By Johnny Edwards in The City Core
Before marching through Cherry Tree Crossing with armed members of the New Black Panther Party – as an observing journalist, of course – I knew very little about the group.
My covering the protest Monday happened spur of the moment. The day started with an assignment to cover the funeral of Justin Elmore, killed in a police shooting Dec. 14. There were about a half dozen men at the church in black uniforms. Later in the day, I got word of a press conference at the site of the shooting, which turned out to be a march of about 200 people led by those uniformed men.
They had no permit and they hadn’t notified the city in advance. They marched carrying shotguns and assault rifles, alarming Cherry Tree Crossing residents and raising the ire of Richmond County Sheriff Ronnie Strength. The sheriff dispatched deputies in riot gear, and Panthers Augusta chapter Chairman Bobby Price, wanting to avoid a confrontation, had his people put away their guns and quickly wrapped up the demonstration.
Back at the office that evening, under deadline pressure, a cursory Internet check of the New Black Panthers revealed they’re not part of the late Huey P. Newton’s leftist civil rights organization of the 1960s and 1970s. I called Mr. Price and confirmed that, even though his business card spells Panthers with an s, his group is part of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, a militant black supremacist group that formed in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1980s.
More research the following day turned up some disturbing stuff. I found accounts of New Black Panther leaders spewing anti-Semitic, racist vitriol and inciting confrontations. These were the guys who attacked reporters outside former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s campaign headquarters after she lost in a 2006 runoff. Late National Chairman Khalid Abdul Muhammad called for genocide of whites and Jews. Both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League consider the New Black Panthers a hate group, and the Huey P. Newton Foundation has called it illegitimate and denounced its hatred of whites.
I interacted with Mr. Price a good deal on Monday and didn’t get a racist vibe from him. I called him again and asked more questions about the party. I read him a quote from Mr. Muhammad: “There are no good crackers, and if you find one, kill him before he changes.â€
“I don’t personally feel that,†Mr. Price said. “I understand that some offensive things have been said about whites and others, but that doesn’t define who we are.â€
Mr. Price said he wants to embolden poor blacks to emerge from the shadow of slavery and Jim Crow, and he doesn’t see where insulting whites and Jewish people fits into that.
“I’m about opposing racism, and if I take flack from those who think that’s too soft, I’m OK with that,†Mr. Price said.
To him, black supremacy doesn’t mean blacks are superior to other races, he said. It’s about teaching young blacks that their history goes back further than their ancestors’ arrival in slave ships, that black people founded the first human civilizations. He said he’s not anti-Jewish, but anti-Zionist because he believes in Palestine’s right to exist.
Monday’s protest wasn’t about race, Mr. Price said. One of the deputies involved in the shooting is black. Mr. Price said he opposes anyone who oppresses black people.
“It’s not about the color of the person’s skin,†he said. “We see it as a police brutality issue.”
Mr. Price said he’s been chairman of the Augusta chapter for about five years. It has seven members including him, all of whom took part in the march.
New Black Panther groups often carry weapons in public appearances. The organization has staged protests over the dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas; in Jena, La., over the Jena Six controversy; and outside Duke University, where they demanded justice for a stripper who – it turned out – falsely accused three lacrosse players of rape.
The Rev. Al Sharpton has been peripherally involved, speaking at the party’s Million Youth March and arranging for Mr. Muhammad, who died of a brain aneurysm in 2001, to speak to street gangs. After Mr. Elmore’s funeral Monday at Macedonia Baptist Church, the Rev. Sharpton exited through the front door, then reentered the church through a lower-level side door where the Augusta Panthers had gathered in a hallway. A church official wouldn’t let me in.
Hours later, as Mr. Price readied for the march, he expressed frustration with the Rev. Sharpton, accusing him of kowtowing to city and church leaders. Mr. Price said he was trying to give residents of Cherry Tree Crossing an outlet to vent their frustrations.
“We’re trying to be an influence in a positive way. We’ve got to get people talking, debating the issues,†he said. “It’s giving a voice to the voiceless.â€
29 responses so far ↓
1 Steven R Linnabary // Dec 29, 2008 at 1:10 am
They had no permit and they hadn’t notified the city in advance.
What is the country coming to when a bunch of uppity malcontents can get away with expressing their displeasure at their overseers WITHOUT PERMISSION?
Wasn’t there a government approved “Free Speech Zone” nearby?
I think this reporter should get over his fear of people speaking their minds without fear.
PEACE
2 HumbleTravis // Dec 29, 2008 at 6:06 am
The “Party” has a large chapter in Houston. Most of the members I’ve spoken with are against electoral politics altogether. Most of their time is spent on various protests, with the most recent one being against the grand jury system in Harris County after the Joe Horn case. Their leader “Quanell X” was too radical for the Nation of Islam.
