revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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contributed to their becoming involved with the RAM organization .
The RAM organization grew during the 1967-68 period . In Philadelphia
in 1967, there were approximately thirty-five RAM members . By 1968, estimates
by ex-Black Guards members figure Black Guards'
membership to be
from 350-500 Black Guards members .
In Cleveland, by 1968, there were 800 to 1,000 members in units of
the Black Nationalist Army . The RAM organization and its affiliates were
estimated to be 200 in Chicago, 200 in Detroit and 100 in New York . At
its highest point of membership, the RAM organization was said to be about
3,000 with 2,000 supporters . The age range of the organization though
varied was primarily young . Twenty of the twenty-five ex-RAM/Black Guards
members interviewed joined the organization when they were between the
ages of 17 and 19 . 21
The black cultural revolution reached the high school level when
seven thousand black student demonstrated at the Philadelphia Board of
Education on November 17, 1967, demanding black history classes, the right
to wear African clothes, and the right to salute the black nation's flag .
Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia's police commissioner, had the demonstration
attacked . Black Guards, unarmed in the demonstration, engaged in hand-tohand
combat with police . By 1968, the movement : had spread to many cities,
with black students organizing massive boycotts and walkouts demanding
black history classes .
The revolutionary black nationalist movement became a mass movement
in 1968 . Thousands of angry Afro-Americans rose in revolt, burning over
2 1 Taped interviews with ex-RAM/Black Guards members .