Written by Michael Newton Published by Holloway House, £3.50. Reviewed by Paul Clarke MALCOLM X had a phenomenal effect on the consciousness of Black America, but it was not until after his death that the ideas of Black Power began to take organisational shape.
Ine storan of black Power was coine d by Stokely Carmichael, in the mid-1960s the leader of the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee, working in the racist deep south.
The moves to form an orranisation inspired by the deas of Black Power took shape following the Watts, Los Angeles, riots of August 1966. Watts burned for six days; 35 people were killed and thousands arrested In the ferment of black pollties which followed, a group of Soul Calls to for the California to form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence, which rapidly became torious, black nationalist or Because of their militarism, the Panthers were an easy target. The party was smashed up through state para-military violence, many of its members being murdered ganisation.
Its founders like Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver, started with the idea of black armed self-defence. They mounted armed patrols of the ghettoes, to confront racist attacks by he police. They organised rovocative armed defiance such as marching straight into the California State legislature with automatic weapons.
Once underway, though, the party had to define its strategy. This wavered between militarism, ideological ism', and the kind of populism which led to their immensely politically successful programme to provide breakfast for the schoolkids of the ghettoes.
From the start the Panthers were targeted by the state, and especially the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. Because of their militarism, the Panthers Black Panther candidate Bobby Seale campaigning for Mayor of Oakland were an easy target. The party was smashed up through state para-military violence, many of its members being murdered in so-called 'shootouts with the cops The very un-militant state of the black movement in the US today, with dozens of black politicians co-opted into becoming mayors and getting Party, is part of the legacy of the crushing of the Panthers and the other black nationalist organisations twenty years ago.
This book is a timely reminrights movement, and the era or trans struggle for black