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In 1969, due to the Black Power movement, the self chosen identity term Black began to  gradually replace Negro. One Crazy Summer is set in 1968.

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In 1969, due to the Black Power movement, the self chosen identity term Black began to  gradually replace Negro. One Crazy Summer is set in 1968.

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Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael) explained black identity best in is co-authored book with Charles Hamilton Black Power –The Politics of Liberation: “We shall have to struggle for the right to create our own terms through which to define ourselves and our relationship to the society, and to have these terms recognized.” [vide scholarship post].

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Abstract

In the United States, Americans of African Descent have held many identity labels: African, Colored, Negro, Afro-American, Black, and African-American. In the 1960s, there was a shift from the use of "Negro" to the use of "black" as a group identifier. In 1966 Stokely Carmichael shouted the phase "Black Power." Three years later, in 1969, "Negro" was replaced by "black" as the dominant label identifier. This paper will how I measured when the shift occurred and will also set out three major explanations for why the shift happened relatively quickly. Understanding the shift to "black" may help with understanding why the identifier "African-American" has not completely replaced "black."

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African-American Nomenclature: The Label Identity Shift from "Negro" to "Black" in the 1960s.

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Author(s): Bell, Zenobia | Advisor(s): Carbado, Devon W. | Abstract: In the United States, Americans of African Descent have held many identity labels: African, Colored, Negro, Afro-American, Black, and African-American. In the 1960s, there was a shift from the use of "Negro" to the use of "black" as a group identifier.

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In One Crazy Summer, Delphine and her sisters see men wearing black berets, dressed all in black and on occasion wearing a leather jacket. This article mentions more about the fashion of the" Black is Beautiful" style, the natural hair and the all black outfits of the Panthers, and Oakland African Americans during this period.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Although the impressive Black Panther Party uniform garnered public attention, it was not a fashion statement. From top to bottom the Black Panther uniform was strategic and symbolic.

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Cilla. Write a summary here

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How Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers changed the civil rights movement | Fresh Air

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Ericka Huggins ( Jenkins; born January 5, 1948) is an American activist, writer, and educator. She is a former leading member of the political organization, Black Panther Party (BPP). She was married to fellow BPP member John Huggins in 1968.

Born Ericka Jenkins in Washington, D.C., Huggins was the middle child of three. After graduating high school in 1966, Huggins attended Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania). She then attended Lincoln University, an historically black school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There she studied education, and eventually met John Huggins, who she would later marry in 1968. Although Lincoln University's Black Student Congress was opposed to female leaders, Huggins engaged in the group despite the opposition.

She holds a Master of Arts in sociology from California State University, East Bay. Her thesis focused on an education model which proposed "student-centered, community-based tuition-free education for students to minimize the multigenerational race and gender trauma of American".

In 1972, she moved to California and became an elected member of the Berkeley Community Development Council. Later, in 1976, she was elected to the Alameda County Board of Education. She was both the first Black person, as well as the first Black woman to have a seat on the Board. From 2008 to 2015, Huggins worked in the Peralta Community College District as a professor of sociology, African American studies, and women studies. She taught sociology at both Laney College and at Berkeley City College, as well as women's studies at California State University. In addition, for more than 30 years, she has lectured at Stanford University, Cornell University, and University of California, Los Angeles where she has spoken about education, spirituality, feminism, prison reform, and queer people of color homelessness.

In relation to her work with spirituality, Huggins did work for 15 years at the Siddha Yoga Prison Project where she led hatha yoga and meditation to groups such as incarcerated people, public school children, and college students. At the Mind/Body Medical Institute, which works with Harvard medical school, she continued sharing her spirituality and its practices for 5 years.

While at Lincoln University, Both Ericka and her husband were inspired to leave school and join the Black Panther Party. Her motivation came from a Ramparts magazine article she read that discussed the cruel treatment of Huey P. Newton while incarcerated. A picture in the article depicted Newton shirtless, with a bullet wound in his stomach, strapped to a hospital gurney. In 1967, the couple arrived in Los Angeles and joined the Black Panther Party.

Eventually, her husband John Huggins, became leader of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party. While at home with her three week old daughter, her husband was assassinated on January 17, 1969, on the UCLA campus due to a feud between the Black Panther Party and a Black Nationalist group, US Organization, that was fueled by the FBI's COINTELPRO program. After his death, Ericka attended his burial in his birthplace of New Haven, Connecticut. Following his funeral, she decided to move there and open up a new Black Panther Party branch. She led this new chapter along two other women, Kathleen Neal Cleaver and Elaine Brown.

While involved with the Black Panthers, Huggins held several positions: both an editor and writer for the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, director of the party's Oakland Community School from 1973 to 1981, and a member of the party's Central Committee. After spending two years in prison, Huggins decided to leave the Black Panthers, after being a member for 14 years, which is the longest membership for any woman involved with it.

New Haven Black Panther trials

In 1969, members of the New Haven Black Panthers tortured and murdered Alex Rackley, whom they suspected of being an informant. Along with Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, Huggins was charged with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy. Huggins was heard speaking on a tape recording of Rackley's interrogation that was played during the trial. The trial sparked protests across the country about whether the Panthers would receive a fair trial and the jury selection would become the longest in state history. In May 1971 the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 for Huggins' acquittal, and she was not retried.

While awaiting trial from 1969 to 1972, Huggins spent her time writing in the Prison Niantic State Farm for Women. Writing about the poor social conditions herself and her community endured, she viewed storytelling as a form of self-defense, personal agency, and educational activism. Her work is defined by themes such as love and hate, time and space, sexism and feminism, spirituality, racism, and nationalism. After being released from prison and all charges being requited, Insights and Poems, a book of poetry, co-written by Huggins and Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party, was released in 1975.

Ericka Huggins married John Huggins in 1968. Ericka gave birth to their daughter, Mai Huggins, at the age of 20. Within three months of their daughter's birth, Ericka became a widow when John Huggins was killed on the UCLA campus in January 1969.

Huggins has two sons. One of her sons is Rasa Sun Mott, whom she had with James Mott, lead singer of the Lumpen, the Black Panthers singing group.

Huggins, Ericka; Newton, Huey P. (1975). Insights and Poems. San Francisco: City Lights.

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Ericka Huggins ( Jenkins; born January 5, 1948) is an American activist, writer, and educator. She is a former leading member of the political organization, Black Panther Party (BPP). She was married to fellow BPP member John Huggins in 1968. Born Ericka Jenkins in Washington, D.C., Huggins was the middle child of three.

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The legacy of Malcolm X and his work have inspired and informed many others in their fight for social justice and equality.

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Audre Lorde was many things, she was a poet, an author, and her poetry, and “indeed all of her writing,” according to contributor Joan Martin in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, “rings with passion, sincerity, perception, and depth of feeling.” Her work mostly was trying to undo modern society’s tendency to categorize groups of people. She was central to many liberation movements and activist circles, including second-wave feminism, civil rights and Black cultural movements, and struggles for LGBTQ equality. In particular, Lorde’s poetry is known for the power of its call for social and racial justice, as well as its depictions of queer experience and sexuality.

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A self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic schools before graduating from Hunter High School and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still a student there. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black Women Writers: "I used to speak in poetry. I would read poems, and I would memorize them. People would say, well what do you think, Audre. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing. In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. And when I couldn't find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that's what started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen."

Lorde earned her BA from Hunter College and MLS from Columbia University. She was a librarian in the New York public schools throughout the 1960s. She had two children with her husband, Edwin Rollins, a white, gay man, before they divorced in 1970. In 1972, Lorde met her long-time partner, Frances Clayton. She also began teaching as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College. Her experiences with teaching and pedagogy-as well as her place as a Black, queer woman in white academia-went on to inform her life and work. Indeed, Lorde's contributions to feminist theory, critical race studies, and queer theory intertwine her personal experiences with broader political aims. Lorde articulated early on the intersections of race, class, and gender in canonical essays such as "The Master's Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master's House."

Lorde's early collections of poetry include The First Cities (1968), Cables to Rage (1970), and From a Land Where Other People Live (1972), which was nominated for a National Book Award. Later works, including New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), Coal (1976), and The Black Unicorn (1978), included powerful poems of protest. "I have a duty," Lorde once stated, "to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain." Lorde's later poems were often assembled from personal journals. Explaining the genesis of "Power," a poem about the police shooting of a ten-year-old black child, Lorde discussed her feelings when she learned that the officer involved had been acquitted: "A kind of fury rose up in me; the sky turned red. I felt so sick. I felt as if I would drive this car into a wall, into the next person I saw. So I pulled over. I took out my journal just to air some of my fury, to get it out of my fingertips. Those expressed feelings are that poem."

Her poetry, and "indeed all of her writing," according to contributor Joan Martin in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, "rings with passion, sincerity, perception, and depth of feeling." Concerned with modern society's tendency to categorize groups of people, Lorde fought the marginalization of such categories as "lesbian" and "black woman." She was central to many liberation movements and activist circles, including second-wave feminism, civil rights and Black cultural movements, and struggles for LGBTQ equality. In particular, Lorde's poetry is known for the power of its call for social and racial justice, as well as its depictions of queer experience and sexuality. As she told interviewer Charles H. Rowell in Callaloo: "My sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of me and my worlds... [White, arch-conservative senator] Jesse Helms's objection to my work is not about obscenity ... or even about sex. It is about revolution and change."

Lorde was a noted prose writer as well as poet. Her account of her struggle to overcome breast cancer and mastectomy, The Cancer Journals (1980), is regarded as a major work of illness narrative. In The Cancer Journals, Lorde confronts the possibility of death. Recounting this personal transformation led Lorde to address the silence surrounding cancer, illness, and the lived experience of women. For example, Lorde explained her decision not to wear a prosthesis after undergoing a mastectomy in the Journals: "Prosthesis offers the empty comfort of 'Nobody will know the difference.' But it is that very difference which I wish to affirm, because I have lived it, and survived it, and wish to share that strength with other women. If we are to translate the silence surrounding breast cancer into language and action against this scourge, then the first step is that women with mastectomies must become visible to each other."

Lorde's 1982 novel, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, was described by its publishers as a "biomythography, combining elements of history, biography and myth." Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984) collected Lorde's nonfiction prose and has become a canonical text in Black studies, women's studies, and queer theory. Another collection of essays, A Burst of Light (1988), won the National Book Award. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde was published in 1997.

In 1981 Lorde and fellow writers Cherríe Moraga and Barbara Smith founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, which was dedicated to furthering the writings of black feminists. Lorde would also become increasingly concerned over the plight of black women in South Africa under apartheid, creating Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa and remaining an active voice on behalf of these women throughout the remainder of her life. Lorde addressed her concerns to not only the United States but the world, encouraging a celebration of the differences that society instead used as tools of isolation. As Allison Kimmich noted in Feminist Writers, "Throughout all of Audre Lorde's writing, both nonfiction and fiction, a single theme surfaces repeatedly. The black lesbian feminist poet activist reminds her readers that they ignore differences among people at their peril ... Instead, Lorde suggests, differences in race or class must serve as a 'reason for celebration and growth.'"

Lorde's honors and awards included a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. A professor of English at John Jay College and Hunter College, Lorde was poet laureate of New York from 1991-1992. Warrior Poet (2006), by Alexis De Veaux, is the first full-length biography of Audre Lorde.

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A self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic schools...

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this is a video inter interview with bobby seale

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Bobby Seale Speaks at CSU - CTV Featured with JJ McKinney

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Assata Shakur in Her Own Words: Rare Recording of Activist Named to FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey, was born on August 17, 1887 in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica.  Greatly influenced by Booker T. Washington’s autobiography Up From Slavery, Garvey began to support industrial education, economic separatism, and social segregation as strategies that would enable the assent of the “black race.” In 1914, Garvey established the UNIA in Kingston, Jamaica, adopting Washington’s inspirational phrase “Up, you mighty race; you can conquer what you will.”  By May of 1917, Garvey relocated the UNIA in Harlem and began to use speeches and his newspaper, The Negro World. The UNIA grew larger still following the race riots in the Red Summer of 1919.

Garveyism resonated with the rapidly urbanizing black community and spread beyond the United States to the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. Garvey’s UNIA promised black economic uplift via self-reliance, political equality via self-determination, and the “liberation of Africa from European colonialism via a Black army marching under the Red, Black, and Green flag of Black manhood.”  The UNIA became an organization of millions.  When Garvey bellowed, “I am the equal of any white man [and] I want you to feel the same way,” he inspired the faithful and attracted the curious.  Addressing the gender question Garvey wrote, “Black queen of beauty, thou hast given color to the world…Black men worship at thy virginal shrine of purest love…!”  Garvey even created a new black faith by ordaining Reverend George Alexander McGuire as Chaplain General of the African Orthodox Church. McGuire’s sermons urged Garveyites to “Erase the white gods from your hearts.”

At the 1920 UNIA International Convention at Madison Square Garden, with twenty five thousand delegates and observers in attendance, Garvey issued the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World.  The convention also produced the Universal Ethiopian Anthem.  The Negro World, the official newspaper of the UNIA, also spread the organization’s philosophy globally.  With a circulation of over 200,000 and published in three languages, Spanish and French as well as English, the Negro World was read on four continents.

Garvey’s most ambitious effort was the establishment of the Black Star Steamship Line. Garvey hoped that this joint stock corporation would develop lucrative commercial networks between the United States, the Caribbean, and the continent of Africa.  He also hoped that his three ships would help in the return of millions of blacks in the “Diaspora” to Mother Africa.  However, because of heavy debt and mismanagement, the steamship line went bankrupt and Garvey in January 1922 was arrested and charged with using the US Mail to defraud stock investors.

