Black Against Empire

  Praise for Black against Empire

  “This is the book we’ve all been waiting for: the first complete history of the Black Panther Party, devoid of the hype, the nonsense, the one-dimensional heroes and villains, the myths, or the tunnel vision that has limited scholarly and popular treatments across the ideological spectrum. Bloom and Martin’s riveting, nuanced, and highly original account revises our understanding of the Party’s size, scope, ideology, and political complexity and offers the most compelling explanations for its ebbs and flows and ultimate demise. Moreover, they reveal with spectacular clarity that the Party’s primary target was not just police brutality or urban poverty or white supremacy but U.S. empire in all of its manifestations.”

  —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

  “As important as the Black Panthers were to the evolution of black power, the African American freedom struggle, and, indeed, the sixties as a whole, scholarship on the group has been surprisingly thin and all too often polemical. Certainly no definitive scholarly account of the Panthers has been produced to date or rather had been produced to date. Bloom and Martin can now lay claim to that honor. This is, by a wide margin, the most detailed, analytically sophisticated, and balanced account of the organization yet written. Anyone who hopes to understand the group and its impact on American culture and politics will need to read this book.”

  —Doug McAdam, author of Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970

  “Bloom and Martin bring to light an important chapter in American history. They carefully mine the archival data to give us an account of the rise of the Black Panther Party, of its successes, and the shoals of American politics on which it fractured. In the process they give full credit to the strategic agency of the remarkable revolutionaries at the center of the story.”

  —Frances Fox Piven, President, American Sociological Association

  “An essential, deeply researched, and insightful study—the best so far—of the complex history, inner workings, and conflicted legacy of the Black Panther Party as it waged its relentless battle for human rights and racial dignity in the streets of urban America.”

  —Leon F. Litwack, President, Organization of American Historians

  “Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., have written the first comprehensive political history of the Black Panther Party. They present an unvarnished, judicious treatment of a much-revered, much-maligned, and widely misunderstood revolutionary organization leading the charge for ‘Black Power’ in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They provide persuasive answers to questions about the Party’s rise and fall that others have failed to fully address. All other scholars will henceforth have to grapple with their substantial findings. General readers will find it compelling too.”

  —Tera Hunter, Professor of History and African American Studies, Princeton University

  “Black against Empire puts the Black Panthers in dialogue with the varieties of political unrest across the country. Through a fresh analytical framework that helps us understand the revolutionary fervor of the 1960s, Bloom and Martin make clear that the Panthers were not an aberration or figment of the popular imaginary. They were the vanguard among black people seeking a way out of nowhere.”

  —Jane Rhodes, author of Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon

  “In a stunning historical account, Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin map the complex trajectory of the ideology and practice of the Black Panther Party. Going beyond merely chronicling ‘what happened,’ the authors situate the rise and fall of the Panthers within the prevailing, and constantly shifting, political climate at home and abroad. Much has been written about the Party, but Black against Empire is the definitive history of the Panthers—one that helps us rethink the very meaning of a revolutionary movement.”

  —Michael Omi, coauthor of Racial Formation in the United States

  THE GEORGE GUND FOUNDATION

  IMPRINT IN AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

  The George Gund Foundation has endowed

  this imprint to advance understanding of

  the history, culture, and current issues

  of African Americans.

  The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the African American Studies Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which was established by a major gift from the George Gund Foundation.

  Black against Empire

  Black against Empire

  The History and Politics

  of the Black Panther Party

  Joshua Bloom

  and Waldo E. Martin, Jr.

  UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

  Berkeley • Los Angeles • London

  University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

  University of California Press

  Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

  University of California Press, Ltd.

  London, England

  © 2013 by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Bloom, Joshua.

  Black against empire : the history and politics of

  the Black Panther Party / Joshua Bloom and Waldo E.

  Martin, Jr.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-0-520-27185-2 (cloth : alk. paper)

  1. Black Panther Party—History. 2. African

  Americans—Politics and government—20th century.

  3. African Americans—Civil rights—History—20th

  century. 4. Civil rights movements—United States—

  History—20th century. 5. United States—Race

  relations—History—20th century. 6. United States—

  Race relations—Political aspects—History—20th

  century. I. Martin, Waldo E., 1951–. II. Title.

  E185.615.B5574 2013

  322.4'20973—dc23 2012021279

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a 100% postconsumer fiber paper that is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with renewable biogas energy. It is acid-free and EcoLogo certified.

