sbp

Old Panthers face new fight to keep their legacy intact

Bobby Seale has battled the FBI and the police in his years as a revolutionary, but he now has an even tougher conflict: the fight to save his legacy in America as co-founder of the Black Panthers.

His nemesis is the Washington, D.C.-based New Black Panther Party, a 12-year-old group that Mr. Seale says threatens to align his revolutionary '60s party with a movement that is "anti-white, anti-Semitic and a lot of rhetoric that my original party was never about."

The Black Panthers were known as virulent racial rebels in an era in which the nation's concept of racial differences was in a spotlight. They engaged in shootouts with the law; some members were imprisoned and some died.

"But we never got into hate speech like they do," says Mr. Seale, who is now a vigorous 66-year-old author and lecturer. "Our slogan was: 'All the power to all the people.' We meant black power, red power, white power, green power, whatever, it was all for the people."

The new group has hijacked "our legacy without any understanding of what we were about," said David Hilliard, another original Black Panther.

"These guys are getting instant validation by using our name, and that is misleading to an entire generation," he said.

A Texas judge in 1997 ruled that the new group, which was founded in Dallas in 1989, could not use the name.

But the New Black Panthers, led by Howard graduate and D.C. lawyer Malik Shabbaz, continue to appear at rallies, in the streets and, recently, at several sniper-killing locations, where they pumped gas for frightened patrons.

Now the Black Panthers, led by Mr. Seale and Mr. Hilliard, have retained Oakland lawyer Andrew Gold to enforce the Texas decision and, as they say, to clear the name.

"We are not a hate group, we are not a racist group and we are not anti-Semitic," said Mr. Shabbaz. "For a member of the old Black Panther Party to call us extremists is outrageous, when they were, in their day, known as the most extreme protest group.

"We see this as a manipulation of outside forces who are stopping the rise of the New Black Panther Party. It is a plot from the U.S. government and other pro-Israel forces."

At the August Millions for Reparations March, on the National Mall, a "Kill Whitey" T-shirt could be bought from the New Black Panther Party display table for $10.

Dozens of New Black Panthers, clad in paramilitary regalia, guarded the stage that day, cheering lustily for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — whose outspoken criticism of Israel and Jews has been widely noted.

When Bill Clinton moved his office to Harlem last year, 25 uniformed New Black Panthers showed up to protest while Mr. Shabazz called the former president a "cracker."

In an Aug. 20 letter sent to Mr. Shabbaz, Mr. Gold, on behalf of his clients, demanded the offshoot group stop using the names and images of Mr. Seale and co-founder Huey Newton, as well as drop the name of the group.

"The racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and other forms of inflammatory hate-mongering that the New Black Panther Party espouses is abhorrent to the surviving members of the Black Panther Party," the letter reads.

"Your efforts to appropriate the images, names and writings of the Black Panther Party and to suggest some connection between the Black Panther Party and the New Black Panther Party are an insult to those who committed themselves to the ideals and principles of the Black Panther Party."

The New Black Panther Party, founded by a Dallas radio personality and at one time operated by Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam spokesman, has been identified by several watchdog groups as an active hate group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center in a report notes purported anti-white, anti-Semitic speeches, including a call for an "end to robbery by the white man," by leaders of the group. The Anti-Defamation League also lists the group as a practitioner of anti-Semitism.

Accusations aside, the issue of the Black Panther name is legally moot, Mr. Shabbaz said.

"Our general position is that no one owns the Panther," he said. "And we are making no money off the old Black Panthers."

Mr. Seale can still recite the Black Panther mission statement from memory, a plan that includes the call for "Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology." And he despises these newcomers.

"We didn't play the racist game," he said. "The problem with this group is that they are confusing the youth of America with this anti-gay, anti-white rhetoric."

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Some of the cats from the old Black Panthers were quite interesting. Read up on them.

Napoleon54

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!


So, the [old school] Black Panthers and the government are in cahoots to keep the brothers down, eh? Damn these sneaky conspiracies! This one has a very good cover-up because IT MAKES NO SENSE! Brilliant plan! Nobody ever would've thought of that.

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Ladogaboy

Most Americans today probably have no clue who Bobby Seale is... it's good that he is able to get his actual message out there.

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Sir_Froggy

hahahahaahaha :hah:

Capricornholio

Sound like the pot is calling the kettle black.

Ladogaboy

Okay. I'm better now.

Grimm

This makes no sense. I suppose it is meant as a joke, but I can't see any connection. Other than the word black.
The intent of the old Black Panter Party was to right some wrongs in our society. They were somewhat successful abeit with many problems. The new Black Panters is just another racial hate group. They are the Black KKK. They want to cause harm, not fix anything.

I don't think there is anything funny about hate groups, stupid yes, but not funny.

Napoleon54

I think he was implying that the old Black Panthers are as racist as the new Black Panthers? I think the "black" part was just coincidence. I'm just offering a possible interpretation of what capricornholio said. I don't really know much about either group.

Grimm

Racism was not a part of the message of the old Black Panthers. They were under constant persucution, so they could not trust any white person that purported to support their cause. But they had a beef with a corrupt political system that did not allow equal rights to persons of color.

The Black Panters were patriots, fighting wrongs that needed to be righted. To allude that they were somthing less is insulting to their efforts. These were people who sacrificed any chance at a normal comfortable life to do what was right. They met their responsability as US citizens while so may others were just shutting their eyes and ignoring wrongs.

To slander their names for the sake of a cheap joke is repulsive to me. These men should be honored for their sacrifices. Not spin doctored into common crimials for the convienience of the current political system.

Capricornholio

Thanks Napoleon, that's exactly what that old quote interprets. It's my belief a lot of groups practice reverse racism.

Grimm

There can be no such thing as "reverse racisim". Either they are racist or they are not. What it's somehow different if a person of color hates "white" people? It's all the same hate is hate.

cheapie

My only knowledge of the original Black Panthers is from Forest Gump. If indeed they weren't racist, then it's cool that they're fighting the new group. And why do all crazy people hate the Jews? Every time some hate group, Muslim Extremist, KKK, New Black Panthers, Neo-nazis, Nation of Islam, etc., proclaim their message, they always bitch about the Zionist blah blah blah! It might just be 'cuz I'm white and from the midwest and don't know any Jewish people, but wtf is everyone's prob with Jews?

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Nija

As far as I can tell. They killed Jesus. Therefore they are evil.

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"Nija is the dark soul of gotapex. We don't like to talk about him." - LPMiller