Ultimately, Garvey garnered the wrath of African American leaders when he met with the Ku Klux Klan leader, Edward Young Clark in Richmond, Virginia in June 1922.  Garvey naively believed the two organizations could work together since they both supported the goal of racial purity.  Clark in fact did promise some financial assistance for the UNIA.  After hearing of this meeting, however, the NAACP leader, W.E.B. DuBois, called Garvey the greatest enemy of the Negro race. The Urban League called Garvey a “swindler” and black union leader A. Philip Randolph said that Garvey and Garveyism should be purged from American soil.

Various civil rights organizations now mounted a coordinated “Garvey Must Go” campaign.  The Justice Department, seeking to discredit Garvey because it felt he represented a threat to colonial interest and menaced racial peace in the US, hired its first black agent, James Wormley Jones, to infiltrate the UNIA. Garvey was convicted of mail fraud in 1923 and sentenced to five years in federal prison.  In part, because of a letter writing campaign orchestrated by Garvey’s second wife, Amy Jacques Garvey, President Calvin Coolidge commuted his sentence in 1927 in exchange for the UNIA President accepting deportation.  Garvey spent his last years in Jamaica trying to revive his political fortunes and eventually died in London, England in 1940, never having set foot on African soil.

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LOVE IS A GREAT POWER. USE IT TO TRANSFORM
YOUR WORLD.

Welcome

As an activist, former political prisoner & leader in the Black Panther Party, educator & student I've devoted my life to the equitable treatment of all human beings-beyond the boundaries of race, age, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and status associated with citizenship.

For the past 37 years I have lectured across the country and internationally on issues relating to the well-being of women, children & youth; restorative justice as the antidote to punitive justice; whole being education, and the role of spiritual practice in sustaining activism and promoting social change.

I spent 14 years in the Black Panther Party-the highlight being my eight years as Director of the renowned Oakland Community School from 1973-1981. During that time I became both the first Black person & the first woman appointed to the Alameda Co. Board of Education.

I had the honor of being an instructor at San Francisco State University, California State University-East Bay and the Peralta Community College District in the last fifteen years. During that time I learned that, as a teacher I must first be a student; as a student I must be willing to teach.

​

I meditate every day. I write poetry. I read to hone my critical thinking skills. I believe that we learn best by listening to and engaging one another as we serve the world.

​

May this year bring you to a deeper understanding of your life and work.

Welcome to my website.

upcoming​
events

stay tuned for more events

Mentor & Educator
Reflection Question

What is my first step in eliciting compassion in dialogue with young people?

Young people
reflection Question

What is the one small thing I can think, say and do today to help transform my world and stay connected to the living beings in it?

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Welcome | Ericka Huggins Official Website

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LOVE IS A GREAT POWER. USE IT TO TRANSFORM YOUR WORLD. Welcome As an activist, former political prisoner & leader in the Black Panther Party, educator & student I've devoted my life to the equitable treatment of all human beings-beyond the boundaries of race, age, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and status associated with citizenship.

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Kathleen Cleaver was a major help in the black panther movement. She was the first woman to become a big visible leader. Cleaver also was one of the main communication secretaries.

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Kathleen Neal Cleaver was born in Dallas, Texas and spent much of her childhood living abroad with her family due to her father's position in the Foreign Service. After the family returned to the United States, she attended a Quaker boarding school and later attended Oberlin College and Barnard College.

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Acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni on how libraries shaped her (Full Stream 10/05)

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Publisher: Lawrence Hill
Format: Book
Binding: pb
Pages: 274
Released: August 20, 1998
ISBN-13: 9781556520747

On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed the life of a white state trooper. Long a target of J. Edgar Hoover's campaign to defame, infiltrate, and criminalize Black nationalist organizations and their leaders, Shakur was incarcerated for four years prior to her conviction on flimsy evidence in 1977 as an accomplice to murder.

This intensely personal and political autobiography belies the fearsome image of JoAnne Chesimard long projected by the media and the state. With wit and candor, Assata Shakur recounts the experiences that led her to a life of activism and portrays the strengths, weaknesses, and eventual demise of Black and White revolutionary groups at the hand of government officials. The result is a signal contribution to the literature about growing up Black in America that has already taken its place alongside The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the works of Maya Angelou.

Two years after her conviction, Assata Shakur escaped from prison. She was given political asylum by Cuba, where she still resides.

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On May 2, 1973, Black Panther Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard) lay in a hospital, close to death, handcuffed to her bed, while local, state, and federal police attempted to question her about the shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that had claimed th

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Elaine Brown (born March 2, 1943) is an American prison activist, writer, singer, and former Black Panther Party chairwoman who is based in Oakland, California. Brown briefly ran for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008.

Elaine Brown grew up in the inner city of North Philadelphia with her mother Dorothy Clark and an absent father. Despite being in desperate poverty, Brown's mother worked hard to provide for Elaine. She was enrolled in private schooling, took music lessons, and had nice clothing. During her childhood, she studied classical piano and ballet for many years at a predominantly white experimental elementary school. As a young Black woman, Elaine had very few African-American friends and spent most of her time with white people. After graduating from Philadelphia High School for Girls, a public preparatory school for gifted young women, she studied at Temple University for less than a semester. She withdrew from Temple because of her desire to work in the music industry. Brown moved to Los Angeles, California, to become a professional songwriter. While in Los Angeles, Brown enrolled in the University of California Los Angeles. She later went on to briefly attend Mills College and Southwestern University School of Law.

Upon arriving in California with little money and few contacts, Brown got work as a cocktail waitress at the strip club The Pink Pussycat. While working at the Pink Pussycat, she met Jay Richard Kennedy, a music executive who taught her about the intricacies of social justice. They became lovers. Brown learnt about political radicalisation first hand while in a relationship with Kennedy. Because of the thorough education on the Civil Rights Movement, Capitalism, and Communism which Kennedy provided to her, Brown later became involved with the Black Liberation Movement. After living together for a brief time in the Hollywood Hills Hotel, the pair parted ways. After this pivotal relationship, Brown's involvement in politics grew and she began working for the radical newspaper . Soon after, Brown became the first representative of the Black Student Alliance at the Black Congress in California. In April 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she attended her first meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.

In 1968, Brown joined the Black Panther Party as a rank-and-file member, studying revolutionary literature, and selling Black Panther Party newspapers. She soon helped the party set up its first Free Breakfast for Children program in Los Angeles, as well as the Party's initial Free Busing to Prisons Program and Free Legal Aid Program.

In 1968, Brown was commissioned by David Hilliard, the Party chief of staff, to record her songs, a request resulting in the album Seize the Time. She eventually assumed the role of editor of the Black Panther publication in the Southern California Branch of the Party.

Brown was part of a U.S. People's Anti-Imperialist Delegation which visited China in 1970, along with fellow prominent party member Eldridge Cleaver.

In 1971, Brown became a member of the Party's Central Committee as Minister of Information, replacing the expelled Cleaver. In 1973, Brown was commissioned to record more songs by Black Panther Party founder and Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton. These songs resulted in the album Until We're Free.

As part of a directive by Newton, Brown unsuccessfully ran for the Oakland city council in 1973, getting 30 percent of the vote. She ran again in 1975, losing again with 44 percent of the vote. When Newton fled to Cuba in 1974 to avoid criminal charges, he appointed Brown to lead the Black Panther Party. Brown was the only woman to do so. She chaired the Black Panther Party from 1974 until 1977. She dealt with regular sexism because the men were angered by the thought of taking orders from a woman.

A woman in the Black Power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant. A woman asserting herself was a pariah. If a black woman assumed a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race. She was an enemy of the black people.... I knew I would have to muster something mighty to manage the Black Panther Party.

During Brown's leadership of the Black Panther Party, she focused on electoral politics and community service. In 1977, she managed Lionel Wilson 's victorious campaign to become Oakland's first black mayor. Also, Brown founded the Panther's Liberation School, which was recognized by the state of California as a model school.

Brown stepped down from chairing the Black Panther Party less than a year after Newton's return from Cuba in 1977, when Newton refused to condemn the beating of Regina Davis, an administrator of the Panther Liberation School. Other male members of the party beat Davis and broke her jaw because she reprimanded a coworker when he did not do an assignment. Newton opted for solidarity with the men. This incident was the point at which Brown could no longer tolerate the sexism and patriarchy of the Black Panther Party. For many, Brown's leaving was seen as a turning point for the Party. She left Oakland with her daughter, Ericka, and moved to Los Angeles.

Brown recorded two albums, Seize the Time (Vault, 1969) and Until We're Free ( Motown Records, 1973). Seize the Time includes "The Meeting," the anthem of the Black Panther Party.

After leaving the Black Panther Party, also in order to raise her daughter Ericka, Brown worked on her memoir, A Taste of Power. She eventually returned to the struggle for black liberation, especially espousing the need for radical prison reform. From 1980 to 1983, she attended Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. From 1990 to 1996, she lived in France. In 1996, Brown moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and founded Fields of Flowers, Inc., a non-profit organization committed to providing educational opportunities for impoverished African-American children. In 1998, she co-founded the grassroots group Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice to advocate for children being prosecuted as adults in the state of Georgia. Around the same time, she continued her advocacy for incarcerated youth by founding and leading the Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee. Michael Lewis, also known as "Little B", was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 14 for a murder that Brown believes he did not commit. Brown would eventually write a non-fiction novel, The Condemnation of Little B, which analyzes the prosecution of Lewis as part of the greater problem of the increased imprisonment of black youth.

In 2003, Brown co-founded the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, which helps thousands of prisoners find housing after they are released on parole, facilitates transportation for family visits to prisons, helps prisoners find employment, and raises money for prisoner phone calls and gifts. In 2005, while protesting a G-8 Summit in Sea Island, Georgia, Brown learned of the massive poverty in the nearby city of Brunswick, Georgia. Brown then attempted to run for mayor of Brunswick against Bryan Thompson. Running on the Green Party ticket, Brown hoped to become mayor in order to use her influence to bring the Michael Lewis case to prominence, as well as to empower blacks in Brunswick by using her elected office to create a base of economic power for the city's majority black and poor population through redistribution of the city's revenues. Though Brown was eventually disqualified from running and voting in Brunswick because she failed to establish residency in the city, her efforts brought widespread attention to Michael Lewis's case. She later became a co-founder of the Brunswick Women's Association for a People's Blueprint.

Brown has continued her prison reform advocacy by lecturing frequently at colleges and universities in the US. Since 1995, she has lectured at more than forty colleges and universities, as well as numerous conferences.

In March 2007, Brown announced her bid to be the 2008 Green Party presidential nominee. Brown felt that a campaign was necessary to promote the interests of those not represented by the major political parties, especially the interests of women under 30 and African Americans. Her platform focused on the needs of working-class families, promoting living wages for all, free health care, more funding for public education, more affordable housing, removal of troops from Iraq, improving the environment, and promoting equality. Brown intended on using her campaign to bring many minorities to the Green Party in the hope that it would better represent a revolutionary force for social justice. In late 2007, she resigned from the Green Party, as she found that the Party remained dominated by whites who had "no intention of using the ballot to actualize real social progress, and will aggressively repel attempts to do so."

In 2010, inmates in more than seven Georgia prisons used contraband cellphones to organize a nonviolent strike for better prison conditions, Brown became their "closest adviser outside prison walls." She "helped distill the inmate complaints into a list of demands. She held a conference call... to develop a strategy with various groups, including the Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Nation of Islam."

Brown has one daughter, Ericka Abram, fathered by Black Panther member Raymond Hewitt, but Hewitt was mostly absent from his daughter's life. At Hewitt's funeral, Elaine Brown was in attendance.

1. ^ Wheaton, Sarah (December 12, 2010), "Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest", The New York Times.

2. ^ "Green Candidate for President Visits Colorado" Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Metro Denver Greens

3. ^ Brown, Scot (2001). "The US Organization, Black Power Vanguard Politics, And The United Front Ideal: Los Angeles And Beyond". Black Scholar. 31 (3/4): 21. doi:10.1080/00064246.2001.11431153. S2CID 147172238.

4. ^ "Brown, Elaine (1943- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". The Black Past. 24 November 2007.

5. ^ "More About Elaine". Elaine Brown. Archived from the original on 2010-11-28.

6. ^ Minami, Kazushi (2024). People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501774157.

7. ^ Spencer, Robyn C. "ENGENDERING THE BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE: Revolutionary Black Womanhood and the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, California." Journal of Women's History, vol. 20, no. 1, 2008, pp. 90-113.

8. ^ "Voices of Color-Invisible Women: Sexism in the Black Panther Party - www.socialism.com". 23 March 2023.

9. ^ Spencer, Robyn C. (2 December 2016). The revolution has come: Black power, gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-6275-3. OCLC 1005077774.

10. Norwood, Quincy T. (2003) ^ "Respect Her Gangsta!: A Review of the Music of Elaine Brown." Archived 2007-08-22 at the Wayback Machine Proud Flesh: A New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness.

11. ^ "Seize the Time: Elaine Brown." Seize the Time: Women in Power Seminars.

12. "The Condemnation of Little B." Fleming, Robert, ^ Black Issues Book Review, 15220524, May/Jun2002, Vol. 4, Issue 3.

13. ^ "Pan-African News Wire: Former Panther Leader Elaine Brown Seeks Green Party Presidential Nomination For 2008". Panafricannews.blogspot.com. 2007-03-09.

14. ^ Morris, Bob (2007-12-31). "Elaine Brown withdraws from Green Party presidential race | Politics in the Zeros". Polizeros.com.

15. ^ Blake, John (June 2007). Children of the Movement: The Sons and Daughters of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, George Wallace, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, Bob Moses, James Chaney, Elaine Brown, and Others Reveal How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Transformed Thei. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-56976-594-4.

