revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California
started an armed patrol monitoring police . The Oakland Panthers wore uniforms
and openly displayed guns . Huey P . Newton, Minister of Defense
challenged police to a shootout on several occasions . The BPP of Northern
California felt it was adventurous to be openly carrying guns .
They felt
it led to premature confrontations with police and unnecessary repression .
But the Oakland Panthers continued to grow .
They began to get public attention
.
In February 1967, armed Panthers marched into the airport and escorted
Mrs . Betty Shabbaz, (Malcolm X's widow) to an awaiting car . But,
what made the Oakland Panthers famous was their march on the state capitol
to protest California's gun laws . In October, 1967, Huey P . Newton was
found shot, along with a dead policeman . Huey Newton was originally
charged with murder . A large "Free Huey" campaign went into effect .
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, was in constant
conflict with the Black Panther Party in San Francisco and Los Angeles .
The conflict escalated when Eldridge Cleaver began to rise in the Oakland
hierarchy . Gun battles almost occurred between the branches . The Oakland
branch began publishing a
paper called the Black Panther with Cleaver as
editor .
During the early months of 1967,
the RAM leadership's analysis was
that because of the vast amounts of poverty, unemployment and police brutality
in the black community, the summer of 1967 was going to be one of
mass rebellions .
RAM decided to give the forthcoming mass rebellions a
political
direction and arm the community for defense against racist attacks
.
It proposed to develop black militias and organize black youth into
a youth army called Black Guards, the forerunner of a Black Liberation
Army .
The Black Guards were to be a defense army and also the political