Abstract

abstract:

The Black Panther Party was ideologically drawn to "post-revolutionary" Cuba, but when multiple Party members were extended asylum by Fidel Castro, they noted that the propaganda did not match the promise. Socialism had not, as Castro argued, eradicated racism. Had a mutual exchange of education and respect occurred, Castro may have been able to sidestep the campaign of negative press launched against his regime by black nationalist leaders and taken up by the American media. The Panthers may have been able to separate Castro's promises from a long standing tradition of propaganda, and avoided some of their subsequent disillusionment with one of the Panther Party's most esteemed role models.

pdf