16. ^ Brown, Elaine (1992). "'A Taste of Power': The Woman Who Led the Black Panther Party". longreads.com.

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Elaine Brown (born March 2, 1943) is an American prison activist, writer, singer, and former Black Panther Party chairwoman who is based in Oakland, California. Brown briefly ran for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008. Elaine Brown grew up in the inner city of North Philadelphia with her mother Dorothy Clark and an absent father.

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Angela Davis has written lots of books and has continued to lead the fight against racism. Her books are about the abolition of the prison industrial complex.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Angela Davis (b. 1944) is an American political activist, professor, and author who was an active member in the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party.

She is most famous for her involvement with the Soledad brothers, who were accused of killing a prison guard. During George Jackson's trial in August 1970, an escape attempt was made at gunpoint and several people were killed. Davis was accused of taking part in the event and was charged with murder. Evidence showed that the guns were registered to her and rumors said she was in love with Jackson, which later proved untrue. Davis went into hiding and was placed on the FBI's most wanted list. She spent eighteen months in jail, which led to the "Free Angela Davis" campaign and the Angela Davis Legal Defense Committee. In response, John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote "Angela" and the Rolling Stones wrote "Sweet Black Angel."

In 1997, Davis came out as a lesbian during an interview with Out magazine. Since then, she has continued to tackle oppression faced by the black community, women, and the LGBTQ+ community. After spending time traveling and lecturing, Davis returned to teaching. She served as a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she taught courses on the history of consciousness. Her interests inprisoner rights led her to found Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex. Davis is the author of several books including Women, Race, and Class (1983) and Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003).
View objects relating to Angela Davis
Top image: Revolutionary by Wadsworth Jarrell, 1972. © Wadsworth Jarrell. 2010.3.1

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Angela Davis (b. 1944) is an American political activist, professor, and author who was an active member in the Communist Party and the Black Panther Party. She is most famous for her involvement with the Soledad brothers, who were accused of killing a prison guard.

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Barbara Easley Joined the Black panthers as a student at San Francisco University. She married Donald L. Cox, and became an official member of the Black Panthers. When Donald was accused of murdering a fellow Black Panther, the couple fled to Algeria. Barbara Easley was a very important member of the Black Panthers.

https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/black-panthers#easley

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Maya Angelou was a black author and poet but she was also known for being a writer essayist playwright and editor. her most famous book was "I know why the caged bird sings". sadly she died in 2014 after being awarded the presidential medal of freedom in 2010.

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The Black Arts Movement was a Black nationalism movement that focused on music, literature, drama, and the visual arts made up of Black artists and intellectuals. This was the cultural section of the Black Power movement, in that its participants shared many of the ideologies of Black self-determination, political beliefs, and African American culture.

The Black Arts Movement started in 1965 when poet Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones] established the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, New York, as a place for artistic expression. Artists associated with this movement include Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Gil Scott-Heron, and Thelonious Monk. Records at the National Archives related to the Black Arts Movement primarily focus on individual artists and their interaction with various Federal agencies.
Search the Catalog for Records on the Black Arts Movement
Prominent Figures of the Black Arts Movement at the National Archives

Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014)

Amiri Baraka [Everett LeRoi Jones] (October 7, 1934 - January 9, 2014)

Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey on October 7, 1934. In 1954 he earned a bachelor's degree in English at Howard University. Following graduation, Jones joined the military and served three years in the Air Force. After receiving a honorable discharge, he settled in Greenwich Village in New York and began to interact with various musicians and artists. While living in New York, Jones became a well-respected novelist and poet for his writings on Black liberation and white racism. He also met Hettie Cohen, a Jewish writer. Later on, the two married and co-edited the literary magazine Yugen. They also founded Totem Press, which focused on publishing the works of political activists. Jones taught at several colleges and universities before changing his name to Amiri Baraka. Baraka continued to publish literary works for over 50 years until his death in 2014. Records at the National Archives pertaining to Amiri Baraka include a sound recording of Baraka reciting a poem that was considered to be an un-American activity.
Social Networks and Archival Context - Amiri Baraka
James Baldwin (August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987)

Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 to December 3, 2000)

Gwendolyn Brooks was an American poet and teacher and is known as the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer when she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her work Annie Allen (1950). Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. Six weeks after her birth, the Brooks family moved to Chicago. Growing up in Chicago and attending majority white, then Black, and then integrated schools gave Brooks a varied perspective on racial dynamics in America which would later come to influence her future work. In the 1940s Brooks became heavily involved in attending poetry workshops in Chicago, in particular workshops organized by Inez Cunningham Stark. World renowned poet Langston Hughes stopped by one of these workshops and after hearing her recite her poem "The Ballad of Pearl May Lee" he became a fan of her work and acted as her mentor.

She published several works of poetry including A Street in Bronzeville (1945), and In the Mecca (1968) which both earned critical acclaim. One of her better known poems "We Real Cool" was published in her third book of poetry, The Bean Eaters (1960), and is widely studied in literature classes and re-printed in literature textbooks. Brooks taught poetry and writing around the country at several well known colleges and universities such as the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and Elmhurst College and continued on in that respect until her death on December 3, 2000 in her hometown of Chicago.
Social Networks and Archival Context - Gwendolyn Brooks
Nikki Giovanni (June 7, 1943)

Nikki Giovanni is an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Giovanni was born as Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. on June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee. She attended Fisk University receiving a B.A. in History and later went on to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Giovanni's work covers topics ranging from race and social issues explored through poetry anthologies, poetry recordings, and nonfiction essays. She was a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s and her work was heavily influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement. Her poetry during this period in Black Feeling, Black Talk and Black Judgement, reflected a strong African American perspective and because of this she was hailed as the "Poet of the Black Revolution." Over the years Giovanni would shift her focus to children's literature, human relationships, women writers, and hip hop. Currently, Giovanni works as an University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech where she teaches courses on writing and poetry.
Social Networks and Archival Context - Nikki Giovanni
Lorraine Hansberry (May 19, 1930 - January 12, 1965)

A native of Chicago, Illinois Lorraine Hansberry is known as one of the most significant and influential playwrights of the 20th century. She wrote the landmark play A Raisin in the Sun, which opened at Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City in 1959. A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. The play depicted the characteristics, emotions, and struggles of an urban Black family and eventually won a New York Drama Critics Circle Award and four Tonys for best play, director, actress and actor. Because of the success of the play, Hansberry was credited for breaking down racial barriers on Broadway and ushering in a new opportunity for African American women playwrights.

In 1961, she wrote the screenplay to A Raisin in the Sun in order to turn the play into a movie. The movie staring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee became as successful as the play and allowed the actors to gain considerable recognition for their roles. Hansberry's second play, and only other production put on in her lifetime, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window ran for 101 performances. The day that the play closed was the same day that Hansberry died at the age of 34 from pancreatic cancer. Hansberry had many other works, including writings for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and contributions to lesbian rights organizations. Records at the National Archives pertaining to Lorraine Hansberry include moving images among the records of the Agency for International Development and sound recordings of a radio broadcast.
Social Media and Archival Contexts - Lorraine Hansberry

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The Black Arts Movement was a Black nationalism movement that focused on music, literature, drama, and the visual arts made up of Black artists and intellectuals. This was the cultural section of the Black Power movement, in that its participants shared many of the ideologies of Black self-determination, political beliefs, and African American culture.

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The Black Arts Movement combined themes of revolutionary politics with the works of Black artists seeking to express empowerment, pride, and liberation.

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How Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers changed the civil rights movement | Fresh Air

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tephen Shames had just turned 20 when he visited the headquarters of the Black Panther party in Oakland, California, and showed some of his recent photographs to Bobby Seale, co-founder and main spokesman for the organisation. Though Shames was still finding his way as a photographer, Seale liked what he saw and decided to use some of the pictures in the Black Panther newspaper. So it was that a young white guy from Cambridge, Massachusetts became the official chronicler of the Black Panthers from 1967 to 1973, documenting their community programmes, protests, rallies, arrests and funerals at close hand.

"The Panthers were never a black nationalist organisation," says Shames, now 74. "They formed alliances with many black writers and activists and their whole legal team was white. They were not out to get white people, as the American government insisted. They were a revolutionary organisation who worked with anybody they felt was sincerely trying to change the system to benefit poor people and create a more just society."

Since that time, Shames has published two photobooks about that struggle - The Black Panthers (2006) and Power to the People: the World of the Black Panthers (2016) - as well as several other titles that attest to a life of activism and deep engagement with his subjects. Next month, he will complete his trilogy on that era with a book that, as he puts it, is "long overdue". Co-authored with former Black Panther Ericka Huggins, who is now a writer and educator, Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party is a dynamic visual and oral testament to the crucial role played by women in a revolutionary group whose figureheads, with a few exceptions, were men.

In her foreword to the book, the activist and author Angela Davis points out that 66% of the membership of the Black Panthers was female. She writes: "Because the media tended to focus on what could be easily sensationalised ... There has been a tendency to forget that the organising work that truly made the Black Panther Party relevant to a new era of struggle for liberation was largely carried out by women."

The book is a powerful record of an intense period of grassroots activism and political engagement, a counter-narrative to the one propagated by J Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, who called the Panthers "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country". Like the Black Panther men, the women members tended to look both stylish and dramatic, often sporting afros and at times wearing the black leather jackets and berets that were the Panther uniform. "Most young people are photogenic," says Shames, "but the Panthers were charismatic. It was something to do with the pride they instilled in their people. Rather than treating them as a problem, as the government did, they gave them a sense of faith and pride and I really think that shines through in the photographs."

Shames's extraordinary access allowed him to capture fly-on-the-wall shots of young women at protest rallies, but also carrying out on-the-ground organising of various Black Panther community initiatives, including the Free Breakfast for Children Program, the People's Free Ambulance Service and the People's Free Medical Clinics, which offered medical care, including sickle-cell anaemia testing. Though the series is punctuated by images of well-known female members - Kathleen Cleaver (law professor and former communications secretary for the party), Elaine Brown (prison activist, writer and former chair of the party), and the late Afeni Shakur (political activist and mother of rapper Tupac Shakur) - most of the testimonies come from ordinary black women whose youthful engagement with the Black Panthers remains the most empowering moment of their lives.

Carol Henry, who joined the Oakland chapter of the Panthers, recalls: "I joined the BPP when I was 20 years old. I lived in a part of town where the Free Breakfast for School Children Program ran. We got up at 3am; it was a real mission, but it was beautiful. We gave those children a full breakfast every day. Cooking that breakfast was the most memorable part, because everybody got up so early and everybody worked together." Another woman, Barbara Easley-Cox, who was in the Philadelphia chapter, remembers: "Love is what tied me to the party; it exemplified how I understood love. And that is: you have to love people, to serve them. I was so loved. So blessed on this earth because of my sisters, all of us, who came into the party. It's lacking today, when I look out on this landscape in America."

As co-author, Ericka Huggins wrote the introductory essay and tracked down, as she puts it, "the women who were there and whose individual testimonies we could use to evoke how extraordinary that time was for many of us". Huggins's own moment of political awakening was seismic. Aged 18, and a student at Lincoln University in Philadelphia, she picked up a copy of the radical leftist magazine and saw a photograph of a young black man strapped to a hospital gurney with a bullet wound in his stomach. Next to him, a policeman stood grinning at the camera. On reading the accompanying report, she found out that the young man was Huey P Newton, a co-founder of the party, who had authored the party's 10-point manifesto with Seale in 1966. "I studied the picture for some time," she recalled years later, "I didn't have tears for it, I was so appalled."

The following day, she left a note for her friend and fellow student John Huggins that read: "I am going to California if I have to walk. I am going to find Huey Newton and work in his defence. Are you coming?"

The pair subsequently drove across the country to Los Angeles, where they joined the local Black Panther chapter, which then comprised around 20 members. They were married soon afterwards and initially worked at whatever task was necessary: answering phones, selling newspapers, writing letters to politicians and talking to potential financial donors. Not long after their arrival in California, they attended the funeral of 17-year-old Bobby Hutton, who had been killed in disputed circumstances during a shoot-out between the Panthers and the Oakland police. "The person waiting in line next to me to pay his respects was Marlon Brando," says Huggins. "He looked as heartbroken as I felt."

The killing was an augury. In January 1969, her husband, who had become a leader of the Los Angeles Black Panthers, was assassinated on the campus of UCLA by alleged members of a black nationalist group, the US Organization. The killing was thought by many in the black community to be linked to the Cointelpro programme that was being conducted clandestinely and illegally by the FBI against the Black Panthers. In December that year, Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed in an FBI-orchestrated raid on Hampton's apartment.

Widowed with a three-week old daughter, Huggins moved to her husband's home town of New Haven, Connecticut and, alongside Kathleen Cleaver and Elaine Brown, organised a branch of the Black Panther party there. In 1969, she was arrested alongside Bobby Seale, and charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy but, after a lengthy trial, the charges were dismissed in May 1971.

"The word 'conspiracy' was used a lot at the time," she says now, calmly. "We spent time in jail for a murder we did not commit or have anything to do with. The system, then as now, was punitive. We were punished before we even entered the courtroom and their aim was to keep us in prison for ever..."

Did her time in prison dent the sense of optimism and empowerment she had experienced when she joined the Black Panthers? "My optimism was dented by my husband being killed," she replies, "and by not being able to see my daughter except for a single hour every Saturday. But I chose not to let it break my spirit. When I was in solitary and grieving, I taught myself to meditate in a way that brought me into a deeper focus, so that when I went to court I could be really present. It's a practice I have kept to this day."

Huggins insists that her experience was not exceptional and that it "helped me help the women I contacted to tell their stories, because it's hard sometimes to go back". Alongside Shames's powerful images of a moment of black activism that echoes through the decades to this day, those stories evoke a time in which young black women experiencedlifechanging personal empowerment and collective possibility.

