WEBVTT 00:03.667 --> 00:13.467 ♪ [Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud - James brown] ♪ 00:47.767 --> 00:48.797 I think maybe I just wanted to be a DJ in another life. 00:48.800 --> 00:50.470 I just like playing clips. 00:50.467 --> 00:54.297 The--So this is an excerpt from James Brown's "Say It 00:54.300 --> 00:56.000 Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." 00:56.000 --> 00:57.900 It's released in 1968. 00:57.900 --> 01:00.670 You know, we aren't quite there chronologically yet. 01:00.667 --> 01:02.567 I'll be coming, coming up to it in the course of the 01:02.567 --> 01:04.097 lecture though. 01:04.100 --> 01:06.100 And it becomes an immediate hit, 01:06.100 --> 01:08.000 a popular hit, and a political hit. 01:08.000 --> 01:12.900 It's played at rallies to rev up the crowd and call 01:12.900 --> 01:14.570 and response, certainly. 01:14.567 --> 01:17.397 Brown actually distances himself from the song after 01:17.400 --> 01:19.200 a handful of years, saying, 01:19.200 --> 01:21.470 "Look, we needed it at that moment. 01:21.467 --> 01:23.297 We needed it to develop pride in the black community 01:23.300 --> 01:25.900 to understand who we were as a people, 01:25.900 --> 01:27.800 but, you know, things are more complicated now." 01:27.800 --> 01:29.300 This is something he's saying in the 1970s, 01:29.300 --> 01:32.500 as his politics start going off in, 01:32.500 --> 01:35.870 in a variety of different directions. 01:35.867 --> 01:39.497 But we are at this moment, for the purpose of today's 01:39.500 --> 01:43.170 lecture, essentially '66 through the end of the 01:43.167 --> 01:45.067 six--through the end of the decade. 01:45.067 --> 01:49.567 We're at this moment of profound fascination with 01:49.567 --> 01:51.497 blackness in a different, in a different kind of way. 01:51.500 --> 01:53.800 It's being articulated in different ways than it was 01:53.800 --> 01:59.500 at the moment of SCLC's being established or SNCC's 01:59.500 --> 02:00.500 establishment. 02:00.500 --> 02:03.370 We're at a moment of incred--sort of in the wake 02:03.367 --> 02:05.597 of incredible successes with the Civil Rights Act and the 02:05.600 --> 02:09.000 Voting Rights Act, a moment of incredible ambiguity: 02:09.000 --> 02:10.370 what are we going to be doing next?; 02:10.367 --> 02:12.597 what's the next step in the journey?; 02:12.600 --> 02:14.300 and a moment of profound rupture. 02:14.300 --> 02:16.600 I already talked a little bit about this last week 02:16.600 --> 02:21.300 with--calling attention to a tone shift and a strategic 02:21.300 --> 02:22.970 shift as far as black freedom movements are 02:22.967 --> 02:26.597 concerned in the late--mid to late 1960s, 02:26.600 --> 02:27.900 and we'll deal with it a little 02:27.900 --> 02:30.300 more explicitly today. 02:30.300 --> 02:33.970 One more clip, this one a 02:33.967 --> 02:44.197 video clip, as a way to get another, well as a way to 02:44.200 --> 02:47.800 get more traction on what's happening in this 02:47.800 --> 02:51.700 particular moment. 02:54.600 --> 02:56.900 It's a very short one. 02:56.900 --> 02:59.900 Eldridge Cleaver, who had gained fame from his 02:59.900 --> 03:03.100 writings in prison was the chief spokesman for the party. 03:03.100 --> 03:06.400 We feel that the police must be brought under control by 03:06.400 --> 03:08.370 any means necessary, including through force of 03:08.367 --> 03:11.667 arms, and we have never bit our tongue about that. 03:11.667 --> 03:13.067 We say it now, loud and clear, 03:13.067 --> 03:15.497 we will always say it and we're not afraid to say it, 03:15.500 --> 03:19.200 that the racist Gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our 03:19.200 --> 03:21.200 community, or we're going to take up guns, 03:21.200 --> 03:24.870 we're going to drive them out. 03:24.867 --> 03:27.767 I think he made his point rather clear. 03:27.767 --> 03:31.097 This is a period of also incredible 03:31.100 --> 03:33.300 rhetorical hyperbole. 03:33.300 --> 03:35.700 I mean, I'm not saying that he didn't mean these things 03:35.700 --> 03:38.100 certainly, but, but the, the scope of what's actually 03:38.100 --> 03:41.100 going to happen, the violence and the rhetoric, 03:41.100 --> 03:43.700 is palpable and we are certainly past that moment 03:43.700 --> 03:47.300 of the beloved community, with Martin Luther King and 03:47.300 --> 03:50.300 his dream in 1963. 03:50.300 --> 03:52.900 And we'll talk, depending on how far I get in today's 03:52.900 --> 03:55.100 lecture, might start talking about King's final years 03:55.100 --> 03:59.000 today, or we'll certainly pick it up on Wednesday. 03:59.000 --> 04:01.400 But you'll see the unraveling of this beloved 04:01.400 --> 04:05.400 community, especially when we start talking about King. 04:05.400 --> 04:07.770 Now you saw a clip there about Eldridge Cleaver, 04:07.767 --> 04:10.197 Minister--Minister of Information for the Black 04:10.200 --> 04:11.200 Panther Party. 04:11.200 --> 04:13.900 Let's back up a few steps, overlapping where we were 04:13.900 --> 04:15.700 last Wednesday, make sure we're all on the same page 04:15.700 --> 04:17.600 about the Black Panther Party's establishment in 04:17.600 --> 04:20.770 this moment of the Black--the Black Power 04:20.767 --> 04:22.967 moment in general. 04:22.967 --> 04:24.797 You remember that I talked about the 04:24.800 --> 04:27.900 Lowndes County Freedom Organization in, in Alabama, 04:27.900 --> 04:29.900 the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, 04:29.900 --> 04:33.300 the first group to embrace the black panther as a 04:33.300 --> 04:35.600 symbol. 04:35.600 --> 04:38.570 Stokely Carmichael, a veteran of Mississippi 04:38.567 --> 04:41.897 Freedom Summers and freedom schools, 04:41.900 --> 04:44.100 just out of college essentially, 04:44.100 --> 04:47.400 SNCC activists--activist, goes down to Lowndes County 04:47.400 --> 04:50.270 where he discovers these farmers and helps them 04:50.267 --> 04:51.867 organize into the LCFO. 04:51.867 --> 04:55.667 Becomes a radicalizing moment for Carmichael, 04:55.667 --> 04:58.997 one that is on sort of a steady pace for him, 04:59.000 --> 05:01.600 one radicalizing moment after another, 05:01.600 --> 05:05.500 that eventually leads to his exile from the United States 05:05.500 --> 05:08.900 in just a handful of years. 05:08.900 --> 05:13.300 So we're in 1966. 05:13.300 --> 05:17.400 James Meredith, young man, a civil rights activist who 05:17.400 --> 05:20.200 had integrated Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi, 05:20.200 --> 05:22.870 the bastion of state privilege in that particular 05:22.867 --> 05:23.867 state. 05:23.867 --> 05:25.197 If you wanted to become a leader in Mississippi, 05:25.200 --> 05:27.300 you went to Ole Miss, and this was a place that was 05:27.300 --> 05:29.000 unavailable to African Americans, 05:29.000 --> 05:32.070 and James Meredith wanted to change that. 05:32.067 --> 05:33.797 He integrates Ole Miss a few years earlier, 05:33.800 --> 05:37.570 and in the process, residents of the area riot 05:37.567 --> 05:40.397 and actually kill federal marshals who are there to, 05:40.400 --> 05:43.970 you know, ensure the place gets integrated. 