HueyNewton and Eldridge Cleaver and internal class tensions reflecting thecontinuous struggle experienced by many BPP members who saw themselves asessentially a state of war.[2] Nevertheless, the BPP was seen by many inthe American government as posing a very real threat to the country and hadthe power to ignite a full-scale race war, which the FBI believed was alegitimate rationale for eliminating the organization.[3] The FBI's activities against the Black Panthers represent what WardChurchill considers to be nothing more than an ongoing racist struggle todefeat leftists and to marginalize protest movements emanating from theAfrican-American community. 1[7] Ibid. Newtonactively encouraged blacks to arm themselves and during its formativeyears, from 1966 to 1968, the BPP's commitment to armed self-defense was akey aspect of its activities.[9] The BPP's emphasis on self-defense was key to their agenda: "thePanther never attacks first, but when he is backed into a corner, he willstrike back viciously."[1 ] The Black Panthers believed that they wereforced to adopt this attitude because of their contention that the policehad long ceased to be a neutral presence in the black inner cityneighborhoods of the United States.COINTELPRO On August 28, 1956, the FBI formed the Counter-Intelligence Program(COINTELPRO) to combat the U.S. The FBI War against the Black Panther PartyIntroduction As stated by Charles Jones and Judson Jeffries, the Black PantherParty (BPP) was "arguably the leading Black leftist organization in theAfrican-American liberation struggle" because it "captured the imaginationof oppressed people throughout the world."[1] The thesis explored in thisqualitative literature-based analysis is that the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation (FBI) undertook a focused, overt war targeting the BlackPanther Party, using such weapons as illegal surveillance, assassination,and media propaganda to discredit this movement and to put an end to theperceived threat that it posed to law and order in the United States. 681.[19] Huey Newton, War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression inAmerica. Fayetteville, AK: University of Arkansas Press, 2 6.Churchill, Ward. The FBI sent anonymous letters in an attempt toprevent cooperation between the BPP and gang leader Jeff Fort, sabotagedthe BPP's free breakfast program for children by destroying food andequipment, harassed those selling BPP newspapers, and sabotaged BPP pressconferences and speaking engagements.[18] Hampton led an effort to reduceviolence in Chicago, attempted to have gangs declare a truce, and attemptedto mobilize the population to improve their lives. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference(SCLC).[4] Key issues to be addressed herein include an analysis of variousefforts under COINTELPRO, the assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clarkin Chicago, and the all important rift between Oakland's Huey Newton andNew York's Eldridge Cleaver. The COINTELPRO Papers. Cleaver and G. If 2 shots wereexchanged, that was nothing.... 68 .[17] Curtis J. Agents of Repression. A federal grandjury investigated the shooting as a result of a lawsuit and found that thepolice fired between 83 and 9 shots and that the Black Panthers fired amaximum of one shot at the police.[17] The killings of Hampton and Clark were the culmination of a concertedeffort by law enforcement authorities to discredit, harass, and undermineBPP activities in Chicago. 1.[8] Charles E. Edgar Hoover called the Black Panthers "thegreatest single threat to the internal security of the country."[14] TheFBI stated that the goals of COINTELPRO were (1) to prevent a coalition ofmilitant black nationalist groups; (2) to prevent the rise of a blackleader who could mobilize a militant nationalist movement; (3) to preventviolence on the part of black nationalist groups; (4) to prevent militantblack nationalists from gaining popularity by discrediting them; and (5) toprevent the long-term growth of black militant groups.[15] As will beindicated below, the FBI used COINTELPRO to go far beyond its originalgoals and actually broke the law in its attempt to maintain order.The Assassination of Mark Hampton and Fred Clark On December 4, 1969, Chicago police raided the local headquarters ofthe Black Panther Party and in the process Chairman Fred Hampton and partymember Mark Clark were killed and four others were seriously wounded. "'Don't Believe the Hype:' Debunking the Panther Mythology." In The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, edited by Charles E. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2 6.Skolnick, Jerome. Also significant in the BPP were such key actors as H. Under the rubric of COINTELPRO, J. New York: Ballantine Books,1969.Spartacus Educational. 27.[1 ] Jerome H. Up Against the Wall - Violence in the Making & Unmaking of the Black Panthers. 1.[15] Curtis J. K. Jones and Judson L. 193.16 Jeff Gottlieb and Jeff Cohen, "Was Fred Hampton Executed?" Nation 223,no 22 (1976): 68 .[16] Ibid. These are all components ofAmerican democratic traditions. http://www.cpartacus.schoolnet.co.uk /USAparthe...-----------------------[1] Charles E. New York: Routledge, 2 1.Churchill, W. Katsiaficas. The groupalso ran medical clinics and provided free food to school children. Doctoral Dissertation, UC Santa Clara, June 1, 198 , 34.[2 ] Ibid 46.[21] Charles E. Boston: South End Press, 2 4.Churchill, W. Jones (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1998), 27.[2] Laura Pulido, Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left: Radical Activism in LosAngeles (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2 6), 1 4-1 5.[3] Ward Churchill, "To Disrupt, Discredit, and Destroy: The FBI's SecretWar against the Black Panther Party," In Liberation, Imagination, and theBlack Panther Party, ed. and Judson L. Cohen. Cleaver believed that many of the letters were true and in February1971 he criticized the BPP Central Committee, demanded the firing of BPPChief of Staff David Hilliard, and attacked the BPP breakfast program. In April 1971,Newton declared that Cleaver "influenced us to isolate ourselves from theBlack community; so that it was war between the oppressor and the BlackPanther Party, not war between the oppressor and the oppressedcommunity."[21] The rift was complete and COINTELPRO achieved anothersuccess in its efforts to undermine the BPP.Conclusion The thesis of this report was that the FBI undertook a concertedeffort to undermine the Black Panther Party, using illegal activities suchas wiretapping, opening mail, surveillance, and murder to achieve theirgoals. "War against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America." (PhD diss., UC Santa Cruz, 198 ), http:www.mindfullyorg/Reform/War-Against-Pa...Pulido, Laura. It was expanded toinclude people suspected of being sympathetic to communists and later, toNew Left groups like the Students for a Democratic Society and the StudentMobilization to End the War in Vietnam. Black, Brown, Yellow, and Left. Skolnick, The Politics of Protest (New York: BallantineBooks, 1969) 152.[11] In Curtis J. "Was Fred Hampton Murdered?" Nation, 223, no. Rap Brown and Stokeley Carmichael victims ofCOINTELPRO activities, moderates like Dr. Martin Luther King were attacked. Thefiring must have gone on ten or twelve minutes. The FBI infiltrated the Chicago BPP with at least eight informants,including William O'Neal. cit. Jones and Judson L. It is clear that the FBI, through COINTELRPO, was very successfulin discrediting and dismantling the BPP. These"anonymous" letters were sent from BPP members in Oakland, New York City,and other cities, from black activists, and others focusing on creating arift between Newton and Cleaver. Jones and Judson L. The FBI used eavesdropping, warrantless telephone wiretaps, bugging, andthe opening of thousands of pieces of mail in their attempts to discreditblack leaders.[12] By 1968, the FBI identified the BPP as the group that "was mostlikely to succeed as the catalyst of a united black liberation movement inthe U.S."[13] FBI Director J. Rap Brown,David Hilliard, Angela Davis, Bobby Hutton, Elaine Brown, and FredrikaNewton. Not only were themore radical leaders like H. Jeffries, op. EdgarHoover's FBI sought to eliminate groups such as the Black Panthers, theNation of Islam, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), andDr. cit. The New York Times calledCOINTELPRO a program of "domestic spying, psychological warfare, and dirtytricks."