"These are not war stories," says Huggins, who spent 14 years as a Black Panther, making her the longest serving woman in their history. "They are stories of service to humanity. The reason they are so striking, touching and inspiring is because you can sense how beautiful and alive the women were in that moment. Every function of the government that could do harm to us did so, but we kept stepping out and stepping up, because we were giving our communities what had never been given. I think all the women in the book realise that, because they can remember how great they felt back then, what they learned, and what was indelibly imprinted on their minds and in their hearts. The book is our legacy."

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Sisters of the revolution: the women of the Black Panther party

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tephen Shames had just turned 20 when he visited the headquarters of the Black Panther party in Oakland, California, and showed some of his recent photographs to Bobby Seale, co-founder and main spokesman for the organisation. Though Shames was still finding his way as a photographer, Seale liked what he saw and decided to use some of the pictures in the Black Panther newspaper.

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[TITLE POSTER]

An Exhibit in the Library September 2016 - March 2017

OAKLAND BIRTHPLACE

Like many northern industrial cities, Oakland had attracted a large migration of black families from the South during World War II to fill jobs in wartime factories.

At the end of World War II in 1945, the white male workforce returned stateside, and the wartime jobs were gone, leaving American inner cities - where whites no longer lived - as de facto black ghettos with high unemployment, poor housing, police brutality, and inadequate political representation.

[Image: "Seize the Time" Black Panther graphic]

As students at North Oakland's Merritt College, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton wanted to organize the black community to meet its social problems head-on. In 1966 they formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, inspired by the militant black nationalism of the late Malcolm X.

In 1967 they published a specific set of 10 demands and party objectives.

[Image: "What We Want - What We Believe"]
[Caption: The Panthers' original 10-point manifesto was published in 1966]

EARLY ACTIONS

Their first focus was on Point No. 7 - an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.

Newton and Seale organized armed patrols of black neighborhoods in Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco, and Berkeley, to monitor police treatment of blacks. They were careful to point out their Constitutional right to bear arms, but their mere presence was enough to provoke a police backlash in many cases. The Panthers quickly came to be perceived a violent threat by the politicians, the white press, and the police, and both Newton and Seale were arrested on various charges, including murder.

To counteract mainstream news coverage, Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver created the Black Panther Community News Service to transmit the BPP's message to the community.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 - 2016
PROMINENT PANTHERS
EARLY LEADERSHIP

[Image: Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton]
[Caption: Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton]

Bobby Seale and Huey Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966. The two met while attending Oakland's old Merritt College campus on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way) in North Oakland. Both men were unafraid to confront authority, and were inspired by Malcolm X's militant black empowerment philosophy. Seale styled himself Chairman and Newton became the party's Minister of Defense.

[Image: Eldridge Cleaver]
[Caption: Eldridge Cleaver]

Eldridge Cleaver joined the party, as Minister of Information in December 1966.

WOMEN OF THE PARTY

Kathleen Cleaver was the first female to join the BPP's decision-making body.

[Image: Kathleen Cleaver]
[Caption: Kathleen Cleaver]

As the party's Communications Secretary, she ran the successful campaign to free Huey Newton after his incarceration for murder in the late '60s.

[Image: Assata Shakur]
[Caption: Assata Shakur - FBI mugshot]

Assata Shakur joined the BPP in 1970, and headed its Harlem chapter. Still living in Cuba after a 1979 prison escape, she is on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List.

[Image: Ericka Huggins ]
[Caption: Erika Huggins]

Ericka Huggins joined the party in 1967. She survived political imprisonment, spent 14 years as a leader in the BPP, and was the first black and first woman appointed to the Alameda County Board of Education.

[Image: Angela Davis]
[Caption: Angela Davis - FBI mugshot]
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 - 2016
Angela Davis was an academic and an activist. She joined several radical groups, including the Panthers. Arrested by the FBI in 1970. She spent 18 months in prison before being acquitted.

MILITANCY & VIOLENCE

[Image: Black Panther graphic: "All Power to the People"]

Since their formation as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, militant self-defense against racism in the police and government was a core principle of the Black Panthers. This stood in opposition to the non-violent resistance that had been used so far in the Civil Rights movement.

[Image: BPP cartoon view of 3 identical, armed "pigs" as "Local Police," "National Guard," and "Marines" entitled "It's All the Same"]
[Caption: Panther cartoon view of armed authority]

PATROLLING POLICE

In 1966-1967, the Black Panthers conducted armed "police patrols" in Oakland's black communities to monitor for incidents of police brutality. Party members would follow police cars at a distance, armed with guns that they had been given or had purchased through sales of Mao Tse-tung's "Little Red Book" at UC Berkeley. At that time, openly carrying loaded weapons was legal in California as long as they weren't pointed at anyone and the Black Panthers were quick to point out to the police their legal rights, as citizens, to carry guns.

[Image: BPP members wielding rifles in California State Capitol Building]
[Caption: BPP members openly carry weapons at the California State Capitol Building in 1967]

On May 2nd, 1967, twenty Panthers armed with rifles and shotguns arrived at the California state capitol building to protest the Mulford Bill, which would prohibit carrying loaded firearms in public. After being disarmed on the floor of the State Assembly, Bobby Seale read a statement to the media urging black people to arm themselves. The Mulford Bill was later signed into law by Governor Ronald Reagan.

Displays of militancy such as this helped to publicize the early Panthers, but also created a reputation for violence that would follow party members for years.

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
SOCIAL ACTION BASED ON BPP'S 10-POINTS

In 1968, the BPP inaugurated the first of many community-based programs that would directly meet the needs of people in black communities as outlined in the party's 10-point program.

FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN LAUNCHED

[Image: BPP member serves breakfast for schoolchildren]
[Caption: Panther Free Breakfast Program; photo: William Streater, AP

Enlisting the support of black community churches, the BPP announced a Free Breakfast for Children Program (FBCP). By January 1969, the program was underway in BPP chapters throughout the country. Numbers of children served grew rapidly, with the program able to solicit donations through the tax-exempt status of the various participating neighborhood churches. Local police and government agencies claimed the breakfasts were a tool for radical indoctrination, some churches were intimidated into abandoning their support, and cooperating businesses were threatened with IRS audits.

OTHER BPP 'SURVIVAL' PROGRAMS

The food program grew to include other disadvantaged people in the black community; the BPP opened a free medical clinic in Berkeley in June 1969; the BPP established a national Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation in 1971. The party also tried to tackle the high rates of black unemployment through a Free Employment Program and Job Identification Network, established a community program designed to protect seniors, and instituted Free Shoes and Clothing programs. The LA Chapter provided free busing so parents of prison inmates could visit.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS...
BLACK PANTHER 10-POINT PROGRAM

ARRESTS & KILLINGS

BPP DEFENSIVE STANCE VIEWED AS THREAT BY POLICE & FBI

[Image/Citation/Caption: H95.18.802 - Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968. Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of ANG Newspapers]

BPP members were instructed to strictly obey party rules in order to maintain discipline among their foot soldiers.Though emphasizing their defensive stance, it was clear the very act of standing up to established authority with loaded weapons and incendiary rhetoric was enough to convince local police, as well as the FBI, that the BPP was a serious threat.

[Image: BPP poster/broadside: "An Attack Against One Is An Attack Against All. The Slaughter of Black People Must Be Stopped! By Any Means Necessary!]
[Caption: Black Panther poster calls for force in the name of defense]

PANTHER LEADERS ARRESTED

In 1967 Bobby Seale was arrested on charges resulting from a BPP demonstration in Sacramento. He received a 6-month sentence. Seale was arrested again in 1968 for conspiring to riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Arrested with 7 others, Seale did not go to trial quietly, and was convicted on of numerous counts of contempt of court.

In 1967, Huey Newton was arrested for killing Oakland police officer John Frey. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1968, but many in the Black Power movement believed he was unable to receive a fair trial.

A campaign was launched to "Free Huey." A re-trial was ordered and, after three attempts to get a verdict, charges were eventually dropped - though Newton continued to be implicated in other crimes into the 1970s.

In 1970, the leader of the New Haven, Connecticut Chapter of the BPP, Ericka Huggins, was charged with the torture-murder of a suspected BPP informant. After much publicity around whether she could receive a fair trial, she was freed when a jury deadlocked heavily toward acquittal.

[Image: FBI Wanted Poster: Angela Yvonne Davis]

In 1970, activist Angela Davis was arrested after an attempt to free the so-called Soledad Brothers from a Marin County courtroom, leaving four people dead, a nationwide campaign led to her eventual acquittal in 1972.

GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
U.S. GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE OF BPP

Almost from the very beginning of the Black Panther Party, the FBI, under director J. Edgar Hoover, began a program of aggressive surveillance against the BPP, including the use of undercover informants.

[Image: J. Edgar Hoover]
[Caption: FBI Director Hoover; photo Marion S. Trikoso]

According to documents released by the FBI in 2012, BPP Field Marshal Richard Aoki - one of the earliest members of the party and the person who supplied the first guns for Black Panther police patrols - allegedly worked as FBI informant.

[Image: Richard Aoki]
​[Caption: Richard Aoki]

FBI PROGRAM TO DESTROY THE PANTHERS
COINTELPRO FBI PROGRAM

COINTELPRO was the FBI's secret Counterintelligence Program, begun in 1956 to disrupt Communist Party activities in the U.S. In the 1960s, it grew to include other domestic groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Socialist Workers Party, and anti-war groups.

BPP TARGETED

Beginning in 1967, the FBI directed its secret COINTELPRO resources to neutralize the Black Panther Party through police harassment and secret (often illegal) sabotage and disruption, particularly targeting the social and community programs created by the Black Panthers. In 1968, J. Edgar Hoover publicly stated that "...the Black Panther party, without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."

BPP LEADERSHIP UNDER ATTACK

By 1969, the Black Panther Party had become COINTELPRO's number one target. That year, the FBI engaged in 233 documented operations against the party, and other Black Nationalist groups, culminating in the murder of BPP leader, Fred Hampton in 1969.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 - 2016
Other FBI actions that year involved covert activities to promote animosity between the BPP and Chicago street gangs. thus inducing violence and killings among the groups in order to "disrupt and neutralize" the BPP.

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

BPP MEMBERS ON THE BALLOT AS EARLY AS 1968

In spite of its early revolutionary stance and rhetoric, the BPP was willing to utilize the electoral process, as evidenced in their voter registration drives, and their candidacies for various local and state offices.

In 1968 - the first national election since their founding, the BPP worked with the Bay Area's New-Left Peace and Freedom Party (PFP), which fielded numerous candidates for State Assembly and U.S. Congressional Districts, as well as for national offices, such as president.

[Image: Election poster: Huey Newton / Bobby Seale - Black Panther Candidates on Peace & Freedom Party ticket, 1968]
[Caption: Election flyer for 1968 BPP candidates]

The PFP had 36 candidates in the 1968 election, including Kathleen Cleaver (AD-18), Huey Newton (CS-07), and Bobby Seale (AD-17). Kathleen Cleaver took 4.7% of the vote, Newton had 7.5%, and Seale recorded 8.2%. In spite of the BPP losses, their showings were significantly stronger than the remaining Peace & Freedom Party candidates.

ELDRIDGE CLEAVER FOR PRESIDENT

In early 1968, BPP Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver published his prison memoir, Soul on Ice, gaining notoriety. By summer, he had become the PFP candidate for the presidency.

[Image: Election poster: Eldridge Cleaver for president, 1968]
​[Caption: Election flyer for 1968 Cleaver presidential candidacy]

POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT NETS 1970s BPP GAINS

In the early 1970s, Bobby Seale and fellow BPP officer Elaine Brown set their sights on a 5-year plan to wrest control of Oakland's city government.

Seale ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign, and Brown ran for city council and lost. Brown's subsequent elevation to BPP's first Chairwoman in 1974, however, led to more radical electoral campaigns, as well as the BPP's support for Lionel Wilson in a successful bid to become Oakland's first black mayor.

PRESENT-DAY LEGACY

ADDRESSING STRUCTURAL RACISM

[Image: Black Lives Matter street protest]
[Caption: Black Lives Matter protest in 2014; photo: The All-Nite Images]

While the Black Panther Party had dissolved by the early 1980s, its legacy lives on in current movements such as Black Lives Matter (#blacklivesmatter).

Both began in reaction to the killing of unarmed Black people by police.

Black Lives Matter, like the original Black Panther Party, has made visible - and called for the dismantling, on a national and international stage, the structural racism and inequality that perpetuate violence against Black people.

Further connections can be found through the work of Assata Shakur, a former Black Panther, who is an inspiration for Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. For a closer look at comparing the Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter, check out the PBS quiz available at: http://goo.gl/8u9y0b

ORIGINAL BPP AND NEW BLACK PANTHERS NOT RELATED

The original Black Panther Party should not be confused with the New Black Panther Party, with which it has no affiliation.

Members of the original Black Panther Party have criticized the New Black Panther Party for its hateful, racist and anti-Semitic speech. The Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes the New Black Panther Party as a hate group within the United States following black
separatist ideology.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS... BLACK PANTHER PARTY RULES

LOCAL CELEBRATIONS

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, there will be a number of local events and exhibits. These celebrations, like this library's exhibit, share the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party.

HOST COMMITTEE FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION

The Host Committee for the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the founding of the Black Panther Party will be presenting a commemoration and conference held October 20th to the 23rd in Oakland. Panels, workshops, films, exhibits, vendors, and more will be part of the conference. More information can be found at www.bpp50th.com.

[Image: Black Panther Party logo of Host Committee].

OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA

All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50, an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of CA, opens on October 8 and runs through February 12, 2017. It features many artifacts from the museum's collection and provides a rich look at the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party.