05:43.967 --> 05:46.097 James Meredith is an iconoclastic character if 05:46.100 --> 05:48.300 ever there was one, and actually comes out very much 05:48.300 --> 05:50.570 against civil rights later on in his life, 05:50.567 --> 05:52.467 saying it was demeaning that we, 05:52.467 --> 05:56.597 that African Americans had to still cling to these 05:56.600 --> 06:00.900 notions of civil rights heritage and battles. 06:00.900 --> 06:03.800 James Meredith decides that he wants to call attention 06:03.800 --> 06:07.800 to the changes in Mississippi that have been 06:07.800 --> 06:12.200 very real, certainly, and he decides he's going to march 06:12.200 --> 06:14.800 across Mississippi in June of '66, 06:14.800 --> 06:16.400 a March Against Fear. 06:16.400 --> 06:17.900 "No one's going to tell me what to do. 06:17.900 --> 06:21.270 No one's in control of my life." 06:21.267 --> 06:23.267 He's marching by himself. 06:27.200 --> 06:30.600 Civil rights leaders, people on the ground, 06:30.600 --> 06:33.170 friends of the movement, are el--all telling Meredith, 06:33.167 --> 06:34.267 "This is crazy. 06:34.267 --> 06:36.197 You cannot do this. 06:36.200 --> 06:37.700 Okay, you've done a lot of great things for the 06:37.700 --> 06:40.300 movement, but the idea of actually trying to march 06:40.300 --> 06:42.400 across Mississippi by yourself without, 06:42.400 --> 06:44.100 without protection is a suicide mission." 06:44.100 --> 06:47.870 It turns out they're almost right. 06:47.867 --> 06:50.897 Meredith starts off on his march and before you know 06:50.900 --> 06:52.970 it, he's laid flat by shots, someone driving by with a 06:52.967 --> 06:54.967 shotgun. 06:57.467 --> 06:58.467 He's hospitalized. 06:58.467 --> 06:59.997 He survives, of course, he's--but, 07:00.000 --> 07:02.070 but it's not clear at that moment what's actually going 07:02.067 --> 07:03.097 to happen. 07:03.100 --> 07:04.970 Leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating 07:04.967 --> 07:09.897 Committee, SCLC, CORE decide, 07:09.900 --> 07:12.170 "Well we're not going to let--Now we're not going to 07:12.167 --> 07:13.767 let this march fail." 07:13.767 --> 07:15.997 So they set out to complete Meredith's march against 07:16.000 --> 07:20.270 fear, so they're going to march across the state. 07:20.267 --> 07:23.267 At a stop in Greenwood, Mississippi, 07:23.267 --> 07:25.467 Stokely Carmichael, now the leader of SNCC, 07:25.467 --> 07:31.697 been thrown in jail for I think the eighth time, 07:31.700 --> 07:33.800 I believe. 07:33.800 --> 07:36.170 They'd done the jail, no bail strategies. 07:36.167 --> 07:37.597 The march is still going on. 07:37.600 --> 07:39.470 Stokely Carmichael gets out of jail and tells an 07:39.467 --> 07:43.797 assembly out on the lawns, "The only way"--excuse me. 07:43.800 --> 07:45.900 "The only way we're going to stop them white men from 07:45.900 --> 07:51.900 whipping us is to take over. 07:55.600 --> 08:01.600 We've been saying 'Freedom' for six years, 08:01.600 --> 08:02.600 and we ain't got nothing. 08:02.600 --> 08:05.600 What we're going to start saying now is 'Black 08:05.600 --> 08:07.600 Power.'" And it's call and response. 08:07.600 --> 08:08.600 You know, "What do you want?" 08:08.600 --> 08:09.600 "Black Power!" 08:09.600 --> 08:10.600 "What do you want?" 08:10.600 --> 08:11.600 "Black Power!" 08:11.600 --> 08:12.600 starts going through the audience. 08:12.600 --> 08:15.170 Now Carmichael wasn't the first to start calling for 08:15.167 --> 08:16.797 Black Power, using that phrase, 08:16.800 --> 08:20.200 but he popularizes it, and so it becomes attached him. 08:20.200 --> 08:23.770 People had been ruminating over that phrase and sort of 08:23.767 --> 08:27.367 throwing it around for months at that point, 08:27.367 --> 08:29.967 but this is one of these sort of lightning flash 08:29.967 --> 08:33.497 moments, where it captures the national attention and 08:33.500 --> 08:36.500 also scares the nation. 08:38.567 --> 08:41.197 King heartily disapproves. 08:41.200 --> 08:43.200 It's like, this kind of, you know, 08:43.200 --> 08:47.400 calling for this kind of militancy is misplaced. 08:47.400 --> 08:50.700 The country is at sea, and we're going to alienate all 08:50.700 --> 08:52.970 those people who might be fellow travelers in this 08:52.967 --> 08:56.397 journey with us, by this kind of--with this kind of 08:56.400 --> 08:57.400 anger. 08:57.400 --> 08:58.400 I mean sure, we can be angry, 08:58.400 --> 09:00.400 but this is not the path. 09:02.167 --> 09:04.367 So you take together the Lowndes County Freedom 09:04.367 --> 09:08.597 Organization and its rising profile, 09:08.600 --> 09:10.800 Stokely Carmichael being on the ground there, 09:10.800 --> 09:13.270 Stokely Carmichael and others taking up the March 09:13.267 --> 09:16.897 Against Fear after James Meredith has been shot. 09:16.900 --> 09:18.470 Carmichael essentially snapping, 09:18.467 --> 09:20.197 saying, "The hell with this! 09:20.200 --> 09:24.000 You know, trying to do things through the system is 09:24.000 --> 09:28.270 only getting people shot without retribution. 09:28.267 --> 09:29.267 We need Black Power. 09:29.267 --> 09:31.397 We need to stand up on our own." 09:31.400 --> 09:35.170 You remember whites had been now thrown out of SNCC. 09:35.167 --> 09:37.167 They no longer have a place in the movement. 09:40.467 --> 09:43.367 In October of that same year, 09:43.367 --> 09:46.967 two college students at Merritt College in Oakland, 09:46.967 --> 09:50.797 California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, 09:50.800 --> 09:54.770 formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. 09:54.767 --> 09:56.467 The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. 09:56.467 --> 09:59.597 They'd been hearing about the LCFO, 09:59.600 --> 10:01.000 thought it was a fantastic idea. 10:01.000 --> 10:02.600 They'd been seeing this radicalizing moment 10:02.600 --> 10:04.470 happening in SNCC, and they say, 10:04.467 --> 10:06.897 you know, "It's time for us to take our stand on our own 10:06.900 --> 10:08.900 terms. 10:10.100 --> 10:12.970 We need to embrace Black Power as well." 10:12.967 --> 10:15.997 Huey Newton declares himself the Minister of Defense of 10:16.000 --> 10:18.100 the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, 10:18.100 --> 10:19.400 and Bobby Seale is its chairman. 10:19.400 --> 10:25.400 And I just realized, [laughs] I left what I was 10:30.167 --> 10:34.467 going to read at home. 10:34.467 --> 10:35.897 Anyway, it's a good thing it's in your reader. 10:35.900 --> 10:38.700 The, the, at the moment of their founding, 10:38.700 --> 10:40.300 the issue of the Black Panther Party platform, 10:40.300 --> 10:45.200 it's a couple of pages long in your reader. 10:48.267 --> 10:49.597 I can't read the points I was going to read, 10:49.600 --> 10:51.470 but the fact is essentially this. 10:51.467 --> 10:53.597 I want you to look at that particular document, 10:53.600 --> 10:55.400 and look at the kind of things that the platform is 10:55.400 --> 10:56.400 calling for. 10:56.400 --> 11:02.200 It's calling for the kinds of fundamentals, 11:02.200 --> 11:04.800 for lack of a better phrase, that I've been calling your 11:04.800 --> 11:07.000 attention to from other freedom organizations since 11:07.000 --> 11:09.870 the Niagara Movement in 1905. 