3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

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will it be non-violence versus violence but whether a human being can practice his God- given right of self-defense ." ~s In August l%8, the LAPD raided Panther headquarters in Los Angeles ; this action resulted in many arrests and purging from within the Party by Panthers hunting for police informants ; that same month, police firebombed the office in Newark, and skirmished with Panthers in Detroit . In the most notorious example, on December 4, 1%9, police raided an apartment in Chicago where they killed Mark Clark and shot Fred Hampton to death in his bed. Police systematically harassed, arrested, and killed off the Panthers in a coordinated, nationwide effort, managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation .'6 Combined with its members' own weaknesses, the pressure from law enforcement agencies proved more than the Party could bear, and the final years of the Black Panther Party became quite bleak . `"fhe Party engaged in fratricide;' explained Landon Williams . ~ SThe Black Panther (May 4, 1%8) : 17 . ~6By September 13, 1%8, the FBI had infiltrated the Party and begun collecting informant reports ; by early 1%9, it was running wiretaps on the BPP . See Series 4, Box S, Folder S 1, Huey P. Newton Foundation Records, 1968-1994, Black Panther Party Research Project, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University; sa also Series 4, Box 1, Folder 1 . For more information on the detrimental effect of the FBI on the Black Panther Party, see Leroy F. Aarons and Robert C . Maynard, "Panther Leadership Hurt by Sweeping FBI Raids," Washin on Post (June 25,1969) and "How the FBI Poked and Pried at Dissidents," San Francisco Examiner [City Edition] (March 9, 1976) . Hooks on the subject include Kenneth O'Reilly, Racial Matters, Ward Churchill,~$ ~f Reor+ession : The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Pant_hsr Party a_~d the Amen Indian Movement (Boston : South End Press, 1988), and Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark, Ssarch and Destroy : A ReQ,~~Y t_~ Comr±~+ission of Ln_a_~y into t_h_o Black Pa_~t_hzrs aid the Police . Published byt~h_s NAACP ar!d t_h_s Metro li 9~ Allied R~Mh Gnt~ Lnc (New York: Harper and Row,1973) . 180
"The army turned on itself . . . That's what killed the Black Panther Party." r There was much infra-fighting . Party leaders purged the rank-and-file for police informants . Undisciplined Panthers resorted to extortion and other strong-arm tactics to fund their activities . Allegations of murder and contracted assassinations swept the black community . Like gangsters, many Panthers ran wild, tennorizing the community ; consequently, the Party alienated mph of Oakland . Chapters in other cities fared no better. In the early 1970's, Huey Newton succumbed to drugs, paranoid delusions, and increased reliance on criminal activity to subsidize the Black Panther Party . He turned on those closest to him: expelling David Hilliard, beating Elaine Brown, and brutalizing Bobby Seale . He expunged Party members with increasing frequency for trifling reasons ; others he "disciplined" by Pistol-whipping. He ordered beatings, and worse, such as "mud holing" (gangland-style, gnwp stomping) . Newton pistol-whipped his tailor, spattering the ceiling of his Lake Merritt penthouse with blood . In 1974, he was arnested for the murder of a seventeen-year-old prostitute, Kathleen Smith ; he was later acquitted. The "revolution" which unfolded in Oakland in the 1970s was hardly the stuff of sixties' activism, but it was swift and violent : "blood to the horse's brow, and woe to those who can't swim :' As the Party devolved and strayed from its original mission of self-defense, Newton attempted to shore up the organization with theory. He explained his vision of rLandon Williams, panel discussion, Berkeley Graduate Assembly, Booth A~itorium, Boalt Hall, University of California, October 25,1990, video recording, Media Resource Center, UC Berkeley.
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CCVII. RIGHTS & SELF-DEFENSE : THE
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Civil Rights and Self-Defense : The
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It was not until the 1950's and 196
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ights movement, including : redempt
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unnoticed, unbeknownst, or simply i
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nonviolence . It is not a complete
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happen, and the time for defense is
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during this period currently lie do
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what is right, but Iam not sure how
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could be argued that King's middle-
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people customarily initiated it . F
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"The Other Cheek" : ReUn9ubhing Sel
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expressed an urge to "give as good
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professionals and faculty members f
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But while King defused the volatile
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(FOR), and William Worthy, a black
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practicability of his position: '~4
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Additionally, Bayard Rustin reporte
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the power structure."~ In other wor
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available to the Negro in his strug
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(toughmindedness) and love (tenderh
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compelling arguments for the moral
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and faggot. For example, in 1889, J
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His first impulse when threatened w
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aggravate ; that is, his politics o
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quantitative change in our lives."
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'~P~opk With StrenSth": Questioning
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united behind him:'s Comparing his
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paratroopers from the 101" Airborne
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Williams respected what he called "
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NAACP had always appealed, he scour
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Montgomery was buried without incid
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motorcade with gunfiro when the car
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slavery and oppression . Tire Negro
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S-6 . at the heart of his nonviolen
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act : anyone who would utilize nonv
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folkways . Because they believed th
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the South, found themselves spearhe
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Brown ." sa That same month, Willia
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pumping hundrr~ds of thousands of d
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making better men either of themsel
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He likened racism to a disease, a m
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escalated . Rioting broke out. Then
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Williams' ideas came to fruition in
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When juxtaposed with the ideas of M
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But if Willisms "made just as much
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Whatever his place in prevailing hi
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thinking merit special attention by
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The women propared food, and served
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candidate for county representative
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tide of nonviolent diroct action ;
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the sheriff again and told him that
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characterized by hatred or meanness
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terms of "`violence' versus `nonvio
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than as separate entities, seenKd q
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The best descriptor of Malcolm X wa
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qualities in themselves. Finally, a
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someone is treating you in a crimin
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"You can't take a black man who is
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attacked . Now, fve never been the
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have, he wondered, to stop the loca
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precluded him from being involved.
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Malcolm "proved" his detractors to
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Malcolm reveled in ambivalence, and
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While his views on integration, whi
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He summed up his speoch by doclarin
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journalist, labeled them "the South
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shifted from Jonesbom to 8ogalusa,
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cost. The struggle for black equali
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point, the Deacons had ban quietly
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Under the aegis of their charter an
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them ; they were attuned to the law
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the head, causing a gash . Leneva T
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One thing is apparent in this year
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mistake" ; the presence of the Deac
Page 151 and 152: done:' Sims said, "we walked like m
Page 153 and 154: he waa killedj, but I believe he wa
Page 155 and 156: Events picked up across the border
Page 157 and 158: they were bound to precipitate a ca
Page 159 and 160: goals of the movement. A year later
Page 161 and 162: Sellers noted that while King was f
Page 163 and 164: things," he said. "Everybody want t
Page 165 and 166: the group . For example, an intervi
Page 167 and 168: "Understand, the Deacons don't repl
Page 169 and 170: quest for black equality, and chang
Page 171 and 172: self-defense denotation from the of
Page 173 and 174: Lowndes County lies in the heart of
Page 175 and 176: "take over the courthouse" with sub
Page 177 and 178: On Monday, November 7,1966, the nig
Page 179 and 180: do anything violent ."~s But as the
Page 181 and 182: To Carmichael, the Deacons for Defe
Page 183 and 184: their perception in the media, and
Page 185 and 186: considered the Panthers "a living t
Page 187 and 188: legislator from Piedmont, specifica
Page 189 and 190: Seale, the police were the enforcem
Page 191 and 192: They also displayed a propensity to
Page 193 and 194: Newton viewed violence as not simpl
Page 195 and 196: Williams, a Panther. "We'd read Nat
Page 197 and 198: Newton, Seale, and Cleaver had all
Page 199 and 200: Simultaneously, they shouldered the
Page 201: The Deacons for Defense and Justice
Page 205 and 206: defense. He believed that no ruling
Page 207 and 208: formulating their own . Coincidenta
Page 209 and 210: exposed the actions of some policem
Page 211 and 212: think in terms of armed conflict."~
Page 213 and 214: and his band waylaid the Cleveland
Page 215 and 216: Epilog : TIK Only Tis+sd T1Ky Was "
Page 217 and 218: action did so through a redefinitio
Page 219 and 220: with police personnel who were ofte
Page 221 and 222: lacks in West Feliciana Parish, Lou
Page 223 and 224: evolutionary war in tenors of self-
Page 225 and 226: everywhere a person goes, even insi
Page 227 and 228: epresented a quantum leap in the ab
Page 229 and 230: people carried themselves in public
Page 231 and 232: There can be an exaggerated distast
Page 233 and 234: demand. It never did and it never w
Page 235 and 236: "anti-American diatribes of the ran
Page 237 and 238: allowed both RAM and the RNA to use
Page 239 and 240: United States was having." s~ Exasp
Page 241 and 242: hammering home the notions of self-
Page 243 and 244: to you, that did more good than non
Page 245 and 246: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ~~un~~r~ws a~
Page 247 and 248: W"C~"Y//iO~ ~JYL7///~O{i California
Page 249 and 250: Knight, Jack C. "Reckoning with Vio
Page 251 and 252: Belknap, Michael R. Feral Law and S
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Crcnshaw, Kimberlie. Critical Race
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Grant, Joanne . Hlack Pnxsst : Iist
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McCord, William, John Howard, Berna
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Reddick, Lawt+ence D. Crusader With
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Wilkins, Roy and Ramsey Clark . Sea
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The Road from Mont~p~. WCBS-TV. New
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3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

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