[Image/Citation/Caption: H95.18.1030 - Howard Erker, Bobby Seale Checks Food Bags, March 31, 1972. Gelatin silver photograph, 10 x 8 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of ANG Newspapers].

[Image/Citation/Caption: 2010.54.2917 - Emory Douglas, untitled ( On the Bones of the Oppressors), 1969. Poster, 20 x 13.5 in. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California. All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family].

[Image/Citation/Caption: 2010.54.2920 - Emory Douglas, Afro-American Solidarity with the Oppressed People of the World, 1969. Poster, 22.75 x 14.875 in. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California. All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family].

BPP ALUMNI MARK 50TH CELEBRATION

The National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party (NAABPP) will hold 50th anniversary BPP celebrations throughout the coming months. Check their website at http://www.naabpp.org

IN THEIR OWN WORDS...
BPP CHRONOLOGY - FIRST TWO YEARS

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LibGuides: Exhibits in the Library: 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party Exhibit (2016-2017)

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This guide serves as your resource for Library Exhibits

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The often misunderstood legacy of the Black Panther Party

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In the 1960s civil rights movement, some concluded that non-violence and the focus on integration had failed — their cry was “Black Power” rather than “We Shall Overcome.” One of the most prominent of these groups was the Black Panther Party, and it was also perhaps one of the most misunderstood and vilified by the white establishment. We take a closer look for our “Hidden Histories” series.

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By Jaimee A. Swift
At 15-years-old, human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther Party leader, and former political prisoner, Ericka Huggins (she/her) made a vow to serve humanity at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Now at 72, the revolutionary is still as dedicated and committed to the vow she made years ago.
Ericka Huggins' interview is a part of our March theme, "Sankofa: Honoring Our Black Feminist Pioneers." To read the descriptor, click .

"We can together change the world. We are all threaded together like a huge tapestry of humanity. And we forget that we are interconnected."

- Ericka Huggins, The Role of Spiritual Practice in Social Justice Work | Bioneers 2016

During my phone interview with Mrs. Ericka Huggins, I confided that it was "nerve-racking" to be speaking with her. Without hesitation and in a very direct but calm manner, she asked me why I felt this way (which made me even more nervous than I already was), as she noted her mother's characterization of "nerve-racking" was something not so positive. With my voice shaking, I told her I was quite nervous to speak with her because of the great admiration I have for her and her revolutionary work, citing her as one of my political inspirations. To that, Mrs. Huggins so kindly and compassionately responded, "I am honored to talk to you because of the work you do but it is not nerve-racking for me. It is inspiring. We are all just these humans, no more or less special than the other. I hope that makes sense to you because as we are interviewing, I am not interviewing as somebody on a pedestal. Do you know what I mean? What I did, I did because it was the right thing to do--that is what you're doing, isn't it true?"

From there, my "nerve-racking" dissipated. And it become clear to me that beyond what I've read of and about Mrs. Huggins and especially during our conversation together, that at the core of it all she truly is and will always be concerned about community and humanity.

Ericka Huggins (born Ericka Jenkins) was born on January 5, 1948 in Washington, D.C., the middle child of three. Raised in Southeast D.C., her life would change at age 15 when she attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, much to her mother's dismay. Inspired and moved by the congregation of Black people from all over the nation unified in the movement for justice, it was there she made a vow to serve humanity. And this vow would and continues to lead her to a lifetime commitment in the struggle for freedom and liberation of all oppressed peoples around the world.

While reading an article about Huey P. Newton, co-founder and the chairman of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (later the Black Panther Party) (BPP), Huggins was moved by the mission and values of the Party. While students at Lincoln University, she and her husband, John Huggins, left the university and drove to California, along with a friend, in 1968 to join the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party and quickly became leaders of the movement. However on January 17, 1969, tragedy would befall Huggins and her family, as three weeks after the birth of their daughter, her husband, John, and their comrade, Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, were killed. That day she became both a single mother and a widow.

Huggins moved to New Haven, Connecticut to bury her late husband and to be with his family. There, she was asked by Yale University students and community members to establish a Black Panther Party chapter there. She accepted and led the party chapter in New Haven. However in May 1969, she and Bobby Seale, co-founder and national chairman of the BPP, were targeted and arrested on politically motivated conspiracy charges, which sparked " Free Bobby, Free Ericka" rallies and protests across the country. A political prisoner for two years, in May 1971 Huggins was acquitted, charges were dropped, and she was released. While she was incarcerated and in solitary confinement, Huggins taught herself meditation and yoga and wrote poetry as a way to cope and survive her false imprisonment and her separation from her daughter, who she was only allowed to see for an hour during Saturday visitations.

Since then, she continues to incorporate meditation and mindfulness as a part of her spiritual and political practice. In 1971, the same year of her release, she became a writer and editor for the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service. In 1974, she published and co-authored a book of poetry with Huey P. Newton, Insights and Poems, that detailed her experience of incarceration and her struggle for liberation. Huggins also visited California state, county, and federal prisons and jails and shared her yoga and meditation practices. For over 20 years, she taught relaxation and mindfulness in California youth correctional facilities, as well in public schools and colleges.

From 1973 to 1981, she was the Director of the Oakland Community School (OCS), a community-led and organized elementary school and child development center founded by the Black Panther Party. The concept of the Oakland Community School was an extension of point five of the Black Panther Party's 10 Point Program and Platform, which was written in 1966. The OCS served as a revolutionary model on the possibilities of innovative educational curriculum and on what community-and child-centered education can look like.

With her 14-year leadership in the Black Panther Party, Huggins held the longest tenure of leadership of any woman in the Party. Huggins also became the first woman and first Black person to be appointed to the Alameda County Board of Education. Working with the Shanti Project, a non-profit whose "mission is to enhance the health, quality of life, and well-being of people with terminal, life threatening or disabling illnesses or conditions", and the AIDS Project of Contra Costa County, she helped develop citywide programs in support of LGBTQ+ youth and adults with HIV/AIDS. Huggins was also a professor of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University and California State University, East Bay and was also a professor of Sociology and African American Studies in the Peralta Community College District.

Black Women Radicals spoke with Ericka Huggins about the March on Washington in 1963 and what she saw and felt that motivated her vow to serve humanity; the lessons she learned while in Black Panther Party leadership; on what it was like meeting Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, and Cesar Chavez, and more.

Jaimee Swift (JS): On your website you shared that the moment which spurred your activism was when you attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Do you mind sharing with me a specific moment or moments at the March that led you to know serving your community was what you wanted to do?
Ericka Huggins (EH): "I was 15-years-old when I went to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom against my mother's wishes and my father's. But my mother was most frightened for me, even though she was the one who would continually tell me to always work to uplift our people. As a child, she told all of us; there are three of us--my sister, my brother, and me--but I was the one most concerned with that and the most wanting to do that. And she knew it. That day when I went to ask her-tell her--I was going; I lived in D.C. and grew up in D.C. I grew up in Southeast D.C., so I had to take two buses to get to Northwest. And I told her I was going to get on the bus and go to the march. She knew the march was happening--everyone knew it. It was like the talk of the town because people were coming in from everywhere, especially from the South. And she didn't want me to go because she said something could happen to me. And I said, 'Yes, but you are the one who always told me I should uplift people and if I don't go, I will feel like I am not participating in that.' She was quietly angry with me for telling her what I was going to do at age 15. But it was a strong feeling and she knew me well enough to know that if you said no, I would do it anyway and would suffer the consequences, whatever it may be. I wasn't sassy, as she would say about other people she knew, but it was strong conviction and she knew it. And this strong conviction was something she got to know more about as time went on."

"So, I went. And to honor her, I went by myself. There was no one else in the neighborhood or in my school who I could think of that would even want to go. I was so inspired when I got there. There were busloads and truckloads and pick-up trucks and by bus I mean, school buses, church buses, Greyhound buses, Trailways buses--some of those buses don't exist anymore--of mostly Black people and the crowd just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I stood there by myself on the grounds. They had cleared some earth so there could be places for people to stand. I found this big mound of dirt. I was a tall girl--I am a tall woman--but still I wanted to stand there by myself so I could sort of see everything. And I looked out into the faces of people and [they were] so reverent, so proud, so inspired, and joyful. There were children there and there were people with their babies. There were people dressed in their best church clothes. There were men and women in their coveralls and other farm clothes. There were just all kinds of people. There were white people there, too, and I didn't pay attention to them because I got to see them often enough in D.C. and in Maryland but what I did get is that they were respectful. It was a peaceful day, of which inspired me also."

"I did make note of one thing, which I've never forgotten. Later in time when I began to understand the ways in which gender and race connect--or as we say these days intersect--I had words for it but then I didn't. I noticed there on the big stage where all the speakers were that I could see Martin Luther King and I could see Rosa Parks. I could see Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne. If you don't know who they are. then you can do some research. They were actors and vocalists and they were activists, which also inspired me about them. But all the men spoke and the women didn't. I was curious about why that would be. Why would women like Rosa Parks and Lena Horne-who were capable of speaking about anything anywhere-why would they not be speaking? Why are they just sitting there? And that was like a precursor to my feminist understanding, that moment. But then Lena Horne did the most amazing thing. She moved really quickly to the microphone, grabbed it, and she sung two syllables--the word freedom. And when she did that, a blanket of silence fell over the whole crowd. It was the most amazing feeling to not be in church, to not be at a concert, to not be at a ballgame, to not be somewhere celebratory in a different kind of way, and to feel this absolute all-pervasive peace. And as her words landed in our ears and as those words dropped into my heart, a vow arose: I would serve people for the rest of my life. I didn't think it. I didn't overthink it. I didn't try to analyze it. I knew it was coming from somewhere deep in myself. I accepted it. And that was a pivot in my life."

"I got back on the D.C. buses and rode back home and I decided not to tell my mother about the vow at that time. I told her later but I just told her, 'Mom, I am back home. I am safe.' She was cooking something and she didn't want to look at me because she was pissed off. I said, 'I know you are angry but it was a beautiful day and I wished you had been there.' And she kind of nodded like okay. But a few days later, she asked me about it and I told her about the vow. I told her that I was sorry to disobey her and disappoint her but I was about doing exactly what she encouraged me to do as a child. And that was that day. It was amazing. I can still see it as clearly as it happened."

JS: Wow. You make me wish I was there.
EH: "Well, I want you to wish you were there. I want you to know that being with people, being beyond our phones and our computers, and so on but being in the middle of it, is so important for our work. Otherwise, it remains cerebral in a kind of way, do you know what I mean? That was something else I learned that day when I saw all those people. My mother was from North Carolina but from a huge family of 11 kids. So I would go to the South every summer and I knew what the conditions were like. I knew what the conditions were [and what] she grew up in. I hadn't been to the upper East Coast but I had been to Baltimore and other parts of Maryland and Virginia but I knew how people lived. So to be there in that context, it was mind boggling for me because no one was feeling oppressed, do you know what I mean? But in all kinds of ways we actually were. So, I hope that answers your question."

You were in the Black Panther Party for 14 years and were the Director of the Party's Oakland Community School. What was the catalyst that led you to join the Party? Do you mind sharing with me your favorable memories but also lessons learned and challenges from your experience?
EH: "I joined because it was a part of that vow I told you I made at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom but specifically I was impressed about what I read in a magazine about the Black Panther Party. I was in college at the time. I was in my junior year at Lincoln University, which was an HBCU. And by the way, and I didn't know it then, but one of the very first [HBCUs] to open during slavery. I was there and I was a part of a Black student organization and it was there where I met John Huggins. He was my friend and later, he was my boyfriend. So that vow was very present with me. I was always looking at how it would play out in the tapestry of my life. I read this article about the Black Panther Party and I was so impressed by it because what I was looking for wasn't the NAACP. I wasn't looking for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). I wasn't looking for something that had been around for a while and had been prey to the understandings and directives of the United States government. I just wasn't. I was looking for something new and I was also looking for something that wasn't just about Black people because what I understood of D.C.--which was very Black and white at that time [and] now all kinds of people of color live in D.C., and a huge population of African people. It wasn't like that then. It was very Black and white and where I lived in Southeast--I grew up in Southeast--and right on the borderline from one of the streets I could walk to was Maryland. I would go to the little corner store in Maryland and what I saw was really, really poor white people. That is not something I saw on TV. That is not something anyone talked to me about. But when I saw children with no shoes and rotten teeth who were only eight or nine years-old and yet mean to Black people and being trained in racist behavior, it was heartbreaking to me. This was another thing I talked to my mother about. She was always there to talk to me about how the world worked to the best of her ability because she didn't have any--thank goodness--she didn't have any academic language. It was real down to earth. Very simple and plain so I could understand. At any rate, I knew there was something about poor white people that we needed to speak about. I knew that at a very early age. And if we could get to young people- which is a part of what I was thinking as well because much of the existing organizations were much older."

"When I read this article in magazine, I was 18 by then and I had gotten into college early because of my birthday and so on. So I kept reading the article and it kept saying, 'All poor and oppressed people' and in the next paragraph would say, 'Black and other oppressed people.' It didn't say Black and other people of color but that was inferred in everything that was written. It talked about and showed a huge picture of the co-founders of the Party, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. It showed a picture of Huey strapped to a hospital gurney with a bullet wound in his belly and he was under police guard. And this picture--visuals always stay with me. It's just the way I am put together. But that picture really struck me. If he has a bullet wound in his stomach, then why is he shackled to a hospital gurney? The story was telling me why--he had been accused of killing a police officer and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which was its earliest name, was all about what we call today [as] 'police watch.' It was the great-great grandmother of that. And so Huey, Bobby, and others would go out and when the police would be arresting, beating, or trying to kill Black men and women in the streets of any city of the United States, they would appear with guns without bullets and law books--well, Huey had a law book. 'Why are you arresting this man?' 'Do you know that the law says he has this right and that right?' The police hated it, so they stalked Huey and [tried to] kill him. And the article said that as well. The article didn't use that language but it was written furthermore by a member of the Black Panther Party, who was also a great writer. The magazine was called Ramparts. It doesn't exist anymore but it was the most amazing magazine of the times because it did feature articles on movements around the globe, which the articles always had built in what it [was] that we could do. I was sitting at the student union building at Lincoln and people were playing bid whist and billiards. I looked out on that crowd of young Black people, many of whom were my dear friends, and thought, 'What the hell am I doing here?' It was kind of like, 'Is anybody awake?' It wasn't judgmental, I was just curious. Who could I talk to about how I was feeling about this article?"

