smash-pacifism-zine

instigated numerous lethal assaults and violent
confrontations with Panthers. Between 1968 to 1970,
some 28 armed confrontations occurred, resulting in 19
Panthers being killed. Many of these attacks were carried
out against Party offices, which became fortified bunkers
(and which were later abandoned; the Philadelphia office
was defended by hundreds of community residents when it
was threatened with police assault). Some, such as a
chapter office in Los Angeles, had trenches dug around its
outside, and an escape tunnel.
On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, the head of
the Chicago chapter and a promising leader, along with
another Panther, Mark Clark, were gunned down in their
sleep during a police raid. The killings,
“sent a disturbing message to Panthers all across
the country: we will kill you in your sleep with impunity.”
(We Want Freedom, p. 189)
“According to a 1970 Harris poll, 66 percent of
African Americans said the activities of the Black Panther
Party gave them pride, and 43 percent said the party
represented their own views.”
(How Nonviolence Protects the State, p. 11)
By 1970, largely as a result of the deadly counterinsurgency
campaign waged against them, the Panthers
were divided, demoralized, and dysfunctional. Many
members left, continuing to work in their communities with
the skills learned while in the Party. Others fled and became
exiles in Cuba or Algeria (where an International Section of
the Panthers was established). Still others went
underground, in part for their own safety but also to begin
urban guerrilla units of the Black Liberation Army (BLA).
While there are many valid critiques of the Black
Panther Party, there is no doubt that the Panthers had a
strong appeal to poor Black youth —far more than King
and the SCLC had. And not as reformists seeking equal
rights as citizens, but as an explicitly revolutionary party.
Analysis of King and the
Civil Rights Movement
Fred Hampton, a Chicago Black Panther
killed by police December 4, 1969.
Four days later, during a raid by Los Angeles
police, the first time a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics)
unit was deployed, the Panthers engaged police in a sixhour
long gun battle. Geronimo Pratt, an ex- Vietnam war
veteran and Panther, was credited with organizing the
defence of the office (and would later be targeted by the
FBI, framed, and imprisoned for several decades).
During this time, the Panthers were thoroughly
demonized by the media, police, government officials, and
reformist Black organizations. Despite this massive
campaign to discredit the Panthers, and their use of armed
resistance, a 1970 public opinion poll found that 25 percent
of Blacks had “great respect” for the Panthers, including 43
percent of Blacks under 21 years of age.
Another poll that same year showed a similar high
level of support:
“Asked whether the Panthers gave Black persons
an individual sense of pride by standing up for the rights of
Blacks, 66 percent agreed. When asked, 'Even if you
disagree with the views of the Panthers, has the violence
against them led you to believe that Black people must
stand together to protect themselves' a whopping 86
percent of black respondents were in agreement.”
(We Want Freedom, pp. 152-53)
Pacifism and the Church
“The SCLC is not an organization, it's a church.”
(Charles Morgan, a white lawyer on the SCLC
board, To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 1)
The organizational centre of the Black civil rights
movement in the US South were the churches, and most of
the main leaders were preachers. In this context, their
religious and middle-class backgrounds formed the
methods, strategies and objectives of the movement, over
which they exerted tremendous influence as community
“leaders” and through their control of resources.
Role of the Church
Many Blacks in the South, whether working class
or middle-class, relied to a large extent on whites for
housing, transportation, and employment. There were little
public spaces or resources that could be mobilized that
were not controlled by whites.
“On the other hand, churches were owned and
controlled by blacks themselves... With a high degree of
economic independence, preachers enjoyed a freedom of
speech and action denied to the majority of blacks...
“As an organizational tool it was second to none.
In a city with neither a black radio station nor a widely read
59