Survival Pending Revolution: The History of the Black Panther Party

Bibliographic Essay

BIBLIOGR APHIC ESSAY The Black Panther Black Community News Service is the most important primary source for the ideology and actions of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther’s first issue was in April 1967, but publication was sporadic until it became a weekly in January 1968. The name was changed to the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service after February 1971. Eldridge Cleaver was the first editor, and his militant influence was felt long after he went into exile. Andrew Austin, Elbert “Big Man” Howard, and JoNina Abron were also editors of the Black Panther. Provocative language, an imaginative and artistic layout, and biting cartoons drawn by BPP minister of culture Emory Douglas (and other graphic artists) increased the newspaper’s popularity. The Black Panther established a reputation for fiery rhetoric, which lasted from 1967 until approximately 1972, when the BPP adopted a more moderate attitude in print as well as in action. J. Edgar Hoover considered the newspaper the most effective BPP public relations effort. Hoover claimed that its weekly circulation was in excess of 100,000 by 1970 and occasionally reached 139,000. The FBI engaged in numerous schemes to interfere with the publication and distribution of the paper as part of its counterintelligence operations.1 Weekly publication continued 158 / bibliographic essay through 1978, when financial difficulties forced a more sporadic schedule. Publication ceased altogether in 1980. The Panther Party also issued a stream of pamphlets that commented on important ideological and cultural issues. Fallen Comrades of the Black Panther Party narrates the BPP version of how and why their casualties occurred. Eldridge Cleaver’s pamphlets On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party and Land Question and Black Liberation were originally published as a series of newspaper articles before he fell out of favor. The writings demonstrate Cleaver ’s role in forming Panther ideology. Michael “Cetewayo” Tabor’s 1969 pamphlet Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide was written when he was a New York 21 prisoner. Tabor, a former heroin addict, explains the Panther Party’s position on the nature of the drug epidemic plaguing the black community. Different offices also issued regional newsletters and papers. The Los Angeles chapter’s Southern California Spark, the Rockford (Ill.) branch’s Newsletter , and the Illinois state chapter’s Ministry of Information Bulletin are examples of these regional communications. These materials would supplement the regular party newspaper. They also demonstrate the particular characteristics and strengths of regional organizing efforts. They are invaluable for further insight into local Panther politics and personalities. I would like to thank Dr. William Burr for generously allowing me to copy his original issues from the Chicago and Rockford branches of the Illinois BPP chapter. Dr. Burr is an analyst with George Washington University’s national security archive. From 1971 to 1974 the East Coast faction of the BPP “split” published a newspaper called Right On! The first issue had several articles that critique the ideological and ethical position of the Newton wing of the BPP. Right On! is absolutely necessary to understanding the Panther schism and why a rival organization was set up in New Jersey and New York. Amherst College Marshall Bloom Underground Newspaper Collection and the Wisconsin State Historical Society have copies. Researchers should, of course, supplement these highly partisan journals with other contemporary sources to obtain a more balanced account of Panther activities. Contemporary news accounts (establishment and underground) of the BPP’s activities provide another analysis of Panther activity. Earl Caldwell was one of the more knowledgeable observers of the BPP during the 1960s and bibliographic essay / 159 1970s. Caldwell’s March 1, 1971, NewYorkTimes material on the Panther schism offers an informed and balanced perspective. On October 14, 1970, the New Orleans Times-Picayune began a series of articles by Georgie Anne Geyer and Keyes Beech on Cuba’s relations with American radicals. Geyer and Beech interviewed Robert F. Williams after his return from overseas. Williams discusses the BPP’s relations with the Cuban government. In addition there are allegations that Cuba provided guerilla training to American blacks, including Panthers. Williams’s allegations were buttressed decades later when the Memphis Commercial -Appeal began publishing a March 1993 series about domestic spying by U.S. military intelligence. The March 21 and March 22 stories also discuss Cuban training of black American radicals. These newspaper reports are very important for researchers interested in this matter. Seymour Hersh...