"The magazine had been passed around among the students among the Black Student Congress, which was what it was called. There was no such thing as the Black Student Union then because the Black Panther Party had not created that concept yet, which it did create in 1968 at San Francisco State [University]. But at any rate, I sat there re-reading the article thinking, 'What am I doing at Lincoln? I should be working to free Huey.' Right after I had that thought again [and] John showed up and I passed the article to him and I said nothing. I just gave him the article to read. And he did and looked at me and nodded. And I said, 'I don't know what we are doing here.' Now, he'd come to Lincoln from a different place, he'd come from a Navy ship. After high school, he joined the Navy because he wanted to be of use but he didn't want to go to college. And he didn't want to be--he was unique. That is the best way I could describe him. He wanted to travel. But he was there on a Navy ship when the four little girls were killed in the church in Birmingham and it turned his world upside down--similar to the way in which the March on Washington turned my world upside down. He was a little bit older than me. And he finally left the Navy ship and he decided to go back to college and he chose Lincoln. That was how we met. That day in the student union building when we both read that article, we knew we were leaving Lincoln. It was just a matter of time and certainly it wasn't too long after that, we both got into his little beat up car with another friend and traveled to southern California first and not to Oakland because the person who was dropping off in California was the one with the gas money and needed to go to southern California. We joined the party chapter there, John and I. There was no screening for joining the Black Panther Party, you just joined if you said you could do all kind[s] of stuff and if you [were] willing to serve. This is an important point to what happened later."

"Immediately, I saw what we call male chauvinism at the time because how could you not see it? And so, I always spoke up about it to the best of my ability. One of the things I loved about John Huggins was that he didn't believe that there was any difference between men and women, with exception of anatomical and some physiological differences but not in terms of intelligence or even physical ability. He was my perfect friend. And so in November of 1967, we, John and I, left Lincoln. I called my mother and let her know once again and she was upset with me and disappointed. And the way I explained to her what I was doing is that I felt called--you know how some people felt called to the church--I felt called to serve humanity. She wasn't happy about the whole thing because she worked really hard to put me through school. There wasn't much financial aid available to me. My parents were not wealthy. They were both working for government agencies at the time, you know, which is the way in D.C,. if you are Black. That is why I left D.C.--you worked in some kind of federal department and you got some kind of relatively good paying job and you lived your life out like that and I could not see myself that way. I just knew that wasn't me. But my mother said, 'Well, I know you. I know that you are quiet [and] that you love me but you are going to do what you want to do anyway. Call me when you get to California.' And I did. I told her about John but she never got to meet him because he was killed by the FBI. We were in New York City when I called my mother and we were there because one of John's sisters was getting married. And we stayed for the wedding and we said good-bye. That was the last time John's mother, father, and sisters saw him alive. We didn't know that. We drove across the country and joined the Black Panther Party and we both battled internalized racism in the Black Panther Party, what we call colorism. We battled with others--not alone, we were never alone--infiltration by the FBI, which didn't have that name yet of what we know now as the counterintelligence program of the FBI. It was more clandestine. But we knew there was a part of the FBI that was focused on Black liberation, we knew that much. I am not a real assertive person in a way but I ask direct questions. I don't sometimes even care about the answers, I just know that it is important to ask very important questions if you have them and discuss it with others. And that is what I did. It was within that year 1968, John and I were married, and we were pregnant and then in December, our daughter was born. It was three weeks after she was born that the FBI, counterintelligence program nicknamed COINTELPRO, killed him and my dear friend, Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, who was the head of the chapter in Los Angeles and also another unbelievable human being."

"The Party drew amazing human beings and it was in Los Angeles where Elaine Brown, Joan Kelly, and Gwendolyn Goodloe [were] and many, many others in the Los Angeles chapter but we were all connected to the National Headquarters of the Party in Oakland. I know you don't know all those names but I keep saying them because we should know them. We shouldn't just know the names that are now kind of visible to us."

How does it feel to see today's Black women leaders and Black feminist led social movements today?
EH: "It makes me happy. I immediately became friends with Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors. I have spoken to Opal [Tometi] but I haven't had the good fortune of meeting her and being with her in the same way. We have stayed in contact. They wanted to know what we could tell them and what we experienced as women leaders in the movement at that time. And I told them--and they talked to lots of us--but I told them; Alicia lives in Oakland so I was able to talk to her more often. We talked about our success and our failures. It is not good to romanticize anything, especially one's relationship to community. We did beautiful work and we also made mistakes. One of them was not [only] pay[ing] strong attention to not just the women in leadership, that is one thing, but women in general who were running the Black Panther Party, because we lived in a male-dominated society and that male paradigm says in all of its institutions which have embedded racism in them--every institution in society including education and including the HBCUs--have some form of, some expression of racism embedded in there. Because of that, the local and national police departments--because there were 40 chapters of the Party in the United States alone and then it spread around the world--when the police targeted, they targeted men first. Why? Because men are believed to be stronger and more powerful. Well, that was a big ole' mistake they made because we were running everything behind the scenes. Elaine [Brown] actually talks about this in her book, A Taste of Power. But that is a different kind of book than the one I am writing. But the thing is that you know nobody walks into the door of any organization, any campus, any job, any family, and leaves behind all the stories of their life and all the socialization they had. Other words, a man does not walk into the Black Panther Party and immediately drop their sexist and misogynist understandings, language, and behavior. That is just a ridiculous notion. And I experienced that in the Black Panther Party and I also was able to in talking to--I use Black Lives Matter as only an example because I have worked with lots of young people and organizations intentionally and whenever I am invited to do some intergenerational summit, I do it. Not for money but because I feel it is important, it is so incredibly important. Otherwise young people will think, 'Well, those old people don't know what they're talking about.' And then the older people will say, 'Those younger people, they ain't doing shit.' Both those ideas are based in ignorance. It's always been young people who've led the way, the trailblazers. The ones who bring the light. It's young people everywhere around the globe. Always."

"And we just did our best--to those of us who are still alive and well and who have done some healing. This is very important. To heal the very wounds of your own life so you can serve. And I think this is something that doesn't get talked about enough. It is being talked about now, thank goodness, as radical self-care which is different from a manicure-pedicure or a day off. This is different. We didn't know how to do that in the Black Panther Party. This was one of the things I talked to Alicia about and to Patrisse. And I also talk to young moms. Patrisse was a new mom when I first met her and she wanted to talk about how to balance activism and raising children. She didn't want to talk about men. That wasn't important. What was important was, 'How do I raise this boy? How do I raise this child and do all that I am doing?' That is a feminist conversation to have. The reason why we end up raising children alone and like the women, for instance, of the Black Panther Party were not fully supported in taking care of their children because men were socialized to think they had [no] responsibility. We brought that to the forum at the Oakland Community School. The men learned how to braid hair. The men changed the diapers for the little ones in the Child Development Center, the daycare, that was connected to the schools. The men could teach just as the women could teach. The men could cook. As a matter of fact, the heads of the kitchen were men. But if a woman came in and had more expertise, then she became the person who'd take the lead on the menus and so on. So we just didn't play that game as much as we could and whenever it arose outside of the school and in others in the community's survival programs; of which by the way there were 65 throughout the United States and the focus of mass media, local law enforcement, and the FBI and the CIA was on [what I call] 'the hands of men with leather jackets and guns.' That was to frighten the community but the Black community was never frightened of us, not the working class, the working poor, and those living in conditions of poverty. That might have been middle class and upper class, quote-on-quote Black people, who were frightened because we were talking about redistribution of wealth."

"So, we handled it. As an example, John and I had conversations all the time about our relationship and what it would mean. We didn't know any term called 'polyamorous' but we decided how we would be in relationship and to the best of our ability before he was killed, how we would manage taking care of our baby. He never really had the opportunity but for those three weeks before he was killed, he spent a lot of quality time with her, taking care of any need that she had. So we did the best we could. There is this book called, Want to Start A Revolution: Radical Women In The Black Freedom Struggle. What made me think of it now is that there is a chapter in there on the Young Lords. The Young Lords Party, as well as the Brown Berets, patterned themselves after the Black Panther Party. Many organizations did and some of the women's organizations did as well and many people don't know this. That chapter on the Young Lords was also about Denise Oliver [Velez] who was the leader of the Young Lords Party. I am not sure if you know about them but they were Puerto Rican communities here in the States and on the Island. And the Brown Berets was started in the West coast--the Young Lords in Chicago and in New York, and Brown Berets in California and the Pacific Northwest of Chicanos and Mexicanos. That is how it started. Both those organizations patterned themselves after the Black Panther Party. In that chapter on the Young Lords Party, you will read how they handled machismo and the papers they wrote and the work they did because they were a little younger and lasted longer than the Black Panther Party did. In that same book, Want to Start a Revolution, I co-wrote chapter seven which is about the women of the Black Panther Party but also about our community schools. But you will love this book because it is about radical women of the 1920s until the book was published around 2010."
I saw a photo of you with Mrs. Rosa Parks. May you please share with me what it was like to talk with her and meet her?
EH: "Well, she spent a day at the Oakland Community School. She put word out that she wanted to see the school that the Black Panther Party created and that she heard it was wonderful. People visited all the time. We didn't invite her but when she wanted to be invited, oh my god, we were so happy! And the children did a play for her called, 'Get on the Bus'. They wrote the play and we helped them with it but this is how the community school was, it was student-centered. We were the supports for the children. We were not like public school. Anyway, our principle was that children should learn how [and] not what to think. So, they put the play together and it was adorable. That picture is in the book--the same woman who wrote the article on Rosa in the anthology, Want To Start A Revolution [and] after doing that research, she was so inspired and wrote the book, The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks, and that picture is in that book. She is a dear friend of mine, Jeanne Theoharris. Anyway, so that day Rosa came and one of the girls presented her with flowers. She was so happy and she was so touched by the children and I know why because those children were being cared for in such a wonderful way. There were primarily Black kids and a couple of Latino families and two white children and that kind of represented the demographics of East Oakland at the time; East Oakland [similar to] Southeast D.C. and parts of Baltimore. So anyway, she walked in and she just looked at everybody and she was just so happy to be there. I was just so happy to meet her. We told the children, 'Now when you see her, don't just rush up and hug her all at once. Let her be and let her be at the school, okay?' The children were all like, 'Okay.' [Laughs]. The whole staff was excited. We gave her a tour of the school and the children led it. She hadn't come there to chat with adults-she had come to be with the children and we knew that. The children who were there that day never ever in their lives have forgotten it."

"Anyway, then we went to the auditorium and this was not a school building, this was an old church building, so the church chapel, so-to-speak was what we made our auditorium. We went into the auditorium and the play was going to start in about 10 minutes. I was sitting next to Rosa and we were just talking about the children, the school, and how it started, and so on. I was very respectful of her space because she's quiet. Not in a submissive way, she was just a quiet person and I am, too. I thought I am not going to chat her up here. Then I noticed that two of the girls were missing. I love to tell this story because it tells you something about Rosa and it tells you something about the school and it tells you something about the children in the school and the respect that we gave to the girls in the school. Matter of fact, we told them, 'You can do anything. Don't let anybody tell you anything different.' And we told the boys the same thing and we told the boys the same thing about the girls. It was a gender-neutral, race-neutral [and] sexual orientation-neutral campus. We did not affirm any, as we call them social constructs, as normal. There is no normal. And the children knew it."

"So anyway, I looked around and I am sitting there with Rosa and all of a sudden while I'm quiet, I realize two of the main girls in the play are missing. Since I knew all 152 children and where they should be at any good given day [and] at the time of the day like a mother hen, I got a little concerned. I told Rosa I would be right back and I quickly went around the school to try to find them. They were nowhere in the building and I knew they couldn't leave the building which made me relieved. There was only one place left and that was the girls' bathroom. And I went in there. And there were the two girls holding hands and crying. I said, 'Oh my goodness girls, what has happened?!' And they were crying with snot running out of their noses and wailing [Laughs] and said, 'Ms. Rosa Parks is at our little ole' school in East Oakland and she's a hero.' And I said, 'Well, yes she is but she wanted to be here.' Then they said, 'We know but we didn't want her to see us all crying and everything. She is at our little ole' school, Ericka.' They just kept saying that. I mean in their lives, where on earth would that have happened? They didn't have any reference point for somebody so wonderful and famous in a way and good to be there with them because a lot of the children didn't have very much good in their lives. Their parents were good people but society wasn't good to them. So when they said that, then I started to cry and we were all holding hands standing there crying [Laughs]. I said, 'Well girls you are in the play though, so we are going to have to blow the snot out of our noses and wipe our eyes and go on back out there because you are two of the main characters on the bus.' They said, 'We know but we just had to come back here and just cry.' We had a little hug and then we walked out. No one could tell but me that they were crying and they took their seats with their teacher. She let them go to the bathroom together because she knew they were buddies but she had no idea why it was taking so long. I didn't tell her then. But as they were walking down the aisle to the front where the children in the play were sitting, they stopped at the aisle where Rosa was and they sort of leaned their heads toward her and waved and then they went and sat down. Isn't that the sweetest thing? I love how pure children are. They are just so pure! And we allowed them to be like that. In the public school I went to in D.C., if you were in the bathroom crying--'Girl, wipe your face and get back to class. You know you are not supposed to be in this bathroom!' It's so ugly. And those were all Black women teachers."