[11] The emergence of the civil rights movement in the United States ledthe FBI to turn its attention to the movement's leaders. The Politics of Protest. Its Chicago chapter was home to FredHampton and Mark Clark, two BPP members who quickly gained leadershiproles. and J. Boston: South End Press, 2 2.Gottlieb, Jeff and J. cit., 3 .[9] Ibid. In fact, the BPP was anorganization that focused on community service, self-determination,fighting oppression, and self-defense. The BPP created a mass movement that"represented one of the rare instances of a successful blend of nationalismand socialist ideals by an independent African-Americana politicalorganization."[22] The BPP was attacked by the government because of itsrace and ideology, not because it was a threat to the United States. "To Disrupt, Discredit and Destroy." In Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party, edited by Kathleen Cleaver and George Katsiaficas, 78-117. 26. In 197 , Cleaver was in exile in Algiers and the FBIbegan sending him fictitious letters containing erroneous information andoutright lies about BPP members, BPP leadership, and BPP activities. Austin, op. BibliographyAustin, Curtis J. 3 6-3 8.[18] Jeff Gottlieb and Jeff Cohen, op. (New York:Routledge, 2 1), 78.[4] Ibid., 8 -81.[5] Spartacus Educational, "The Black Panther Party," 2 8,http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.[6] Ibid. and J. cit. 22 (1976): 68 -684.Jones, Charles E. Jeffries. Jeffries, "Don't Believe the Hype:Debunking the Panther Mythology" In The Black Panther Party Reconsidered,ed. It will be argued that the FBI's activitieswere an illegal and certainly undemocratic attempt to thwart freedom ofspeech and assembly and to use inappropriate means to disrupt the manypositive social programs that were undertaken by the Black Panthers inAmerica's ghettos.Discussion The forerunner of the BPP was the Lowndes County Freedom Organization(LCFO), a group established by Stokeley Carmichael in Alabama in 1964.[5]In 1966, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton formed the BPP in Oakland, Californiato protect the local community from police brutality and racism. O'Neal provided the FBI with a detailed mapof the BPP headquarters two weeks before the police raid that included a"X" that indicated the location of Hampton's bed.[19] Not one policeman was indicted as a result of the raid on the ChicagoBPP. O'Neal worked against BPP cooperation withChicago's street gangs but more importantly, worked to provoke BPP membersto undertake violent actions. Austin, op. Itexpanded is membership dramatically in short order and opened chapters inmost major American cities.[6] By 1967, the Black Panther Party had more than 2, members and hadattracted the attention of the FBI. cit. The BPP leaders "were influenced by the ideas expressed by MalcolmX in the final days of his life. C.E. Jones, 25-47. 89-9 /[13] Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers (Boston, MA:South End Press, 2 2) 1.[14] Ibid. TheCentral Committee then expelled him from the BPP. Vander Wall. Yet all evidence that has come to light in the years since the raidindicates that FBI informant undertook a campaign of sabotage against theBPP and that Hampton and Clark were murdered by police on the morning ofDecember 4, 1968.The Rift Between Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver Huey Newton has stated that COINTELPRO undertook 295 documentedactions against black groups, 233 (79 percent) of which were directedagainst the Black Panthers.[2 ] One of the more successful COINTELPROdirty tricks was their campaign to create a split between Huey Newton andEldridge Cleaver. It's a miracle that not one policeman waskilled." What Sergeant Groth claimed was simply not true. The Black Panthers eventually developed into aMarxist revolutionary group."[7] While greatly suspect in the view of the FBI, the Black Panthers didhave a strategic survival program that was designed to improve the qualityof life of disadvantaged minorities in terms of food, housing, medicalcare, and education.[8] At the same time, Huey Newton and Bobby Sealeformalized the notion of self-defense and called for armed resistance toany and all signs of racism, oppression, or police brutality. Jeffries, op. Nopolicemen were injured in the raid. Cleaver responded bystating that he would now lead the "real" BPP from Algiers. Communist Party.
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