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080701_tnt_hornfolo.13264f98.html
3 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:05 am
“To him, black supremacy doesn’t mean blacks are superior to other races, he said. It’s about teaching young blacks that their history goes back further than their ancestors’ arrival in slave ships, that black people founded the first human civilizations. He said he’s not anti-Jewish, but anti-Zionist because he believes in Palestine’s right to exist.”
That’s exactly what white supremacists say.
4 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:05 am
They talk about wanting to reconnect with their culture and stuff. They also talk about the zionists
5 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:06 am
maybe the two should link up, they seem to have more in common than they think lol
6 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:09 am
call it the “getting back to the roots” society. An organization of whites, blacks, asians, pacific islanders, east asians, arabs, indians, pakis, etc all trying to reconnect with their own cultures. Yeah, why not :p
7 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:11 am
“reconnect”
I used to think about culture. But now, imo, I think it’s all bs. You are ust what life and your parents’ genes throws at you.
8 Libertarian Joseph // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:14 am
culture is optional. most of it is self embracing hog wash. the part that truly matters are your beliefs and social institutions. the rest is just bs
9 paulie cannoli // Dec 29, 2008 at 11:41 am
The “Party†has a large chapter in Houston. Most of the members I’ve spoken with are against electoral politics altogether.
There are several kinds of political parties, with electoral parties being just one of them. This is another.
10 HumbleTravis // Dec 30, 2008 at 12:43 am
You’re right Paulie. The New Black Panthers are what I would call a “costume party” since they frequently appear in quasi-martial attire at community social gatherings.
11 NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY // Jan 2, 2009 at 1:09 am
To clarify any questions, just check out the website(s).
http://www.newblackpanther.com/
http://www.blackpowermovement.org
12 Frederick // Jan 8, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Blacks isolate themselves in society with all their specialty ‘black only groups’. They have black colleges, the NAACP, the ACLU, black hiring quotas, mandatory admissions policies, the Congressional Black Congress(WTF is that for?), etc., etc. etc. Blacks now thrive on this stuff. They have become professional ’squeaky wheels’. They have adopted a culture of complaining, and when that doesn’t work, they resort to their backup culture, the ‘culture of the shoutdown’. The rest of society is sick of this crap. No other minority group in the history of this country has ever behaved this way.
13 paulie cannoli // Jan 8, 2009 at 6:48 pm
How many others were brought here in chains and held as chattel?
14 Steven Druckenmiller // Jan 8, 2009 at 7:21 pm
paulie - no black person alive was ever brought here in chains or held as chattel. I doubt there are very many people alive who had fathers who were, either. The chain to slavery was broken a long time ago.
And racist I am not, but Frederick has a little bit of a point: it’s the reason foreign blacks from Africa and the Caribbean hate American blacks: they see them as whiners.
15 paulie cannoli // Jan 8, 2009 at 7:38 pm
paulie - no black person alive was ever brought here in chains or held as chattel.
That, Jim Crow, etc., has lasting social effects.
16 Trent Hill // Jan 8, 2009 at 8:01 pm
That, Jim Crow, etc., has lasting social effects.
Paulie, so when is long enough? They’ve been free of slavery for 150 years, and free of Jim Crow laws for at least 40 years. There is only so long that excuse can work–when does it run out?
Frederick, though he states it in a way that scares me, is quite right. Black-americans have taken advantage of this “woe is me” attitude in order to bank on it. Walter Williams or Larry Elder would agree with me, too.
17 G.E. // Jan 8, 2009 at 8:09 pm
How long is long enough?
Until the state is abolished.
18 paulie cannoli // Jan 8, 2009 at 8:13 pm
–when does it run out?
When programs which continue to maintain the disparity in society end.
The war on drugs (especially bolstered by the war on terror) police/prison/industrial complex is a prime one.
“War on poverty” programs also keep people trapped in dependency.
Taxes and regulations prevent business startups, and keep them from being able to compete on a level playing field.
Victim disarmament has the worst effect on law abiding civilians in drug war ravaged neighborhoods (like where I grew up).
The military-industrial complex tends to use those trapped in poverty disproportionately as cannon fodder, and leaves them in the worst way afterwards.
That’s just some of the larger social framework in which racism plays out.
19 Steven Druckenmiller // Jan 8, 2009 at 9:00 pm
paulie - yeah, but the thing is, is that the programs you mention are favored by American blacks. Remember that video when the LP went into Harlem to promote gun ownership, and American blacks were calling them names and destroying property?
I would bet that the welfare system, gun control and the drug war are popular among American blacks, more so than with American whites, anyway.
20 paulie cannoli // Jan 8, 2009 at 9:01 pm
There are significant differences of opinion within both on all these issues.
21 Trent Hill // Jan 8, 2009 at 9:15 pm
“When programs which continue to maintain the disparity in society end.