"We need to learn a new way to be with one another as part of the work we do to uplift humanity. We have assumed all kinds of inner and outer postures about how we are supposed to be because there was no healing after Africans were removed from slavery on paper. There has been no healing ever! Not even an apology. So here we are sitting with the wounds of history in a multigenerational way, you know what I mean?"

Yes, I do. Sometimes I ponder and think about the generational trauma and how do we correct it? How do we address it and how can we transform it?

EH: "Through feminism. If we call ourselves feminists, we must address it directly. Who are we waiting on? I know we are not waiting on the government to do it. Or leftist political officials? Some of them could if they would. Barbara Lee, for instance, who was the Congresswoman from California, talks about it all the time. She wrote a biography and it would be an interesting biography for you to read. By the way, my documentary film is coming out about her life, starting from her childhood all the way through--did you know she was a volunteer with the Black Panther Party before she went to D.C. to become an intern with Ron Dellums? She told me when she was going. You see, I think we think and we are taught to think of history as a set of separate decades and separate moments. History is a continuum. The Black Panther Party didn't come from out of the sky. The Civil Rights Movement didn't end and the Black Liberation Movements began. The one led to the other. It is a natural flow like an evolution and we are taught to think in a very male and European kind of siloed way."

"One of the things Rosa liked about the Black Panther Party was that we formed coalitions with everybody. As a matter of fact, two things: one, we formed a coalition with the Young Lords. The Young Patriots, who were poor white Appalachian men and women, many of them young, and they formed at the suggestion of Fred Hampton, and we worked in coalition with them. And the American Indian Movement, the Third World Women's Alliance --we couldn't work directly with the Second Wave Women's Movement because they were very, very racist and their notions of feminism it opened but at that time they were not open to see issues of women of color as feminist issues. In the early days of the Liberation Movements around the country, when the word feminism was used you got an allergic reaction to it because of that racism. I am sure you know that but we lived it. The Third World Women's Alliance was Asians and Latinas who started it, and that was their response to the narrow focus of when you say women, it equals white and then there are all these other people. And we formed coalitions with them and as a matter of fact, as a result of our coalition with the Third World Women's Alliance, we formed a coalition to end infant mortality in Oakland. Oakland in the seventies had one of the highest rates of infant mortality and maternal death in the country and rates similar to sub-Saharan Africa. That says something about the structure of healthcare."

"It was the Third World Women's Alliance that went with us to the County Board of Supervisors here in Oakland and changed the county's hospital ways of handling pregnant and birthing women when they came for care. And some of that translated to private hospitals as well. We also worked with all kinds of organizations. We worked with Chicano/Chicana organizations and names of which I can't even remember. Once the concept of the Black Student Union [BSU] was created, that expressed itself everywhere across the country. Then Latinx people created their own organizations and worked in concert with the BSUs. Now, it is different. Black folks are in this silo. Feminist Black folks are in this silo and Latinx people are in this silo. And Indigenous People are not often thought apart as well as Asian-American people. We worked with some really amazing Southeast Asian and Central Asian organizations and they were very revolutionary. We also worked with various organizations to end the war in Vietnam. I still feel like if we could form coalitions today with like organizations, especially women, that we would be a force to contend with. That is why we did it because we were all being stalked, infiltrated, jailed, killed, and so we formed coalitions to have strength in numbers and to support one another. We saw the beauty and the power of it."

What are you the most proud of in regards to your work as a leader, organizer, and activist?
EH: "That I am still doing it and that I work with anyone who wants to work with me. Pride is a funny, funny thing but I know how you mean it. I don't feel puffed up about it but it is humbling actually that whatever it is--maybe it's that vow I made at 15- makes me want to serve anybody who wants to serve. That is why I said yes to this interview. I think that working in coalition with other women, especially other communities of women of color, no matter who they are, no matter how they identify--if they were born male and now they are identifying as a woman, fine. I will work with them. And I did. My first entry in working with trans women and trans men was during the AIDS epidemic, when gay and lesbian people were not willing to work with trans people and they would say, 'We can't coalesce with them.' It was ignorant. I did a lot of work with them in the San Francisco Tenderloin, which is where primarily people who live in the Tenderloin are Southeast Asian but the Tenderloin also had a huge population of transgender people. I created an organization in the Shanti Project, which was one of the first organizations at the height of the epidemic to serve LGBTQ+ youth and adults of all races. I started a program called 'Crossings' and we named it that because it was absolutely the crossing over from one racial/ethnic community to others and also in terms of gender and sexual identity."

"In working with the trans population, they were often traumatized in multiple ways that don't affect a man who identities as gay or a woman who identifies as a lesbian even if they are interventionist drug users, do you follow me? What happens with the trans person when they begin to create the medicine cocktails that stop the progression of the virus and in its work to suppress the immune system, those drugs were not compatible with the hormones trans people were having to take. So, do I need to spell out what the trauma was? I really got to know a lot of the Black and Brown trans women in a really humanly intimate way. I got to understand what their lives were like. I can't participate in those ridiculous conversations about how they are not really women and they are not really this, especially coming from lesbian women. I was proud that the Crossings program did the work that it did. We also worked with Latino women and their children in the Mission District of San Francisco [which has] a huge Latinx population, although gentrification has been creeping, creeping, creeping. It was a site where people were migrating from Mexico to the United States and to Mission, San Francisco. I feel very humbled by and honored to serve in that kind of way. The Oakland Community School sort of stands out in my mind. It always does. I learned so much how to be with people there and I was so young. You know the median age of people in the Black Panther Party was 19?"
JS: Wow, that's my sister's age. [Laughs]
EH: "How old are you?"

JS: "I am 28. Lord's will, I will be 29 in a couple of weeks.

EH: "What's your birthday?"
JS: "My birthday is March 31st."
EH: "Aww, that's wonderful! That's wonderful."
JS: Thank you so much!
EH: "That age you are in now and up to when you are about 30, is said it is a time in one's life--and you may be experiencing it already--when that which you haven't looked or considered carefully, you've known that you need to but you haven't, you must do it. Do you feel that sometimes?"
JS: "I do. It is an urging."
EH: "It's because you know you're not a child. You are not just 20 anymore. So people find the courage and the stamina to sort of stay focused with [those things] that need your focus. Like the work you are doing now."

"But my favorite thing now is when I am invited to speak with fourth and fifth graders. That just makes my day because they are so direct, honest, pure, and funny! There is a part of me that is like that too, so when I talk to them and I don't care who they are--I don't care if they are white, Black, Brown, it just doesn't really matter--you know? I am interrupting socialization by talking to them and they know it! And they love it. They want to know the truth. One little boy asked me in a fourth grade class, I think it was this year in January, and he asked me, "When you were incarcerated and you lost your husband and couldn't see your daughter, were you sad?' Do you see what I mean? But do college students do that? They are taught not to do that and I don't know why! When I was a professor and I was teaching on college campuses, I was asking why we use all this language that only we know what we are talking about. What is the point of understanding intersectionality or positionality and anti-Blackness and any of these terms if we are not going to be able to talk to students about it so they can understand it? It all becomes code. For me, it is difficult. Let me just leave it at that. But those fourth and fifth graders, they want to know. One little girl with long brown hair and big blue eyes said to me, 'What is wrong with people? Racism is the stupidest thing I ever heard of in my life!' And her teacher stiffened. I watched her. Because it meant that the teacher is going to have to continue to talk to that little girl. That is how we want children to feel--we want them to feel that fear based saying, thinking, and doing is ignorant. I said, 'Well, I wouldn't use that word stupid but I do understand how you feel about it.' And she said, 'Yeah!' She was such a stand up. I said, 'Well, talk some more with your parents about it' and she said, 'I do and they think it's ignorant too and I see other people who don't and I just don't understand it.' And she was very--her heart was really open and I could tell. She wasn't just spewing. She just didn't get it and she shouldn't and she should never make excuses for it. And we don't want her to make excuses--we want her to be as knowledgeable as we are because our parents have had to have that conversation with us very intentionally in order for us to walk out of the door and navigate the world. But there she was, having that conversation. And all her little Black friends would smile and they were so proud of her. That is my new favorite thing. I always walk away from them feeling like that song--what's that song? 'We gon' be alright!' [Laughs].

"I always feel so uplifted. They always invite me back and they write little notes about why it is important I came to their school. And I always remember those two little girls in that bathroom crying because Rosa Parks was there. I am not Rosa Parks but I kind of get--we live in a world that is full of lies and full of miseducation. Full of craziness. Can you imagine being nine-years old right now trying to figure this out? You can't. You wouldn't want it. So, anyway those are some of the things. And also my daily practice of meditation. It keeps me sane. It gives me balance. When I mean sane, I don't mean as opposed to insanity, what I mean is it keeps me focused, alert, and aware and kind as I walk through the world."

"Oh, and I didn't tell you the day Maya Angelou came to the school and read poetry to the children! Some of the children weren't even old enough to know who she was but they just liked her because she was a poet. And the older children were floored. We became very close friends at a point in history when I was having a rough patch. I forgot to say this but thinking of Maya just reminded me but we must be mentors, I don't care how old we are. If someone needs mentoring in our family, we should put ourselves out there some kind of way. Maya became a mentor to me when I was really going through a horrible patch in my life and she helped me through it. I don't know what I would have done. It wasn't like she talked me up or something or preached at me or said a whole bunch of wise things. She just let me talk and she just listened. I met her the day she came to Oakland Community School. She wanted to come. I am telling you people were asking to come because they had never seen anything like it! And Maya and I created an after school program and a number of public schools as a result of this."

"This is a funny story [Laughs]. Maya called me to say, 'Dear, I hear there is something called the Bay Area Black United Fund.' I said, 'Yes, there is.' She said, 'These Negroes should give us some money to start our program!' [Laughs] I just fell out laughing! I said, 'You are right! They are kind of snotty.' She said, 'Well, they are not going to be snotty with me. Let's start this after school program.' And she did--she got them to give her some money! [Laughs] We did wonderful work. Anyway, she came that day and she spent the whole day at the school and she loved it. She was just blown out because none of us had any degrees to mention, we just had a lot of love. And we hired people who were educators who were willing to take a cut and pay from the public schools. That has to tell you we didn't have a lot of money but we learned how to grant write. But at any rate, she left that day and she said, 'Dear, when I come back I am bringing Jimmy.' And I knew who she meant and I said, 'Maya!' And she said, 'You just watch.' And she came back with James Baldwin. And that was one of those days. I wanted you to hear this. He has always been one of my favorite-ever people in the world. And when I met him, I had read all of his books up until that point, that was 1976 or 1977. He was the dearest and kindest. And I will tell you what he said to me, in tears, he was in tears as he was leaving the school that day. He said, 'I am so glad Maya brought me. I want to say that every little Black child, every one of them should have this kind of school. I didn't have this. You didn't have this but I am so glad this exists.' And I said, 'That is how we intended it. We intended it to be a model so people can use it wherever we are in the world.' And he said, 'Let's hope they do.' And he gave me a big hug. And I don't think I ever saw him again in person but it stayed with me. He is a hero of mine. I have a picture of him right in front of me as I am talking to you. He was fierce, he was clear, he was direct, he was poetic, and he was all those things and he was such a tender heart."

" SunRa, a famous musician came, an abstract jazz musician. Richard Pryor came. Cesar Chavez, another magnificent human being. He was doing farmworker's work in East Oakland and he asked if he could come by with his contingent and he did. And he was in awe of the school. I am telling you that makes me feel so humble and with pride. It is just that all these people got to see what could be done that we don't have to be sitting around complaining and whining about public school. Do something--that is what the Black Panther Party said. If you can't figure out what to do, then that is your problem. If it is in front of you and it needs your attention, give it attention. And so we started clinics. We started schools. We started free busing to prisons programs; free coat programs on the East Coast; food giveaways; free breakfast for children; and police watch. And there were people who challenged us and said we weren't proper because we were giving people things and they should have to work for it. This was from socialists and communists who said this at the time but that was because they were in their heads. They had never experienced or maybe they had never experienced poverty or been with hungry children. That is no joke. So, anyway I just wanted to tell you about Maya and Jimmy."

For more information about Ericka Huggins, please visit her website.

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Radical Commitments: The Revolutionary Vow of Ericka Huggins - Black Women Radicals

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At 15-years-old, human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther Party leader, and former political prisoner, Ericka Huggins (she/her) made a vow to serve humanity at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Now at 72, the revolutionary is still just as dedicated and committed to t

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The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was the party's first outside California and the second outside Oakland, where the party was founded in 1966. Nineteen-year-old Aaron Lloyd Dixon (b. 1949) was appointed captain of the Seattle chapter by party co-founder Bobby Seale (b. 1936) at the Dixon family home in Seattle's Madrona neighborhood in April 1968, a week after Dixon and other young activists from Seattle met Seale and other Panthers at a conference in California. Within two years the Seattle chapter grew from a neighborhood storefront office to a main headquarters providing free breakfasts for schoolchildren, free transportation to visit family members in prison, and a free medical clinic. The Seattle Black Panther Party disbanded in 1978 after 10 years serving the community.
From Chicago to Seattle
Aaron Lloyd Dixon, son of Elmer James Dixon Jr. (1924-1985) and Frances Emma Sledge Dixon (b. 1925), was born January 2, 1949, and raised in Chicago with his older sister Joanne Marie (b. 1947), and two younger brothers, Elmer James III (b. 1950) and Michael R. (b. 1951).

