The Panther and the Bulldog

[Guy Berger]

Not sure if this belongs here or in the politics forum but I thought it was interesting. God, people sure went bonkers for a few years!

article link

On May 20, 1969, in New Haven, three members of the black nationalist organization known as the Black Panthers killed 19-year-old Alex Rackley in the mistaken belief that he was an informer. Two of the killers were arrested and eventually confessed. The FBI took the opportunity to move against the group's leadership. In addition to local Panther leader Ericka Huggins, who was charged with conspiracy, Bobby Seale, the national chairman of the Black Panthers, was charged with ordering the murder. The Panthers called on supporters throughout the nation to come to New Haven -- and Yale -- to protest the trials on May Day 1970.

In a new book, Murder in the Model City (to be released this August) journalist Paul Bass and Yale professor Doug Rae examine the murder, the trials, and the aftermath of one of the most notorious crimes in late-twentieth-century America. The following article about May Day at Yale is adapted from the book. -- The editors

On March 19 national Panther chief of staff David Hilliard set the tone for the coming weeks in a speech to 2,000 students at the University of Connecticut. "Not only will we burn buildings," Hilliard vowed, "we will take lives." He implored the white students to join the effort. "If you want to break windows, if you want to kill a pig, if you want to burn the courthouse, you would be moving against the symbols of oppression..."

[Chuck Nessa]

May 20, 1969 was my 25th birthday.

Do many of you remember the context of this stuff? Pretty hard to understand unless you were there. Much harder to criticize it.

[Jazzmoose]

Remember it? No. But I have studied the period and the Panthers, and I agree. The government declared war on the Panthers; their reaction was understandable in my opinion.

There; that should get it moved to the political forum...

[king ubu]

On a related issue, I saw this film last year, "The Weather Undergound":

http://www.upstatefilms.org/weather/main.html

Here are the respective Wiki articles (including one about the film):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground

For anyone interested, the film is definitely worth seeing. Interesting to note is that bare one of the interviewees, most of these people have by now reached comfortable positions in today's USA, being professors, teachers etc. And their lines of arguing are very reasonable (unless you're a conservative status quo thinking person, that is, of course).

Anyway, for me this was one of the most fascinating political documentaries. Came to mind because the panthers are referred to a few times in the film...