The war on drugs (especially bolstered by the war on terror) police/prison/industrial complex is a prime one.
“War on poverty” programs also keep people trapped in dependency.
Taxes and regulations prevent business startups, and keep them from being able to compete on a level playing field.
Victim disarmament has the worst effect on law abiding civilians in drug war ravaged neighborhoods (like where I grew up).
The military-industrial complex tends to use those trapped in poverty disproportionately as cannon fodder, and leaves them in the worst way afterwards.
That’s just some of the larger social framework in which racism plays out.”
All of these programs are overwhelmingly approved of by black americans. Give an opportunity to put them each to a referendum of black voters–im quite sure every program would survive.
So these programs are self-imposed. Maybe they hurt blacks more disproportionally (and I think they do)–but blacks themselves are cheering them on. That isnt a case for racism or the “vestiges of Jim Crow”–its a case of Democracy.
22 Steven Druckenmiller // Jan 8, 2009 at 9:21 pm
There are significant differences of opinion within both on all these issues.
As Mr. Hill said, I do not believe that. All of the programs you mention (I would wager all the money I have in the bank on this) would pass referenda in the American black community by a higher percentage than in the American white community.
23 Steven Druckenmiller // Jan 8, 2009 at 10:02 pm
What happened to the top banner?
24 NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY // Jan 9, 2009 at 12:07 am
Let all races have their own programs to improve their conditions and strive for the best excellence that can be achieved. Then all these excellences of the races can be combined to materialize a better world never imagined.
http://www.newblackpanther.com
http://www.blackpowermovement.org/
25 HumbleTravis // Jan 9, 2009 at 5:17 am
As far as I know, the NBPP does not support many of the above-cited programs, or at least would exempt themselves from participation in the programs.
For example they are against the drug war because they believe that the U.S. government imports drugs into the black community, and then uses the police to destroy the community.
The members I’ve heard talk about their political ideas support a land-based variant on the reparations idea: either the USA setting aside allotted land for a totally separate black nation or providing some kind of legal oversight of black population centers to community organizations. These areas would have their own judicial system, hospitals, prisons, schools, law enforcement etc.
They are pro-gun and anti-tax, although in the latter case it only applies to black americans as another form of reparations or a means of separating from the USA. Not sure about affirmative action, as they probably don’t want to work at white-owned companies.
It is possible that these are only the opinions of the NBPP members I’ve spoken with, but they are very consistent talking points. In any case they are very, very different from the NAACP or the Urban League! I’m surprised that they didn’t get behind Cynthia McKinney. It would certainly have been interesting to see these guys in the same room with the Green Party rank and file; sounds like a lost season from MTV’s” the Real World”. If I had to sum it up, I’d say that they are not against government, they are against whites governing blacks.
26 Dick // Jan 9, 2009 at 9:46 am
Schlmazel
27 Willard Bolinger // Jan 12, 2009 at 2:56 am
Plenty of the historic ignorance and misconceptions that whites have held throughout my 66 years. I am a white retired auto worker out of K.C. Heard lots of these kind of beliefs from co-workers and others in my many years. Most people will not make any attempt to learn or study and think out the issues. Instead they spout the racism learned from parents and school buddies and from coworkers. Some are slow to learn and change and pass some of this racism on to the our kids and friends. The struggle is long and difficult and change is very slow. Ignorance is much easier to learn and pass on from each generation.
28 paulie cannoli // Jan 12, 2009 at 7:25 am
Trent and Steven,
There are significant numbers of African-Americans who oppose all the programs I mentioned. Ron Paul got traction by standing up against the drug war during newslettergate. Nothing like Obama, obviously, but for a white Republican accused of racism, he had a lot of support in the black community.
For an even better example see
http://nallforgovernor.blogspot.com/2006/05/tuskegee-sheriff-candidates-nall-right.html
The original Black Panthers were among many in the hood who know that an outside occupying force of mostly white and frequently racist police (including the black ones who want to prove to themselves and their partners that they are not n*****s) can not be relied on for protection and that community self defense is vital.
The Nation of Islam and many other groups preach about the importance of family structure and black-owned small businesses in the community, rather than relying on handouts from mostly white politicians and bureaucrats.
In no way, shape or form is the community monolithic in its opinions or support for any government programs.
You may also be getting a skewed picture of what black folks support because the ones who oppose a lot of these things tend to be less organized politically than the ones who support them. Libertarians would have a huge growth opportunity there if they would learn to do outreach (first of all at all) to these folks, and secondly in terms that don’t make them sound like white nationalists.
29 Mim // Jan 14, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Since when are racist groups allowed to march down any street armed without any objection by anyone? How has this group been allowed to stand on streets and yell out hateful racist statements without the authorities stepping in? If anyone deserves their own nation it would be the Mexicans, the whole southwest was theirs to begin with.
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