11:09.867 --> 11:10.997 Now it's calling for more than that, 11:11.000 --> 11:14.100 of course, but it's still calling for fundamentals. 11:14.100 --> 11:16.900 This is the state of the conversation. 11:16.900 --> 11:19.370 It seems to not have changed in some ways. 11:19.367 --> 11:21.297 Now it has changed in the sense that the Black Panther 11:21.300 --> 11:25.300 Party is, through, through the, 11:25.300 --> 11:27.070 the platform, and then what you're going to see later in 11:27.067 --> 11:28.867 the Executive Mandate Number One, 11:28.867 --> 11:30.867 talking about in a few moments here, 11:32.800 --> 11:36.870 is connecting African American freedom struggles 11:36.867 --> 11:38.367 to what's happening on a global scale. 11:38.367 --> 11:42.697 It's clearly Marxist in its ideology, 11:42.700 --> 11:45.200 in its political--its, its understanding of political 11:45.200 --> 11:47.170 economy. 11:47.167 --> 11:50.597 It's viewing its struggle in the light of what it 11:50.600 --> 11:54.370 considers United States imperialism in places like 11:54.367 --> 11:55.367 Vietnam. 11:55.367 --> 11:58.697 It's being motivated by the kinds of militancy that you 11:58.700 --> 12:03.300 see black soldiers coming home from yet another war, 12:03.300 --> 12:05.400 still being denied their citizenship, 12:05.400 --> 12:08.600 but now the ground has shifted enough that they can 12:08.600 --> 12:10.700 articulate themselves in a different way that, 12:10.700 --> 12:14.670 that is calling for armed self-defense. 12:14.667 --> 12:16.797 It's not about, you know, trying to get in the front 12:16.800 --> 12:19.900 door of a bus or the front door of a restaurant. 12:19.900 --> 12:21.600 It's about something much larger than that, 12:21.600 --> 12:23.600 about being a global citizen. 12:25.167 --> 12:32.197 Well, as the Panther Party is organizing itself and 12:32.200 --> 12:34.400 delineating in the, in the program, 12:34.400 --> 12:37.100 in the platform the ways it shall be organized--no 12:37.100 --> 12:38.570 you're not going to drink, you're not going to do 12:38.567 --> 12:39.797 drugs, you're going to, you know, 12:39.800 --> 12:41.900 be respectful in all different manners of life, 12:41.900 --> 12:43.670 and whether they succeeded in that or not is a whole 12:43.667 --> 12:46.897 other kind of conversation. 12:46.900 --> 12:53.300 The Panthers start looking for a way to grow, 12:53.300 --> 12:55.800 and they hear about this guy named Eldridge Cleaver. 12:55.800 --> 13:01.770 Eldridge Cleaver, thrown in jail--I'm sorry. 13:01.767 --> 13:08.397 My notes seem to be all over the place today. 13:08.400 --> 13:14.400 It's fascinating--thrown in jail and then writes this 13:16.500 --> 13:17.900 book Soul on Ice, and becomes, 13:17.900 --> 13:19.770 you know, is incredible--incredibly 13:19.767 --> 13:22.397 charismatic and quite brilliant as well. 13:22.400 --> 13:25.100 The Panthers realize they can actually tap into 13:25.100 --> 13:28.100 Eldridge Cleaver and his charisma, 13:28.100 --> 13:29.900 and they use him as the Minister of Information. 13:29.900 --> 13:33.570 That's how you saw him speaking to the public in 13:33.567 --> 13:36.597 his position as the Minister of Information, 13:39.600 --> 13:42.370 trying to spread the narrative of what the 13:42.367 --> 13:44.367 Panthers were all about. 13:45.367 --> 13:50.097 Now the popular notion of the Panthers is highly 13:50.100 --> 13:54.400 masculine, these young men representing the, 13:54.400 --> 13:55.500 you know, manhood of the race, 13:55.500 --> 13:56.500 they're very virile. 13:56.500 --> 13:59.600 They've got their black leather jackets, 13:59.600 --> 14:03.500 they've got the berets, their turtlenecks, 14:03.500 --> 14:04.500 very fashionable. 14:04.500 --> 14:07.500 There are some women in the Panthers as well, 14:07.500 --> 14:09.770 but, you know, where they fit into the movement at the 14:09.767 --> 14:11.767 early stage is really a little bit unclear. 14:16.200 --> 14:17.300 Panthers are armed. 14:17.300 --> 14:21.200 They're going to take back the streets under their own 14:21.200 --> 14:24.400 terms and take control away from the "racist pigs" as 14:24.400 --> 14:26.400 they refer to the cops. 14:29.200 --> 14:32.700 The Panthers would do--the bases they were in Oak--in 14:32.700 --> 14:36.000 Oakland at their founding--decided to take 14:36.000 --> 14:40.800 control of that community first, 14:40.800 --> 14:43.800 and very contro--controversially, 14:43.800 --> 14:46.270 one of the tactics they decided to pursue is 14:46.267 --> 14:48.697 monitoring the police. 14:48.700 --> 14:50.600 Just as you see people in Los Angeles in, 14:50.600 --> 14:53.770 at the flashpoint of the L.A.--the Watts riots, 14:53.767 --> 14:58.097 excuse me, people frustrated by the years of police 14:58.100 --> 15:00.600 brutality, unmarked, unchecked police brutality; 15:00.600 --> 15:03.300 Oakland residents felt the same way. 15:03.300 --> 15:05.500 And so the Panthers start to patrol the police, 15:05.500 --> 15:08.870 it's the famous Panther Patrols. 15:08.867 --> 15:12.997 They studied the California laws to the letter, 15:13.000 --> 15:17.100 and they knew that they had a right to carry guns, 15:17.100 --> 15:23.000 and they knew that they had a right to watch the police. 15:23.000 --> 15:26.300 And they knew that if the police arrested somebody, 15:26.300 --> 15:28.900 they could stand witness, as long as they kept say twenty 15:28.900 --> 15:31.600 or thirty feet, I don't know the distance. 15:31.600 --> 15:33.170 As long as they kept distance--the proper 15:33.167 --> 15:34.597 distance from the police, they could observe 15:34.600 --> 15:36.800 everything that's happening. 15:36.800 --> 15:38.600 Now as you can imagine, if you're a police officer, 15:38.600 --> 15:41.200 whether you are a racist pig of an officer or not, 15:41.200 --> 15:47.000 you're not going to be too thrilled about angry men 15:47.000 --> 15:49.370 with guns following you around when you arrest 15:49.367 --> 15:51.767 somebody, whether they deserve to be arrested or 15:51.767 --> 15:52.767 not. 15:52.767 --> 15:53.897 You're not going to be too happy about that, 15:53.900 --> 15:54.970 because the guns are loaded. 15:54.967 --> 15:57.997 It creates incredible friction, 16:00.167 --> 16:02.597 and creates a crisis at the state capital. 16:02.600 --> 16:09.500 The Panthers--the state legislature, 16:09.500 --> 16:11.600 very unhappy about these Panther Patrols, 16:15.100 --> 16:20.600 entertains a bill that makes it illegal to carry weapons 16:20.600 --> 16:22.600 in urban districts. 16:23.800 --> 16:26.100 Well, the Panthers were exclusively urban. 16:26.100 --> 16:28.300 Now it didn't mention race, didn't mention the Panthers, 16:28.300 --> 16:29.770 but it clearly was targeting the Panthers, 16:29.767 --> 16:32.867 trying to kill these Panther Patrols. 16:32.867 --> 16:37.597 So the Panthers decide to go up to Sacramento, 16:37.600 --> 16:41.000 the state capital, and challenge the bill, 16:43.400 --> 16:45.400 and while they're there, something of a circus 16:47.800 --> 16:48.800 happens. 16:48.800 --> 16:51.170 I want to play to you--for you a clip of that circus. 16:51.167 --> 16:53.097 The boldness of the Panther actions attracted young 16:53.100 --> 16:54.370 blacks, many in their teens. 