  To

  Hana, Mikhayla, Julius, Theodore, Eva, Emila, and Kian;

  Jetta, Coral, and Kayla

  and

  Che Patrice Lumumba, Darryl, Dassine, Dorian, Ericka,

  Fred Jr., Jaime, Joju Younghi, Maceo, Mai, Malik Nkrumah

  Stagolee, Patrice, Romaine, Tupac, and all the cubs (here

  and gone)

  and

  young revolutionaries everywhere.

  When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to disolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s god entitled them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.

  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, l
iberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

  —Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, as excerpted in the Black Panther Party’s original Ten Point Program, Black Panther, May 15, 1967

  Contents

  List of Figures

  Introduction

  PART ONE. ORGANIZING RAGE

  1 Huey and Bobby

  2 Policing the Police

  PART TWO. BAPTISM IN BLOOD

  3 The Correct Handling of a Revolution

  4 Free Huey!

  5 Martyrs

  6 National Uprising

  PART THREE. RESILIENCE

  7 Breakfast

  8 Law and Order

  9 41st and Central

  10 Hampton and Clark

  11 Bobby and Ericka

  PART FOUR. REVOLUTION HAS COME!

  12 Black Studies and Third World Liberation

  13 Vanguard of the New Left

  14 International Alliance

  PART FIVE. CONCESSIONS AND UNRAVELING

  15 Rupture

  16 The Limits of Heroism

  Conclusion

  Notes

  Acknowledgments

  Index

  Figures follow pages 160 and 322

  Figures

  1. Original Black Panther logo

  2. Black Power conference flier

  3. First issue of the Black Panther newspaper

  4. Bobby and Huey

  5. Armed Black Panthers at the California Assembly building in Sacramento

  6. Huey on wicker throne

  7. Huey on gurney, October 28, 1967

  8. Huey Newton birthday celebration, February 17, 1968

  9. Lil’ Bobby Hutton

  10. Hutton memorial, May 12, 1968

  11. New York Panthers

  12. Bunchy Carter

  13. John Huggins

  14. Ericka Huggins

  15. Bobby Seale at “Free Huey!” rally, July 14, 1968

  16. Black Panther women in “Lil’ Bobby Hutton Park,” August 25, 1968

  17. Panther allies at “Free Huey!” rally

  18. Kathleen Cleaver

  19. “It’s All the Same,” a graphic by Emory Douglas

  20. Eldridge Cleaver, Sproul Plaza, October 3, 1968

  21. Charles Bursey serving breakfast to children, June 20, 1969

  22. Bill Whitfield serving breakfast to children, April 16, 1969

  23. Breakfast at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church

  24. Black Panther Party Children’s Institute

  25. Black Panthers distributing free clothing, September 28, 1969

  26. Panther Cubs and members of the San Francisco Black Panther Party

  27. Raid at Los Angeles Black Panthers’ offices, December 8, 1969

  28. Rally in support of the Los Angeles Black Panther Party, December 11, 1969

  29. Arrested Black Panthers in Los Angeles, December 11, 1969

  30. Fred Hampton

  31. Death of Hampton

  32. Free Bobby graphic by Emory Douglas

  33. Seattle Panthers at Washington Assembly building, February 29, 1969

  34. Vanetta Molson and Aaron Dixon, Seattle chapter, January 1971

  35. New York rally, April 8, 1969

  36. National Guardsmen raid on the Party office in Lima, Ohio, August 6, 1970

  37. Detroit Party members’ surrender to police, October 25, 1970

  38. Attempted eviction of Black Panthers, New Orleans, November 19, 1970

  39. “Big Man” Howard and Audrea Jones at press conference, September 1970

  40. Black Panther Party members at Community Information Center, Washington, D.C., 1970

  41. Omaha Black Panther Party members, June 27, 1969

  42. Black Panther Party rally in Philadelphia, September 6, 1970

  43. George Murray

  44. Asian American and Latino supporters of Party, 1969

  45. Puerto Rican Young Lords Organization, January 7, 1970

  46. Feminists’ march in support of Black Panthers, New Haven, November 1969

  47. David Hilliard at Yale University, May 1, 1970

  48. Rally for Panthers in Stockholm, September 21, 1969

  49. Eldridge Cleaver with representatives of the North Vietnamese National Liberation Front

  50. Huey Newton in China with Zhao Enlai, September 1971

  Introduction

  The Panthers shut out the pack of zealous reporters and kept the door locked all day, but now the hallway was empty. Huey Newton and two comrades casually walked from the luxury suite down to the lobby and slipped out of the Hong Kong Hilton. Their official escort took them straight across the border, and after a short flight, they exited the plane in Beijing, where they were greeted by cheering throngs.1

