State Repression of the Black Panthers

Of all the radical organizations in the 1960s, none struck as much fear in the establishment as the Black Panther Party. Militant blacks off the plantation system of subordination were too much for the white power structure. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called the Panthers “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.” The official apparatus of repression, federal and local launched a systematic campaign to sabotage, undermine, and crush the Panthers. And they were successful. Agent provocateurs, disinformation and straight-out assassination, as in the case of the murder of Chicago Panther leader Fred Hampton, were part and parcel of the methods used. Today the State again has accrued extraordinary powers of repression. There are lessons to be drawn from the experience of the Panthers and the current situation.

Recorded at the University of Massachusetts.