16:54.367 --> 16:56.297 Carrying loaded firearms in public was a well-protected 16:56.300 --> 16:57.300 legal right in California. 16:57.300 --> 16:59.300 But with the emergence of the Black Panthers, 16:59.300 --> 17:00.800 state officials introduced legislation to outlaw 17:00.800 --> 17:02.270 carrying loaded firearms within city limits. 17:02.267 --> 17:04.197 May 1967, in protest the Panthers traveled to 17:04.200 --> 17:05.200 Sacramento, the state capital. 17:05.200 --> 17:07.470 We arrived there, all these black men and women, 17:07.467 --> 17:08.697 twenty-four males and six females, 17:08.700 --> 17:10.670 with guns and Ronald Reagan, then the governor, 17:10.667 --> 17:13.097 was on the lawn with two hundred future leaders of 17:13.100 --> 17:15.100 America, you know, twelve and thirteen and fourteen 17:15.100 --> 17:16.100 year old kids. 17:16.100 --> 17:18.070 And these kids started leaving this session on the 17:18.067 --> 17:19.567 lawn and coming to see us. 17:19.567 --> 17:22.267 And these young white kids thought we were a gun club. 17:22.267 --> 17:23.697 Knowing the media would be there, 17:23.700 --> 17:26.200 the group of men and women then entered the capitol 17:26.200 --> 17:27.200 building. 17:27.200 --> 17:28.200 They're heavily armed, whether their weapons are 17:28.200 --> 17:29.900 loaded or not, nobody seems to know. 17:29.900 --> 17:30.900 Wait a minute. 17:30.900 --> 17:31.900 Am I under arrest? 17:31.900 --> 17:32.900 Am I under arrest? 17:32.900 --> 17:33.900 Am I under arrest? 17:33.900 --> 17:34.900 Am I? 17:34.900 --> 17:36.600 Get your hands off me if I'm not under arrest. 17:36.600 --> 17:38.070 If I'm under arrest, I'll come. 17:38.067 --> 17:40.297 if I'm not don't put your hands on me. 17:40.300 --> 17:42.270 Is this the way the racist government works? 17:42.267 --> 17:44.197 Don't let a man exercise his constitutional rights? 17:44.200 --> 17:46.700 I'd like to make a statement now with this respect. 17:46.700 --> 17:48.400 Statement of the Black Panther Party for 17:48.400 --> 17:49.400 Self-Defense. 17:49.400 --> 17:50.670 On the Mulford Act now pending before the 17:50.667 --> 17:52.397 California legislature, the Black Panther Party for 17:52.400 --> 17:54.370 Self-Defense calls upon the American people in general 17:54.367 --> 17:55.797 and the black people in particular, 17:55.800 --> 17:57.800 to take full note of the racist California 17:57.800 --> 17:59.300 legislature which is now considering legislation 17:59.300 --> 18:01.270 aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and 18:01.267 --> 18:03.497 powerless at the very same time that racist police 18:03.500 --> 18:05.200 agencies throughout the country are intensifying the 18:05.200 --> 18:06.970 terror, brutality, murder and repression of black 18:06.967 --> 18:07.967 people. 18:07.967 --> 18:09.667 A nation that had grown used to the nonviolent civil 18:09.667 --> 18:11.597 rights movement was now confronted with new images 18:11.600 --> 18:12.600 of black protest. 18:12.600 --> 18:13.870 Later, at a Sacramento service station, 18:13.867 --> 18:15.797 news cameras documented the continuing debate over law 18:15.800 --> 18:16.800 and gun. 18:16.800 --> 18:18.300 Ain't no sawed off, that's a riot shotgun, 18:18.300 --> 18:19.900 just like yours. 18:19.900 --> 18:24.800 Do you all know the constitutional rights? 18:24.800 --> 18:27.400 Sure we do. 18:27.400 --> 18:35.370 We're well aware of the constitutional right -- You 18:35.367 --> 18:41.367 have no right to take my gun away from me. 18:44.167 --> 18:48.597 You breaking the constitutional rights. 18:48.600 --> 18:56.500 The pamphlet says that the Black Panther Party for 18:56.500 --> 19:03.570 Self-Defense calls on the American people in general 19:03.567 --> 19:10.597 to take careful note of the racist California 19:10.600 --> 19:11.600 legislature. 19:11.600 --> 19:18.570 Why do you believe the legislature is racist? 19:18.567 --> 19:21.197 Don't you know? 19:21.200 --> 19:27.200 You're a part of it and obviously this is a white 19:30.900 --> 19:31.900 system. 19:31.900 --> 19:37.070 This is obviously where we at. 19:37.067 --> 19:44.097 Do you believe everything that's in that pamphlet? 19:44.100 --> 19:49.400 The pamphlet speaks for itself. 19:49.400 --> 19:53.070 As you see, people didn't know what to make of these 19:53.067 --> 19:55.067 young men and young women. 19:57.800 --> 20:03.000 The Panthers go national immediately following this 20:03.000 --> 20:05.000 run-in at the state capitol. 20:07.067 --> 20:11.397 People are attracted to the charisma of its 20:11.400 --> 20:13.800 representatives, its members. 20:13.800 --> 20:15.770 They're attracted to the cleverness in the way 20:15.767 --> 20:18.597 they're handling, you know, the police and authorities 20:18.600 --> 20:20.700 that don't know what to make of these folks. 20:20.700 --> 20:25.400 But they're also responding to the agenda of the Black 20:25.400 --> 20:28.200 Panthers, and certainly in, in no small measure, 20:28.200 --> 20:29.400 internationalism. 20:29.400 --> 20:31.400 I want to read to you an excerpt--and you heard part 20:31.400 --> 20:33.670 of the Executive Mandate Number One being read. 20:33.667 --> 20:36.467 This is what they came up to Sacramento to, 20:36.467 --> 20:37.897 to announce. 20:37.900 --> 20:41.670 I want to read to you a, a longer excerpt. 20:41.667 --> 20:43.797 "At the same time that the American Government is 20:43.800 --> 20:46.600 waging a racist war of genocide in Vietnam, 20:46.600 --> 20:49.170 the concencra--concentration camps in which Japanese 20:49.167 --> 20:51.597 Americans were interned during World War II are 20:51.600 --> 20:53.870 being renovated and expanded. 20:53.867 --> 20:56.197 Since America has historically reserved its 20:56.200 --> 20:58.800 most barbaric treatment for non-white people, 20:58.800 --> 21:01.300 we are forced to conclude that these concentration 21:01.300 --> 21:03.600 clamps--camps are being prepared for black people 21:03.600 --> 21:05.700 who are determined to gain their freedom by any means 21:05.700 --> 21:06.700 necessary. 21:06.700 --> 21:08.800 The enslavement of black people from the very 21:08.800 --> 21:11.200 beginning of this country, the genocide practiced on 21:11.200 --> 21:13.500 the American Indians and the confining of the survivors 21:13.500 --> 21:16.100 on reservations, the savage lynching of thousands of 21:16.100 --> 21:18.700 black men and women, the dropping of atomic bombs on 21:18.700 --> 21:21.470 Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and now the cowardly massacre in 21:21.467 --> 21:24.867 Vietnam, all testify to the fact that toward people of 21:24.867 --> 21:27.097 color the racist power structure of America has one 21:27.100 --> 21:29.600 policy: repression, genocide, 21:29.600 --> 21:32.000 terror, and the big stick. 21:32.000 --> 21:33.400 Black people have begged, prayed, 21:33.400 --> 21:35.700 petitioned, demonstrated, and everything else, 21:35.700 --> 21:37.900 to get the racist black power structure of America 21:37.900 --> 21:40.070 to right the wrongs which have historically been 21:40.067 --> 21:42.867 perpetuated against black people. 