Explication
“Them young folks was mad as hell,” Gordon Frinks said, “but they was on a high. They had drank the intoxication of that desired freedom and it was really the best kind. They had breathed that aroma of the seeking, the seeking of that freedom wine” (198).
"The civil rights movement knocked down the formal and legal barriers to equal citizenship, but failed to give most African Americans real power in this society" (318).
In the book Blood Done Sign My Name, Duke University Professor Timothy B. Tyson, a White man, tries to understand the heritage of White supremacy by studying a racially motivated murder committed by a neighbor in 1970. The murder victim was Henry Marrow, a twenty-three year old Black Vietnam War veteran. It was Robert Teel, a White store owner, and two of his sons who brutally beat and killed Henry in public as he pleaded for his life. In the courtroom, an all-White jury heard from two eyewitnesses. One of Teel's sons broke down in tears and confessed that his testimony had been forced on him by his father's lawyers. Nevertheless, the jury voted unanimously that the White man was innocent.
These events took place in Oxford, North Carolina, a small Southern town where "White supremacy permeated daily life so deeply that most people could no more ponder it than a fish might discuss the wetness of water" (17). The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had became federal law, and prohibited discrimination in the workplace, in schools and in public places. Yet Oxford, like many towns across America, was hardly touched by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's. Neighborhoods and workplaces were almost entirely segregated and Klu Klux Klan chapters were present and active.
The Marrow case was a turning point for the oppressed Black community in Oxford. Before the verdict even came out, Blacks were furious with the blatant racial hate crime and White-supremacist law enforcement; they could foresee that Robert Teel would not receive a fair trial. Some of their anger was channeled into a peaceful 50-mile march to the state capitol. This march was organized and led by Gordon Frinks, a national figure from the Civil Rights movement. Yet it became clear that most Blacks believed that holding marches would not award them with any tangible power. Frinks was forced to step down and a new leader, Ben Chavis, guided Blacks to boycott racist White stores and put a dent in the local economy. Still many Blacks, especially Vietnam War veterans, believed violence was the only way to hold the attention and respect of the White power establishment. When the Marrow case verdict arrived, Black people in Oxford rioted, and burned down town buildings and the tobacco warehouses. For the first time since the Civil War, Blacks in Oxford used mass violence to assert their power and fight for their cause.
Enter: the Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers represented many of the hopes and goals of the rioters. In fact, point six of their Ten Point Plan of revolutionary goals stated that Black men should be exempted from military service. They believed that Black men, like veteran Henry Marrow, should not be forced to sacrifice for a racist government. The Black Panthers also advocated full employment, decent housing, fair trials, preventative health care, and education that taught African Americans their true history. What set apart the Black Panther Party from other Civil Rights Organizations was an emphasis on the Black right to defend themselves from any vicious racist attack, from police or otherwise.
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who were enrolled at Merritt College in Oakland, California at the time. The whole Black Power Movement was already budding from the humiliation and anger endured by the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) at the Democratic convention of 1964. It was there that Black delegates were not allowed to take seats at the convention, and as usual, the Black agenda had been trumped by the pragmatism of politics. So Seal and Newton rejected non-violence and moderation, and wanted to fight back against racial injustices. They wanted to fight beyond laws and theory, they wanted equality in action.
The Black Panthers referenced the Second Amendment, and their right to bear arms. They also re-asserted policemen's need for probable cause and warrants. The Black Panthers were known to follow on-duty policemen from a legally acceptable distance, while holding pistols, law books and video cameras, just to protect Black citizens the police might unlawfully target. The Black Panthers were fearless, and they represented a new confidence for Black people in America. Like Gordon Frinks said, they were intoxicated with the possibility of freedom and strength.
Note: Artwork in header was done by artist and activist Emory Douglass, who served as the Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party until 1980. The artwork was taken from the Black Panther Party newspaper, which Panthers distributed to bring awareness to, and share latest news about, their cause.
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Black Power Movement: Includes not only the Black Panther Party, but also the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the US Organization, the Black Women’s United Front, the Republic of New Afrika, the Revolutionary Action Movement, the National Welfare Rights Organization, the Nation of Islam, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, the African Liberation Support Committee, the Young Lords Party, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. The most influential organization of the Black Power Movement was the Black Panther Party, which expanded as Black youth formed forty-eight chapters of the party nationwide. (The Black Panthers/ Stephen Shames)
The Black Panthers were divided into two main groups: the pluralists and the nationalists. The pluralists believed in integration and that it was possible for all races to live together peacefully. The nationalists wanted to separate from American society and develop their own society. Some Nationalists wanted to move to Africa, while others hoped for a separate black nation within the United States. (Cleaver) |