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imported post -
22-03-05, 04:45 PM
Uh Man Huey was not assassinated, he was killed in a drug deal in '89 remember? The Panthers were no longer a threat at that time. Initially the Panthers when you look back on it had three strikes against them, they were black, they were supported using guns against the government, and they were leaning hard toward communist feelings on society. Remember being a Communist was almost like being called a Satan worshipper in those times.
The FBI did do a major part in dismantling the Panther party, by bogging the movement down in court cases which in the long run did more damage to the party than anything else. The Panthers you have to remember worked with white people. THey were pro-black, but they also worked with white protest groups. Some of their loss in power in the black community came thru this connection.
Huey himself said, "We engaged people in a whole lot of rhetoric when we should have been using more organizing tactics. We were perhaps premature in introducing the whole concept of armed struggle to the black community. We used a lot of filthy words, a lot of bad language in the black community, which wound up alienating us from the black community, especially the black church. So that after a while you'd go to a Black Panther Rally, all you'd see is white folks there. You know it's true. I would even have to go so far as to say that we set ourselves up to be murdered."
If the party was to reform, I hope that the young brothers and sisters who reshape it, see beyond the leather jackets, guns, and yelling black power and go on Huey's look back at the history of the Panthers and how it should have been done and do it right this time.
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