black power

Negroes with guns - Robert F. Williams

Submitted by wojtek on May 22 2013 23:50

First published in 1962, Negroes with Guns is the story of a southern black community's struggle to arm itself in self-defense against the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups.

Frustrated and angered by violence condoned or abetted by the local authorities against blacks, the small community of Monroe, North Carolina, brought the issue of armed self-defense to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Under the leadership of Robert F. Williams (1925-1996), Monroe became the test case of the right of blacks to armed self-defense when law and order broke down.

“Ironies of the saint” Malcolm X, black women, and the price of protection - Farah Griffin

Submitted by wojtek on Apr 16 2013 17:20

Farah Griffin's black feminist critique of Malcolm X and the "promise of protection".

As seen in Chapter Twelve of Sisters in the Struggle: African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement by Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin, pages 214-229.

Assata: An autobiography - Assata Shakur

PDF e-book of the autobiography of black revolutionary, Assata Shakur. We do not agree with all of her politics but reproduce this text for reference.

Assata Shakur has been living in Cuba since 1986, after escaping from prison where she was serving a life sentence imposed in a highly disputed trial. Assata was a Black Panther then a Black Liberation Army (BLA) leader in the early '70s, so she was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation.

Why I joined the Party: An Africana womanist reflection

Submitted by wojtek on Jan 9 2013 01:42

Regina Jennings' personal account on why she joined the Black Panther Party, her personal development and the sexism that she faced within the organisation.

TRIGGER WARNING: sexual harassment

As seen in Chapter Eleven of Charles E. Jones' book The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, pages 257 - 265.

The Black Panther: newspaper of the Black Panther Party

Submitted by working class s... on Dec 29 2012 12:48

Twenty issues of the Black Panther Party newspaper from between 1968-1973. We have significant disagreements with the politics and practice of the BPP (some of which are explored here) and so reproduce these only for historical reference.

Back from hell: Black power and treason to whiteness inside prison walls

A personal account by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin of a cross-race alliance of prisoners against conditions at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana in the early 1970s.

The federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana had the reputation of being the most racist and brutal prison in the federal prison system. The city of Terre Haute itself had been known in the 1920s as one of the strongest base areas for the Ku Klux Klan in the Midwest. As I was to discover later, many prison guards were Klan members or sympathizers.

Black militancy: notes from the underground

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Oct 8 2012 08:35

A brief history by Rashad Shabazz of the Black Liberation Army, a Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group with roots in the Black Panther Party.

If one were to examine, closely, the hegemonic discourses of black American history, one would be surprised to find a long history of militant armed struggle. Slave rebellions, urban "guerilla" insurgencies, rural defense leagues, are all part of a tapestry of black militant rebellion to subjugation.

The Panthers, the Black Liberation Army and the struggle to free all political prisoners and prisoners of war

A transcript of a talk given by Ashanti Alsto at the Law and Disorder conference, held in Portland, Oregon from April 14 – 16, 2010.

I want to get started off in a way that helps me get rid of the butterflies, and helps get us stirred as well. You know we always say, “Power to the People.” And usually the response back is, “All Power to the People.” If you don’t mind indulging me: “Power to the People!” (audience response) “All Power to the People!”

Black power - reading guide

Women at Free Huey Rally, Oakland, 1968.

Libcom.org's reading guide on the American black power movement of the 1960s-70s and its key groups as well as some readings on the civil rights movement.

General recommended reading

Black particularity reconsidered - Adolph L. Reed Jr. - In-depth analysis of how the management of black dissent by the black American middle-class/professional elite helped restructure capitalism to its own advantage.

Finally got the news

Documentary about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, a radical black workers' group based in the car factories of Detroit. Through interviews with members, supporters and opponents as well as footage of leafleting and picket lines, the film documents their attempts to build a radical black workers' organisation to take on both management and the union and fight to improve conditions for all workers, black and white.