  It was late September 1971, and U.S. national security adviser Henry Kissinger had just visited China a couple months earlier. The United States was proposing a visit to China by President Nixon himself and looking toward normalization of diplomatic relations. The Chinese leaders held varied views of these prospects and had not yet revealed whether they would accept a visit from Nixon.

  But the Chinese government had been in frequent communication with the Black Panther Party, had hosted a Panther delegation a year earlier, and had personally invited Huey Newton, the Party’s leader, to visit. With Nixon attempting to arrange a visit, Newton decided to accept the invitation and beat Nixon to China.2

  When Zhou Enlai, the Chinese premier, greeted Newton in Beijing, Newton took Zhou’s right hand between both his own hands. Zhou clasped Newton’s wrist with his left hand, and the two men looked deeply into each other’s eyes. Newton presented a formal petition requesting that China “negotiate with . . . Nixon for the freedom of the oppressed peoples of the world.” Then the two sat down for a private meeting.3 On National Day, the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Premier Zhou honored the Panthers as national guests. Tens of thousands of Chinese gathered in Tiananmen Square, waving red flags and applauding the Panthers. Revolutionary theater groups, folk dancers, acrobats, and the revolutionary ballet performed. Huge red banners declared, “Peoples of the World, Unite to destroy the American aggressors and their lackeys.”4 At the official state dinner, first lady Jiang Qing sat with the Panthers.5 A New York Times editorial encouraged Nixon “to think positively about Communist China and to ignore such potential sources of friction as the honors shown to Black Panther leader Huey Newton.”6

  FORBIDDEN HISTORY

  In Oakland, California, in late 1966, community college students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton took up arms and declared themselves part of a global revolution against American imperialism. Unlike civil rights activists who advocated for full citizenship rights within the United States, their Black Panther Party rejected the legitimacy of the U.S. government. The Panthers saw black communities in the United States as a colony and the police as an occupying army. In a foundational 1967 essay, Newton wrote, “Because black people desire to determine their own destiny, they are constantly inflicted with brutality from the occupying army,
embodied in the police department. There is a great similarity between the occupying army in Southeast Asia and the occupation of our communities by the racist police.”7

  As late as February 1968, the Black Panther Party was still a small local organization. But that year, everything changed. By December, the Party had opened offices in twenty cities, from Los Angeles to New York. In the face of numerous armed conflicts with police and virulent direct repression by the state, young black people embraced the revolutionary vision of the Party, and by 1970, the Party had opened offices in sixty-eight cities from Winston-Salem to Omaha and Seattle.8 The Black Panther Party had become the center of a revolutionary movement in the United States.9

  Readers today may have difficulty imagining a revolution in the United States. But in the late 1960s, many thousands of young black people, despite the potentially fatal outcome of their actions, joined the Black Panther Party and dedicated their lives to revolutionary struggle. Many more approved of their efforts. A joint report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Committee, and National Security Agency expressed grave concern about wide support for the Party among young blacks, noting that “43 per cent of blacks under 21 years of age [have] . . . a great respect for the [Black Panther Party].”10 Students for a Democratic Society, the leading antiwar and draft resistance organization, declared the Black Panther Party the “vanguard in our common struggles against capitalism and imperialism.”11 FBI director J. Edgar Hoover famously declared, “The Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”12

  As the Black Panthers drew young blacks to their revolutionary program, the Party became the strongest link between the domestic Black Liberation Struggle and global opponents of American imperialism. The North Vietnamese—at war with the United States—sent letters home to the families of American prisoners of war (POWs) through the Black Panther Party and discussed releasing POWs in exchange for the release of Panthers from U.S. jails. Cuba offered political asylum to Black Panthers and began developing a military training ground for them. Algeria—then the center of Pan-Africanism and a world hub of anti-imperialism that hosted embassies for most postcolonial governments and independence movements—granted the Panthers national diplomatic status and an embassy building of their own, where the Panthers headquartered their International Section under the leadership of Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver.