Peter Monaghan: Scholars re-examining the violent legacy of the party and the black-power movement find greater nuance
Forty years ago, about two dozen members of the Black Panthers did something now unthinkable in our era of terrorism and heightened security. They paraded into the California State Capitol on May 2, 1967, brandishing rifles and pistols and wearing uniforms — black berets, leather jackets, and turtlenecks. Ostensibly, they were demanding their right to bear unloaded arms, but their presence was intended to signal something much larger: a sea change in race relations.
That demonstration, which resulted in arrests but no violence, burned an indelible image of the Black Panthers and black power into the public consciousness. But the message carried that day — resistance to racial oppression, often through angry words and violent deeds — has long been the public legacy of the Black Panther Party, which formed in 1966.
Until recently, historians have not given much attention to the Black Panthers, except to note the perceived detriment to the broader civil-rights movement that their rise and fall created. On that larger canvas, the Panthers' story is a series of dramatic political gestures and violent confrontations with the law that conclude with the Panthers and their supporters either dead, imprisoned, or discredited. (See timeline, Page A14.)
Only a string of manifestos and powerful memoirs, such as H. Rap Brown's 1969 book, Die Nigger Die!, and Huey P. Newton's autobiographical Revolutionary Suicide (1973), remained behind to commemorate the movement. As recently as 2001, one prominent historian of the group noted that while an occasional book has appeared about the Panthers, "there has been no Panther history."
"Sure, there were autobiographies, memoirs, and score-settling pieces," says Judson L. Jeffries, a professor of African-American and African studies at Ohio State University. "But never a significant body of scholarship. You could probably count on two hands the number of scholarly books on the Black Panther Party."
In the last few years, books on the Black Panthers, including three by Mr. Jeffries, have sprung up as rapidly as the movement itself did in the turbulent 1960s. (See book list, Page A16.)
Some researchers seem intent on burnishing the group's reputation, in part by conveying the whole scope of its activities, including community development. Others are debating the overall influence of the black-power movement, which the Panthers helped create.
"It's a very powerful and compelling story that hasn't been properly told," says Peniel E. Joseph, an associate professor of Africana studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, whose Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America appeared last year. "People are trying to find out what happened, with as much evidence as possible — FBI files, testimony from people who are still alive, scouring different archives."
Image vs. Message
Researchers offer several explanations for why studies of the Black Panthers and black power are being written now.
Many note that the organization can be seen more clearly after four decades, and that the Panthers' demands for better treatment of America's minority populations — black and other — remain valid.
In fact, the first decade of the 21st century bears some similarities to the era in which black power flourished, says Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College, who is editing a series of essay collections on black power. "People are looking back at the 60s, which was a time of turmoil, a painful time for the country, and they are seeing that some similar things are happening today, with the Iraq war and immigration debates that deal with issues of race and ethnicity," she says. "And there's an uncertainty about the country's future that mirrors the anxiety of the 1960s."
Younger researchers, she adds, are looking back without prejudice at the goals of the Panthers, in part because the researchers have not been raised in a culture that "so doggedly and bitterly opposed black power's claims."...
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Education
That demonstration, which resulted in arrests but no violence, burned an indelible image of the Black Panthers and black power into the public consciousness. But the message carried that day — resistance to racial oppression, often through angry words and violent deeds — has long been the public legacy of the Black Panther Party, which formed in 1966.
Until recently, historians have not given much attention to the Black Panthers, except to note the perceived detriment to the broader civil-rights movement that their rise and fall created. On that larger canvas, the Panthers' story is a series of dramatic political gestures and violent confrontations with the law that conclude with the Panthers and their supporters either dead, imprisoned, or discredited. (See timeline, Page A14.)
Only a string of manifestos and powerful memoirs, such as H. Rap Brown's 1969 book, Die Nigger Die!, and Huey P. Newton's autobiographical Revolutionary Suicide (1973), remained behind to commemorate the movement. As recently as 2001, one prominent historian of the group noted that while an occasional book has appeared about the Panthers, "there has been no Panther history."
"Sure, there were autobiographies, memoirs, and score-settling pieces," says Judson L. Jeffries, a professor of African-American and African studies at Ohio State University. "But never a significant body of scholarship. You could probably count on two hands the number of scholarly books on the Black Panther Party."
In the last few years, books on the Black Panthers, including three by Mr. Jeffries, have sprung up as rapidly as the movement itself did in the turbulent 1960s. (See book list, Page A16.)
Some researchers seem intent on burnishing the group's reputation, in part by conveying the whole scope of its activities, including community development. Others are debating the overall influence of the black-power movement, which the Panthers helped create.
"It's a very powerful and compelling story that hasn't been properly told," says Peniel E. Joseph, an associate professor of Africana studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, whose Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America appeared last year. "People are trying to find out what happened, with as much evidence as possible — FBI files, testimony from people who are still alive, scouring different archives."
Image vs. Message
Researchers offer several explanations for why studies of the Black Panthers and black power are being written now.
Many note that the organization can be seen more clearly after four decades, and that the Panthers' demands for better treatment of America's minority populations — black and other — remain valid.
In fact, the first decade of the 21st century bears some similarities to the era in which black power flourished, says Jeanne Theoharis, an associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College, who is editing a series of essay collections on black power. "People are looking back at the 60s, which was a time of turmoil, a painful time for the country, and they are seeing that some similar things are happening today, with the Iraq war and immigration debates that deal with issues of race and ethnicity," she says. "And there's an uncertainty about the country's future that mirrors the anxiety of the 1960s."
Younger researchers, she adds, are looking back without prejudice at the goals of the Panthers, in part because the researchers have not been raised in a culture that "so doggedly and bitterly opposed black power's claims."...