21:42.867 --> 21:44.967 All of these efforts have been answered by more 21:44.967 --> 21:47.167 repression, deceit, and hypocrisy. 21:47.167 --> 21:49.197 As the aggression of the racist American government 21:49.200 --> 21:51.900 escalates in Vietnam, the police agencies of America 21:51.900 --> 21:53.870 escalate the repression of black people throughout the 21:53.867 --> 21:55.267 ghettos of America. 21:55.267 --> 21:56.997 Vicious police dogs, cattle prods, 21:57.000 --> 21:59.370 and increased patrols have become familiar sights in 21:59.367 --> 22:00.697 black communities. 22:00.700 --> 22:02.900 City Hall turns a deaf ear to the pleas of black people 22:02.900 --> 22:05.700 for relief from, from this increasing terror. 22:05.700 --> 22:08.000 The Black--The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense 22:08.000 --> 22:10.700 believes that the time has come for black people to arm 22:10.700 --> 22:12.500 themselves against this terror before it is too 22:12.500 --> 22:13.500 late. 22:13.500 --> 22:15.700 A people who have suffered so much for so long at the 22:15.700 --> 22:18.170 hands of a racist society must draw the line 22:18.167 --> 22:19.467 somewhere. 22:19.467 --> 22:21.597 We believe that the black communities of America must 22:21.600 --> 22:25.170 rise up as one man to halt the progression of a trend 22:25.167 --> 22:28.297 that leads inevitably to their total destruction." 22:30.900 --> 22:33.300 Again, an era of heightened prose, 22:33.300 --> 22:36.900 certainly, but there's no doubting that the Panthers 22:36.900 --> 22:40.270 are tapping into a nerve that's reverberating 22:40.267 --> 22:45.197 throughout America, deepening anxiety of what 22:45.200 --> 22:49.900 exactly is going on over in Vietnam, 22:49.900 --> 22:51.870 deep concern about what's happening to the young men 22:51.867 --> 22:56.697 who come back shell shocked, if not in body bags. 22:58.700 --> 23:04.700 Now so much of the Panthers is about this bravado, 23:08.800 --> 23:11.200 so much of the Panthers is about actually doing real 23:11.200 --> 23:12.670 work on the ground. 23:12.667 --> 23:14.467 And over the course of the, of the, 23:14.467 --> 23:16.767 sort of the, the heightened moment of the Panthers' 23:16.767 --> 23:21.197 existence, which is really about '66 to about '74 in 23:21.200 --> 23:25.400 terms of its greatest coherence, 23:25.400 --> 23:28.370 the Panthers are doing other things as well. 23:28.367 --> 23:31.097 Yes, there's no doubt that there are many Panthers who 23:31.100 --> 23:34.400 are violating the, the Panther program because they 23:34.400 --> 23:36.500 were using alcohol and using drugs. 23:36.500 --> 23:38.300 They were also selling drugs and, 23:38.300 --> 23:43.970 you know, en--engaged in all kinds of things that are 23:43.967 --> 23:44.967 illegal. 23:44.967 --> 23:47.397 There's no doubt about that. 23:47.400 --> 23:49.100 This is part of the thing that infuriates white 23:49.100 --> 23:50.100 America. 23:50.100 --> 23:52.300 It's like, "Why are we going to let these thugs have guns 23:52.300 --> 23:56.200 for goodness' sakes, and, and tell our police, 23:56.200 --> 23:59.600 our right-minded citizens, what to do?" 23:59.600 --> 24:01.500 But the Panthers were also doing things on the ground 24:01.500 --> 24:03.700 that people really didn't hear about, 24:03.700 --> 24:06.800 or if they heard about it, they ignored. 24:06.800 --> 24:08.500 Looking at a city like Oakland, 24:08.500 --> 24:10.970 with essentially a ravaged social services system, 24:10.967 --> 24:13.967 the Panthers saw the need for after-school programs 24:13.967 --> 24:18.197 for black children and for hot breakfast programs, 24:18.200 --> 24:19.600 things that they just weren't getting through the 24:19.600 --> 24:21.070 school system. 24:21.067 --> 24:23.997 So as the Panthers get a little more organized 24:24.000 --> 24:27.200 towards the late sixties and early seventies, 24:27.200 --> 24:28.800 you see hot breakfast programs starting, 24:28.800 --> 24:30.670 after-school programs starting, 24:30.667 --> 24:33.167 you know, basic education, literacy kind of programs 24:33.167 --> 24:35.697 starting as well. 24:35.700 --> 24:38.000 You also see, not just in Oakland, 24:38.000 --> 24:39.870 but in places throughout the country, 24:39.867 --> 24:42.897 with a ranges of success, Panther health clinics 24:42.900 --> 24:43.900 opening up. 24:43.900 --> 24:47.300 These are medical underserved communities. 24:47.300 --> 24:49.400 And even though we're the era of the Great Society, 24:49.400 --> 24:55.570 when, when LBJ is trying to prop up the poorest people 24:55.567 --> 24:57.797 in the country across the board, 24:57.800 --> 24:59.600 the quality of healthcare in black communities was 24:59.600 --> 25:01.670 abysmal. 25:01.667 --> 25:03.197 So the Panthers organized health clinics, 25:03.200 --> 25:04.200 free health clinics. 25:04.200 --> 25:06.470 You come in--and very successfully organized 25:06.467 --> 25:12.297 sickle cell anemia tests, a disease that afflicts 25:12.300 --> 25:15.900 African Americans disproportionately in this 25:15.900 --> 25:18.400 country, and the Panthers would test for it. 25:18.400 --> 25:19.800 And try to find, to help these, 25:19.800 --> 25:22.400 these people who get tested positively, 25:22.400 --> 25:26.070 to get the medicine they need to live a life without 25:26.067 --> 25:28.067 so much discomfort and pain. 25:28.067 --> 25:31.467 So the Panthers were doing social service work, 25:31.467 --> 25:33.767 community organizing work, certainly. 25:33.767 --> 25:36.697 They were, in their way, trying to enforce law and 25:36.700 --> 25:38.500 order, follow the constitution, 25:38.500 --> 25:43.000 state constitution as well, and they were also doing 25:43.000 --> 25:46.600 those things that terrified so many Americans, 25:46.600 --> 25:51.900 in terms of representing this kind of angry, 25:51.900 --> 25:57.900 violent, hyper-masculinity and also being involved in, 26:00.700 --> 26:02.700 in gun and drug trades. 26:04.100 --> 26:06.800 Now Eldridge Cleaver had a particularly important role 26:06.800 --> 26:10.600 in cultivating support for the Panther Party and does a 26:10.600 --> 26:12.500 lot through Soul on Ice, the book I've asked you to read 26:12.500 --> 26:14.700 this week, or read most of this week. 26:14.700 --> 26:22.270 Cleaver is, was, a petty criminal, 26:22.267 --> 26:23.697 and if you've already started the book, 26:23.700 --> 26:26.100 it's, you know, shocking that here's a person who 26:26.100 --> 26:30.670 admits to rape and justifying by prac--or not 26:30.667 --> 26:34.097 justifying, explained that he practices on black women 26:34.100 --> 26:36.100 before his plan to start raping white women. 26:36.100 --> 26:43.170 He is, to be as polite as possible, 26:43.167 --> 26:44.167 rather homophobic. 26:44.167 --> 26:48.697 He goes after James Baldwin in most aggressive ways. 26:48.700 --> 26:50.700 But he's also, he's also quite brilliant, 26:52.900 --> 26:54.400 certainly as a cultural commentator, 26:54.400 --> 26:55.400 cultural critic. 26:55.400 --> 26:58.570 And I want to read a passage from the book that actually 26:58.567 --> 27:02.897 helps you understand, or gives you a sense of the 27:02.900 --> 27:05.000 ways in which that Cleaver, through Soul on Ice, 27:05.000 --> 27:09.970 really fascinated a certain well-heeled part of black 27:09.967 --> 27:12.897 America--excuse me, of America, 27:12.900 --> 27:14.600 that really helped the Panthers onto the road of 27:14.600 --> 27:17.470 success, at least for a time. 27:17.467 --> 27:22.597 And I believe this is from about page one hundred and 27:22.600 --> 27:23.600 seventy-eight. 27:23.600 --> 27:26.170 It's essentially, I think, maybe three sentences I want 27:26.167 --> 27:28.167 to read, but it's one heck of a series of three 27:28.167 --> 27:30.167 sentences. 27:31.600 --> 27:34.200 "In the swift fierce years since the 1954 school 27:34.200 --> 27:37.300 desegregation decision, a rash of seemingly unrelated 27:37.300 --> 27:40.200 mass phenomena has appeared on the American scene, 27:40.200 --> 27:42.800 deviating radically from the prevailing hotdog and malted 27:42.800 --> 27:44.200 milk norm of the bloodless, square, 27:44.200 --> 27:46.600 superficial, faceless, Sunday morning atmosphere 27:46.600 --> 27:49.200 that was suffocating the nation's soul. 27:49.200 --> 27:51.200 And all of this in a nation where the so-called molders 27:51.200 --> 27:52.500 of public opinion, the writers, 27:52.500 --> 27:54.800 politicians, teachers and cab drivers are willful, 27:54.800 --> 27:57.200 euphoric liars or zip-dam ostriches and owls, 27:57.200 --> 27:58.770 a clique of undercover ghosts, 27:58.767 --> 28:00.997 a bunch of Walter Jenkinses, a lot of coffee-drinking, 28:01.000 --> 28:02.700 cigarette-smoking, sly, suck-assing, 28:02.700 --> 28:04.000 status-seeking, cheating, nervous, 28:04.000 --> 28:07.870 dry-balled, tranquilizer-gulched, 28:07.867 --> 28:08.867 countdown-minded, out of style, 28:08.867 --> 28:09.867 slithering snakes. 28:09.867 --> 28:10.867 No wonder that many innocent people, 28:10.867 --> 28:11.867 the manipulated and the stimulated, 28:11.867 --> 28:13.797 some of whom were game for a reasonable amount of mystery 28:13.800 --> 28:15.900 and even adventure, had their minds scrambled. 28:15.900 --> 28:18.100 These observers were not equipped to either feel or 28:18.100 --> 28:21.000 know that a radical break, a revolutionary leap out of 28:21.000 --> 28:22.970 their sight, had taken place in the secret parts of this 28:22.967 --> 28:23.967 nation's soul. 28:23.967 --> 28:26.997 It was as if a drive--it was as if a driverless vehicle 28:27.000 --> 28:28.670 were speeding through the American night down an 28:28.667 --> 28:34.667 unlighted street toward a stone wall and was boarded 28:38.967 --> 28:41.767 on the fly by a stealthy ghost with a drooling leer 28:41.767 --> 28:44.497 on his face, who, at the last detour before chaos and 28:44.500 --> 28:46.300 disaster, careened the vehicle down a smooth 28:46.300 --> 28:48.300 highway that leads to the future and life; 28:48.300 --> 28:50.870 and to ask these Americans to understand that they were 28:50.867 --> 28:52.897 the passengers on this driverless vehicle and that 28:52.900 --> 28:55.200 the lascivious ghost was the Saturday night crotchfunk of 28:55.200 --> 28:56.700 the Twist or the "Yeah, Yeah, 28:56.700 --> 28:57.700 Yeah!" 28:57.700 --> 28:58.700 which the Beatles high-jacked from Ray 28:58.700 --> 29:00.270 Charles, to ask these Calvinistic profligates to 29:00.267 --> 29:02.297 see the logical and reciprocal links is more 29:02.300 --> 29:04.300 cruel than asking a hope-to-die Okie music buff 29:04.300 --> 29:06.100 to cop the sounds of John Coltrane." 29:06.100 --> 29:07.600 It's a heck of four sentences, 29:07.600 --> 29:09.600 and really one of the sharpest cultural critiques 29:09.600 --> 29:11.400 that I've seen in quite some time. 29:11.400 --> 29:14.070 Now, taking back to the very beginning of this course, 29:14.067 --> 29:16.497 when I talked about the ironies of John Jack's 29:16.500 --> 29:17.500 existence. 29:17.500 --> 29:20.200 Remember, the, the charcoal rubbing of the headstone, 29:20.200 --> 29:21.700 saying that you couldn't understand, 29:21.700 --> 29:23.770 you know, American freedom without understanding 29:23.767 --> 29:24.767 slavery. 29:24.767 --> 29:26.767 You might remember, I forward--I, 29:26.767 --> 29:28.797 I shot forward two hundred years to talk about 29:28.800 --> 29:30.600 Eld--excuse me, Ralph Ellison, 29:30.600 --> 29:32.970 saying that southern whites could not talk, 29:32.967 --> 29:35.767 sing, walk, make love, or make war without thinking of 29:35.767 --> 29:37.597 blacks. 29:37.600 --> 29:39.400 Eldridge Cleaver is doing the same thing here, 29:39.400 --> 29:42.700 in a very different voice, very different voice, 29:42.700 --> 29:43.700 mind you. 29:43.700 --> 29:46.400 But he's telling about this moment of fascination of 29:46.400 --> 29:49.600 white America, progressive, left-leaning, 29:49.600 --> 29:53.600 white America especially, with blackness. 29:53.600 --> 29:55.900 Part of that fascination grows out of the martyrdom 29:55.900 --> 30:01.200 of folks like Malcolm X, of course, 30:01.200 --> 30:08.000 Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, but it also grows out of 30:08.000 --> 30:11.500 this anxiety about what we are as a country during the 30:11.500 --> 30:12.500 Vietnam era. 30:12.500 --> 30:16.500 It grows out of an anxiety that you see reverberating 30:16.500 --> 30:19.670 through radical left groups, largely white groups like 30:19.667 --> 30:21.667 the Students for a Democratic Society. 30:24.167 --> 30:26.167 So the Panthers are tapping into a nerve. 30:28.600 --> 30:32.100 In fact, a lot of their funding comes from white 30:32.100 --> 30:38.200 progressives, who are just completely enthralled by 30:38.200 --> 30:40.300 what they see as the brutal honesty of the Panthers. 30:43.167 --> 30:47.397 Now building off the Executive Mandate Number One 30:47.400 --> 30:49.370 incident in Sacramento, building off of the 30:49.367 --> 30:52.797 popularity of Soul on Ice, the Panther Party goes 30:52.800 --> 30:54.400 national, starts building itself, 30:54.400 --> 30:56.400 its, its social service organizations, 30:56.400 --> 30:57.500 its clinics. 30:57.500 --> 31:00.600 But this is not to say that things go smoothly. 31:00.600 --> 31:04.570 In fact, the Panthers are one car wreck after another, 31:04.567 --> 31:06.767 in a sense, as far as its organization's concerned. 31:08.800 --> 31:14.270 In October of '67, Huey Newton is arrested in 31:14.267 --> 31:19.897 Oakland, during a dispute over which a cop is shot and 31:19.900 --> 31:20.900 dies. 31:20.900 --> 31:27.500 He's thrown in jail and you start having "Free Huey" 31:27.500 --> 31:30.600 rallies popping up all over the country. 31:30.600 --> 31:33.100 The phrase "Free Huey" is in response to this, 31:33.100 --> 31:36.270 knowing he's been thrown into jail. 31:36.267 --> 31:39.167 The facts about the case were murky at best, 31:39.167 --> 31:42.567 and actually in three years, he's released from jail, 31:42.567 --> 31:48.197 with the charges dismissed, something that horrifies 31:48.200 --> 31:49.300 law-and-order types. 31:49.300 --> 31:53.100 But while Huey Newton's in jail, 31:53.100 --> 31:54.700 the Panthers want to see, they need to feel, 31:54.700 --> 31:57.200 they, they, they recognize the need to build upon this 31:57.200 --> 32:01.100 trajectory, upward trajectory of popularity, 32:01.100 --> 32:06.470 and they reach out to SNCC, Stokely Carmichael in 32:06.467 --> 32:07.467 particular. 32:07.467 --> 32:13.167 And they offer Carmichael the position of Prime 32:13.167 --> 32:14.597 Minister of the Black Panther Party. 32:14.600 --> 32:19.200 You know Carmichael's got this magnetism that's got 32:19.200 --> 32:21.200 people excited about Black Power. 32:22.700 --> 32:26.170 He is being seen by many people across the political 32:26.167 --> 32:30.497 spectrum as the heir apparent of Martin Luther 32:30.500 --> 32:34.500 King and Malcolm X, although of a different kind of 32:34.500 --> 32:37.900 politics, but the heir apparent. 32:37.900 --> 32:42.470 The Panthers see SNCC as a great resource, 32:42.467 --> 32:44.267 because of Carmichael's charisma, 32:44.267 --> 32:47.167 certainly, but also because SNCC has proven its chops. 32:47.167 --> 32:49.997 It has organized and organized and organized and 32:50.000 --> 32:51.770 has a national structure already in place that fans 32:51.767 --> 32:53.767 could, you know, build into that structure. 32:55.900 --> 32:57.800 SNCC, through Carmichael's thinking, 32:57.800 --> 33:01.000 sees that they can tap into this sort of this heady 33:01.000 --> 33:06.270 moment in the Panthers, and their international agenda, 33:06.267 --> 33:08.967 and build something great. 33:08.967 --> 33:12.197 The problem, however, is that Stokely Carmichael, 33:12.200 --> 33:15.170 in a sense, violates the premise of SNCC that had 33:15.167 --> 33:18.197 been there for so long, of group-centered leadership. 33:18.200 --> 33:20.300 He was the head of SNCC, but you just, 33:20.300 --> 33:22.570 you know, he didn't actually consult anybody in SNCC 33:22.567 --> 33:25.767 about this affiliation. 33:25.767 --> 33:27.697 So other SNCC leaders and people on the ground are 33:27.700 --> 33:29.370 really, you know, angry. 33:29.367 --> 33:30.697 Yeah, they kicked whites out of the movement, 33:30.700 --> 33:32.000 so you might think they're really on, 33:32.000 --> 33:35.800 in, online, in line with the Panther ideology, 33:35.800 --> 33:38.100 but there's no consultation, so they're upset about that. 33:38.100 --> 33:41.500 And, as it turns out, because the Panthers were so 33:41.500 --> 33:44.700 open about courting white support--through cocktail 33:44.700 --> 33:46.100 parties, where Eldridge Cleaver would come up and 33:46.100 --> 33:48.300 tell, you know, all the whites in attendance about 33:48.300 --> 33:52.400 how bad they are, essentially--because the 33:52.400 --> 33:54.400 Panthers courted white support, 33:56.200 --> 33:58.200 SNCC militants said, "We have--We've left whites 33:58.200 --> 33:59.200 behind. 33:59.200 --> 34:00.370 We don't want anything to do with it." 34:00.367 --> 34:02.597 So the irony is, you know, the way we historicize a 34:02.600 --> 34:04.800 group like the Panthers who we hear a lot about, 34:04.800 --> 34:06.500 is that, you know, they're the most militant, 34:06.500 --> 34:08.900 you know, race nationalist group on the scene. 34:08.900 --> 34:14.900 And SNCC, whom less is well known about the group, 34:17.767 --> 34:19.597 of course, but it turns out that SNCC, 34:19.600 --> 34:21.270 which starts out as this, as this, 34:21.267 --> 34:24.697 you know, very polite, respectable group of college 34:24.700 --> 34:27.870 kids, white and black, committed to voter 34:27.867 --> 34:29.167 registration drives and leadership 34:29.167 --> 34:31.697 organization--leadership development, 34:31.700 --> 34:33.870 they says, "To hell with all of that. 34:33.867 --> 34:35.097 Whites are out. 34:35.100 --> 34:38.000 It's about a black agenda." 34:38.000 --> 34:41.600 So the coalition collapses, and in, 34:41.600 --> 34:43.170 and in short order, Carmichael is essentially 34:43.167 --> 34:47.067 forced out of SNCC because he's now gone far afield of 34:47.067 --> 34:53.067 what SNCC has actually--has become. 34:57.500 --> 35:02.600 So the Panthers--now we're in early 1968--are trying to 35:02.600 --> 35:06.100 make sense of themselves as an organization. 35:06.100 --> 35:11.100 Over the course of the next five or six years, 35:11.100 --> 35:13.600 they implode time and again. 35:13.600 --> 35:17.170 Huey Newton develops an incredibly damaging drug 35:17.167 --> 35:20.397 habit and as the nominal leader of SNCC starts 35:20.400 --> 35:21.400 purging people. 35:21.400 --> 35:24.100 He kicks out Bobby Seale; that's one of his first 35:24.100 --> 35:25.100 targets. 35:25.100 --> 35:26.870 Huey Newton, you know, coalesces power around 35:26.867 --> 35:27.997 himself. 35:28.000 --> 35:29.100 He's purged people left and right. 35:29.100 --> 35:31.370 It's almost like, you know, these stereotypes of this, 35:31.367 --> 35:34.067 of a demagogue gone a bit crazy. 35:36.900 --> 35:40.800 Eldridge Cleaver leaves for exile. 35:45.100 --> 35:50.400 Seale is disillusioned; he's left the Panther Party. 35:50.400 --> 35:54.000 You have battles developing with other grassroots 35:54.000 --> 35:58.170 groups, like the group called US, 35:58.167 --> 36:00.297 based out of--essentially based out of UCLA in Los 36:00.300 --> 36:02.000 Angeles, under the leadership of Maulana 36:02.000 --> 36:04.800 Karenga, a cultural nationalist group that wants 36:04.800 --> 36:06.700 to align with the Black Panther Party, 36:06.700 --> 36:09.200 but the Panthers are internationally, 36:09.200 --> 36:13.400 politically nationalist, not culturally nationalist. 36:13.400 --> 36:17.670 And there's a gun battle in Westwood on UCLA's campus 36:17.667 --> 36:20.667 between the radicals and US, the group called US, 36:20.667 --> 36:24.197 and the Black--members of the Black Panther Party. 36:24.200 --> 36:30.200 And then seeding discord this whole time as well are 36:32.500 --> 36:35.200 external forces, like especially an FBI program 36:35.200 --> 36:38.370 called COINTELPRO, Counterintelligence Program, 36:38.367 --> 36:40.367 COINTELPRO. 36:42.200 --> 36:46.600 COINTELPRO started, I think, in the fifties or so, 36:46.600 --> 36:49.470 as an anti-counter--anti-radical 36:49.467 --> 36:52.567 group, but really gets focused on the Black 36:52.567 --> 36:54.367 Panthers more than anybody else, 36:54.367 --> 36:56.797 any other organization in the late sixties. 37:00.767 --> 37:03.897 The task of COINTELPRO was to infiltrate the 37:03.900 --> 37:06.800 Panthers--they were trying to infiltrate everybody, 37:06.800 --> 37:09.970 but really focused on the Panthers--infiltrate the 37:09.967 --> 37:11.767 Panthers, spread lies, rumors, 37:11.767 --> 37:18.097 and discord and watch the Panthers destroy themselves. 37:18.100 --> 37:23.400 It turns out they were awfully successful at it. 37:23.400 --> 37:26.170 The Panthers, as they uncover one informant after 37:26.167 --> 37:29.097 another, or one suspected informant after another, 37:29.100 --> 37:32.370 start to implode in places, in, 37:32.367 --> 37:36.297 in Detroit, in Chicago, all throughout the country. 37:36.300 --> 37:37.870 No one could be trusted. 37:37.867 --> 37:39.667 It didn't help that Huey Newton is sort of 37:39.667 --> 37:41.667 drug-addled as well. 37:44.400 --> 37:47.600 This most amazing moment for the Panthers' existence 37:47.600 --> 37:50.570 really is short-lived, two or three years, 37:50.567 --> 37:52.397 before this really starts to happ--starts to become 37:52.400 --> 37:53.400 unspooled. 37:53.400 --> 37:56.200 And actually, we can get into the 1970s, 37:56.200 --> 37:58.170 women are running the Panthers, 37:58.167 --> 38:01.997 and that's when there's the most success with the school 38:02.000 --> 38:03.570 lunch programs, these after-school 38:03.567 --> 38:05.097 programs--school lunch--hot breakfast programs, 38:05.100 --> 38:06.770 excuse me, after-school programs, 38:06.767 --> 38:08.367 and health clinics really take off in the early 38:08.367 --> 38:09.367 seventies as well. 38:09.367 --> 38:15.367 So these are a number of the events that take us through 38:22.567 --> 38:26.497 the late 1960s and into, into the early seventies. 38:26.500 --> 38:30.270 By '73, '74, the Panthers are essentially defunct. 38:30.267 --> 38:32.397 There's still chapters around throughout--I mean 38:32.400 --> 38:34.600 they never--there hasn't been a moment when there 38:34.600 --> 38:39.900 have been no--there hasn't been a moment--I'm trying to 38:39.900 --> 38:42.200 think this through double and triple negatives here. 38:42.200 --> 38:43.800 There have always been Panther chapters, 38:43.800 --> 38:45.370 since the Panthers were organized. 38:45.367 --> 38:48.097 And you have Panther chapters now called the Gray 38:48.100 --> 38:49.100 Panthers. 38:49.100 --> 38:50.900 You know, these are folks who are now, 38:50.900 --> 38:52.400 you know, sixty and seventy years old, 38:52.400 --> 38:56.070 who have not given up on the militant--militant attitudes 38:56.067 --> 38:59.897 and progressive critiques, who are trying to organize 38:59.900 --> 39:01.670 themselves. 39:01.667 --> 39:05.167 But the--it was a flash, a moment in, 39:05.167 --> 39:08.797 in time, a brief moment, with the Panthers as sort of 39:08.800 --> 39:12.900 this, this group that claimed so much fascination 39:12.900 --> 39:18.000 with the American public and fear as well. 39:18.000 --> 39:21.570 Now in talking about the Panthers in this way, 39:21.567 --> 39:25.197 '66 through the end of the decade, 39:25.200 --> 39:28.600 I've left out a whole other narrative that's really 39:28.600 --> 39:33.900 quite critical, upon which the Panthers are sort of 39:33.900 --> 39:35.200 based its foundation. 39:35.200 --> 39:37.170 It's really a narrative of the North. 39:37.167 --> 39:39.867 The Panthers are overwhelmingly an urban 39:39.867 --> 39:42.997 group, organization and a northern and western 39:43.000 --> 39:45.170 organization, based in Oakland, 39:45.167 --> 39:49.297 but, you know, you can see them through urban enclaves 39:49.300 --> 39:55.300 throughout the northeast, Midwest as well. 39:55.300 --> 39:56.900 This is a moment in the late sixties, 39:56.900 --> 39:59.000 heading into the early seventies, 39:59.000 --> 40:01.500 of, as I said, confusion and dismay. 40:01.500 --> 40:06.100 And it's a moment of Martin Luther King taking up the 40:06.100 --> 40:10.800 final battles of his life from '66 to '68, 40:10.800 --> 40:12.270 as he takes the movement north, 40:12.267 --> 40:14.897 the movement--SCLC takes it north, 40:14.900 --> 40:17.800 to engage in new battles. 40:17.800 --> 40:19.870 Fame--Most famously, he takes the battle to Chicago. 40:19.867 --> 40:22.897 And that's what I'll actually spend most of the 40:22.900 --> 40:26.000 lecture on, discussion on, on Wednesday. 40:26.000 --> 40:29.600 But I want to maybe wrap things up here, 40:29.600 --> 40:32.300 it's a couple of minutes early actually, 40:32.300 --> 40:36.000 with a reference to a poem that might frame this a 40:36.000 --> 40:37.000 little bit. 40:37.000 --> 40:39.800 It's a poem by the late poet, 40:39.800 --> 40:42.770 Gwendolyn Brooks, one of the great, 40:42.767 --> 40:46.497 one of the great American poets. 40:48.767 --> 40:50.797 She writes a poem called "We Real Cool." 40:50.800 --> 40:54.270 When asked about the poem--this was written in 40:54.267 --> 40:55.267 1966. 40:55.267 --> 40:58.567 This is why I'm reading--I'm bringing this up now, 40:58.567 --> 40:59.567 I'm sorry. 40:59.567 --> 41:01.997 When writes about the poem--when asked about the 41:02.000 --> 41:05.200 poem, Brooks had the following to say: "I wrote 41:05.200 --> 41:07.600 it because I was passing by a pool hall in my 41:07.600 --> 41:10.900 neighborhood in Chicago one afternoon and I saw--well, 41:10.900 --> 41:13.700 as I said in the poem, seven boys shooting pool. 41:13.700 --> 41:16.470 And I'd wondered how they felt about themselves, 41:16.467 --> 41:19.197 and I decided that they felt they were not quite valid; 41:19.200 --> 41:22.300 that they certainly--that they certainly were 41:22.300 --> 41:23.870 insecure. 41:23.867 --> 41:26.397 They were not cherished by the society and therefore 41:26.400 --> 41:28.100 they would feel that they should, 41:28.100 --> 41:31.770 well, spit in the face of the establishment. 41:31.767 --> 41:34.567 I used the month of June as a symbol--as a symbol, 41:34.567 --> 41:37.467 an establishment symbol, whereas the rest of us love 41:37.467 --> 41:39.497 and respect June and wait for it to come so we can 41:39.500 --> 41:42.000 enjoy it, they should jazz June, 41:42.000 --> 41:45.300 derange it, scratch in it, do anything that would annoy 41:45.300 --> 41:47.000 the establishment." 41:47.000 --> 41:48.570 This is Brooks's poem. 41:48.567 --> 41:50.967 It's very short. 41:50.967 --> 41:52.897 We real cool. 41:52.900 --> 41:54.270 We Left school. 41:54.267 --> 41:57.597 We Lurk late. 41:57.600 --> 41:59.900 We Strike straight. 41:59.900 --> 42:02.000 We Sing sin. 42:02.000 --> 42:04.200 We Thin gin. 42:04.200 --> 42:06.500 We Jazz June. 42:06.500 --> 42:07.800 We Die soon. 42:07.800 --> 42:13.100 It's a poem that starts out with an assertion of, 42:13.100 --> 42:15.700 you know, cool aesthetic that we would see 42:15.700 --> 42:16.870 reverberating through the Panthers, 42:16.867 --> 42:23.097 certainly, that quickly moves through the despair of 42:23.100 --> 42:26.000 living in an inner-city in an African American enclave, 42:28.100 --> 42:31.300 caught up in drinking and games. 42:31.300 --> 42:33.000 Caught up in an anti-establishment ethos, 42:33.000 --> 42:36.200 as she mentioned in describing the poem, 42:36.200 --> 42:37.800 but then ultimately caught up in a moment, 42:37.800 --> 42:40.670 a language of despair and of hopelessness. 42:42.900 --> 42:43.900 "We jazz June. 42:43.900 --> 42:45.900 We die soon." 42:48.500 --> 42:52.170 Although King doesn't know that he's going to be 42:52.167 --> 42:56.097 assassinated, what you see in the final two years of 42:56.100 --> 42:59.870 his life, someone who was truly establishment, 42:59.867 --> 43:04.197 Martin Luther King, certainly, 43:04.200 --> 43:07.500 you see in the last two years of his life sort of a 43:07.500 --> 43:11.000 reckoning with the intransigence of certain 43:11.000 --> 43:14.300 problems in the North that create a mindset where you 43:14.300 --> 43:17.170 have young men who are hopeless in the 43:17.167 --> 43:18.897 possibilities for the future, 43:18.900 --> 43:20.870 and of course, like the young men, 43:20.867 --> 43:22.567 he too would die soon. 43:22.567 --> 43:25.697 And we'll pick up that narrative on Wednesday. 43:25.700 --> 43:27.700 Thank you.