Elmer Jr. worked as a technical illustrator at Chanute Air Force Base in Champaign County, Illinois. In 1957, he received multiple job offers from Spain, Alabama, and Seattle. Boeing offered him an opportunity to work in the Pacific Northwest. He had always had concerns about his young boys getting into some kind of trouble and making the right decisions in raising them. He did not want to take any chances with what he saw as the influence of bad behavior (gangs, mafia) spreading throughout Chicago. Getting involved in gang activity was not going to happen to his children. Ultimately, this concern led him to accept the offer to work at Boeing in Seattle.

To make the move, however, the Dixon family would leave the safe haven, family, friends, and security of Birch Village, formerly a military-housing facility for air-force pilots at the base. Elmer, a natural explorer, adventurer, and artist, was excited about moving his tight-knit family 2,000 miles from Illinois to Seattle in a 1952 Plymouth. In contrast, the 1957 move was a harrowing experience for the children. They missed their family and many tears were shed along the way.

In 1960, after changing residences and schools several times since arriving in Seattle three years earlier, the Dixons moved into their own home at 905 33rd Avenue in Madrona, a mixed neighborhood on the east of Seattle's Central Area (or Central District) neighborhood. Aaron Dixon recalled in his 2012 memoir that "The neighborhood residents were Black, White, Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese. At that time, the Central District was the only part of Seattle where Asians, Blacks, and Jews were allowed to live due to the practice of 'redlining' and racial restrictive covenants" ( My People Are Rising, 24).

The purchase of their own home was a turning point in the family's life and brought pride and gratification to Elmer Jr. He planted trees around the house that represented each of his children. The house was large and spacious with hardwood floors. As the family settled into the home, they began to make friends and forge relationships in the neighborhood.
Civil Rights in Seattle
Seattle residents were no strangers to the civil-rights movement that by the 1960s was a dominant force nationwide. Racism existed but was less than in other American cities. Many Seattle Blacks fought back in organizations such as the Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Urban League, Universal Negro Improvement Association, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), National Negro Congress, the Nation of Islam, and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), among others.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) made a single visit to Seattle, arriving on November 8, 1961. The civil-rights leader was invited by Reverend Samuel B. McKinney (1926-2018), a friend and former classmate at Morehouse College. King's itinerary was packed with public appearances including at the University of Washington, Temple de Hirsch, Garfield High School, and Eagles Auditorium.

Twelve-year-old Aaron Dixon attended the speech at Garfield, sitting on the edge of the bandstand watching and listening to King's words. After two days of lectures and speeches, King left Seattle on November 10, having made an impression on everyone he encountered. "He was the right man at the right time at the right place with the right message," said McKinney (De Leon).
"Black Power" and Student Activism
Huey P. Newton (1942-1989) and Robert George "Bobby" Seale launched the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in West Oakland, California, on October 15, 1966. The party's main goal and original purpose was to prevent police brutality against African Americans and improve the Black community. Within two years, the small hilltop neighborhood of Madrona would become home to the Black Panther Party's Seattle chapter.

A major inspiration for that Seattle chapter came on April 19, 1967, when flamboyant civil-rights leader Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998), who coined the phrase "Black Power," came to Garfield High in Seattle to speak to an estimated 4,000 students. When he spoke in Seattle, Carmichael was chairman of SNCC, but he would soon resign that position to join the Black Panther Party.

Sitting in the front row for the Garfield speech were brothers Aaron and Elmer Dixon and their friend Michael Dean. Carmichael walked on stage wearing black sunglasses and shouting "Black Power!" to the cheering audience as he raised his fist. His speech impacted many Seattleites Black, white, brown, and yellow. Aaron Dixon remembered:

"We left the Garfield auditorium with a much different view of whites than what we had before. A slow current of anger began to brew inside me, and to my mind whites were now the cause of all the problems that Black people faced. I walked out of the auditorium transformed. I was not the same person who had entered. From that day forward, I looked at the world and everyone around me with anger and rage" ( My People Are Rising, 58).

In June 1967, Aaron Dixon graduated from Garfield and in September began attending the University of Washington, where he joined the Black Student Union (BSU). By early 1968, tensions were growing fast in Seattle as housing, employment, health care, and relations with police had all become explosive issues for Black residents. On March 29, 1968, a rainy Tuesday, things came to a head at Franklin High School. Accounts differ as to exactly what triggered the events, with some indicating that the BSU received a call from Trollis Flavors (b. 1949), a Franklin student who was suspended following a fight with a white student while the white student remained in school.

An estimated 25 to 30 Black Student Union members from UW including Aaron Dixon; Anthony Ware (b. 1951); Larry Gossett (b. 1944), president of the Washington-Oregon Black Student Union; and Carl Miller (b. 1945), chairman of the Seattle chapter of SNCC, decided to go to Franklin to channel the students' anger in constructive directions, gathering outside a sandwich shop across from the school demanding reinstatement of suspended students among other demands.

Gossett and Miller led the group of BSU members and Franklin students to the school office, asking to meet with principal Loren Ralph (1909-1987), who refused to talk with them. Between 12:30 and 1 p.m., Gossett and Miller held a sit-in rally at the principal's office, then moved to the school auditorium to speak to an estimated 100 students. The group of protestors left the school grounds and the confrontation ended.

Gossett, Aaron Dixon, Miller, and Flavors were arrested on April 4, 1968, and taken to the King County Jail. Elmer Dixon and Anthony Ware were taken to juvenile detention. Later that evening, news broke that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. A cloud of sadness filled the air not only in Seattle but through the world, and violence flared in more than 100 cities across America. As Larry Gossett recalled:

"About six or seven hours after we got in jail, news came that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. And the Black prisoners, their conception of Black power was that they were going to go beat up these white prisoners" (Gilbert).
Black Panther Party Comes to Madrona
On April 5, 1968, the day after King's assassination, the student activists were released from jail, but the shock of Martin's death was immediate and strong. On April 11, some 20 eager young men, both BSU members from Garfield High and SNCC members, rented four or five cars to drive to the second annual West Coast BSU Conference at San Francisco State College.

While in California, on April 12 the group from Seattle attended a memorial service for 17-year-old Robert "Little Bobby" James Hutton (1950-1968) at the Ephesian Church of God in Berkeley. Hutton was the treasurer and first recruit to have joined the Black Panther Party in 1966. Hutton was killed on April 6, two days after King's assassination, when he and Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), writer, activist, and early leader of the Black Panther Party, were confronted by police.

After Hutton's funeral, the group headed back to the BSU Conference to listen to the keynote speech by Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale. After two hours of listening, inspired by Seale and the party, Aaron and Elmer Dixon and Anthony Ware approached Seale. Aaron said, "We want a Panther chapter in Seattle" ( My People Are Rising, 80). The four talked briefly and they left a phone number with Seale.

A week later, after the Seattle contingent had returned home, Seale called Aaron with word that he and two other Panthers were arriving in Seattle the next day, April 20. Elmer Dixon and Ware went to the airport that afternoon and picked up Seale and the others. After arriving at the Dixon family home in Madrona, Seale spoke, providing instructions and recommendations and outlining the Panther platform to a group of young men and women. The meeting lasted all day and into the evening. Then Seale asked the question, "Who's going to be the defense captain?" ( My People Are Rising, 83). Fingers pointed at six-foot-tall, 19-year-old Aaron Dixon, who did not respond immediately. Reluctantly, he accepted the role of captain, launching the first Black Panther Party chapter outside California and the second outside Oakland.

Aaron soon flew to Oakland and spent a week training in the world of an official Black Panther. After the training, there were meetings, selling Panther newspapers, and introductions to numerous party members including co-founder Huey P. Newton, who had been arrested and was in the Alameda County Jail. Meeting Newton was a requirement for all new captains. Aaron was now armed with a clear vision of how to organize Seattle's Black Panther chapter and envisioned a society with equal justice for everyone.

The first task was to find an office somewhere in the Central Area. On May 26, 1968, one was located at 1127 34th Avenue, near the intersection with E Union Street in Madrona, owned by Benjamin Brill (1897-1971) of Brill Realty. Brill was a longtime resident of Madrona. Panther members Willie Brazier (b. 1948), Chester Edward Northington (b. 1944), and Curtis Ray Harris (b. 1947), the Dixons' brother-in-law, approached Brill about the vacant office space. After first refusing he eventually agreed to rent to the party. The quiet working-class Madrona neighborhood on the hill above Lake Washington had given birth to and would provide a home for the new Seattle Black Panther Party.

Within days, the party headquarters opened, and the news spread quickly throughout the Central Area. In the first two months of operation, more than 300 membership applications were received. The party attracted a wide range of people who lived in the community. A number of young Asian Americans who had grown up in the neighborhood applied. Guy Kurose (1953-2002), a martial-arts expert and son of Japanese American teacher and activist Akiko Kurose (1925-1998), would later work on the party's breakfast program and march in rallies for justice. Mike Gillespie (b. 1951), a Filipino American trumpet player, and Mike Tagawa (b. 1944), a Japanese American and veteran of the Vietnam War, also joined. At 25, Tagawa was a few years older than most members; he had been born during World War II at the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. Considering himself "a foot soldier," Tagawa did weapons training and cleaning and taught political education classes.

Young women were also among the applicants. Joanne Dixon Harris, Aaron and Elmer's older sister, participated in a variety of activities, as did Joyce Redmond (b. 1947), who already had a reputation for being fierce, and Kathy Jones, who was still in high school. "Maud Helen Allen was captain of the women, Kathleen M. Halley was deputy minister of finance and treasurer, and Alice Spencer was communications secretary" ("From Memphis and Mogadishu"). New members were required to go through six weeks of military training and learn to follow orders, but women who joined were not required to participate in the training. "Years later Panther Michael Dixon, younger brother of Aaron Dixon, pointed out that female members often challenged male chauvinism within the party" ("From Memphis and Mogadishu").
Growing Pains -- Golden Years (1968-1969)
The Seattle Black Panther chapter experienced immediate growing pains. By the end of 1968, the party had an estimated 2,000 members across the country. From 1968 through the end of 1969, Panthers were constantly being scrutinized, arrested, and jailed, accused of numerous crimes, and sometimes murdered. This did not deter the party from working for the community, but the struggle was always in day-to-day survival mode.

As the party developed a framework for the future, the Madrona neighborhood was transforming into a Black Panther community. A mixture of fear, apprehension, pride, and hope was common to many. The very sight of Panthers brought shivers and fear to some onlookers when they walked by in black leather jackets, black pants, black berets, afros, and dark sunglasses, symbolizing the power they had. The phones in the office rang constantly with people asking for assistance.

When the party was barely more than three months old, on the hot summer night of July 29, 1968, Seattle police raided the headquarters and chapter captain Aaron Dixon and defense minister Curtis Harris were arrested for the alleged theft of a typewriter from the nearby Legal Service Center at 1700 E Cherry Street. No drugs, no weapons, a stolen typewriter! The arrest touched off a full-scale three-day riot in Seattle, resulting in additional arrests, wounded police officers, civilians hit by gunfire and rocks, and property damage throughout the Central Area. Dixon and Harris would later be acquitted of the theft charge. The riot was not on the scale of some in larger cities, but was the start of scattered firebombing, rock throwing, and gunfire aimed at closing down known racist businesses. The riot also marked the beginning of conflict between police and the party that would last two years.

But no matter what the community was facing, the Panthers saw themselves as there to protect. In September 1968, a Black mother called the headquarters stating her son was beaten several times by white students at Rainier Beach High School. She continued to call daily to report other Black students were being attacked and threatened by white students and the school staff refused to protect them. On September 6, 1968, after several calls from other Black mothers, 13 Panthers arrived at the school carrying rifles and confronted principal Donald S. Means (1920-1971), demanding protection for Black students. He agreed and the Panthers returned to the chapter office. Seattle Mayor Dorm Braman (1901-1980) pushed to have a gun law passed that would restrict firearms in the city or weapons used in a manner manifesting intent to intimidate others. This set the stage for more battles and a Panther protest against state gun-control legislation.

Early the next year, Seattle Panthers heard that the state legislature was planning to pass a gun bill like that advocated by Mayor Braman. On February 28, 1969, party members drove to Olympia to demonstrate in support of their right to bear arms. The Panthers walked up the steps of the capitol building holding rifles and shotguns and stood in formation led by Elmer Dixon with the weapons pointed upright. Asked to unload the weapons, they did so peacefully. Aaron Dixon went inside the building and read a prepared statement. But the gun bill had already passed and was quickly signed by Governor Dan Evans (b. 1925). Before the year ended, the Panthers were no longer carrying weapons in public.

In 1969, the Panthers established a Free Breakfast Program for schoolchildren coordinated by Elmer Dixon III at the Madrona Community Presbyterian Church at 832 32nd Avenue. The program would eventually expand to five locations serving "an estimated 300,000 meals from 1969 to 1977" ("A Panther Sighting ...," 68). The Seattle group also helped to maintain and manage the Black Panther Party in Tacoma as well as Oregon offices in Portland and Eugene. By the fall of 1969, the Seattle chapter headquarters moved from the Madrona office to a two-story home located at 173 20th Avenue in the Central Area.

Party member Leon "Valentine" Hobbs III (b. 1949) was assigned to work with University of Washington neurosurgeon Dr. John R. Green to open a medical clinic by December 1969 in the new headquarters. Green and other physicians and nurses volunteered their time. The clinic was opened on December 1, 1969, and named the Sidney Miller Free Clinic after a Panther member who was shot and killed during a robbery.

The clinic, which also tested for sickle cell anemia, relocated several more times before settling at 2101 E. Yesler Way. It was renamed the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center in 1978, honoring Carolyn Jean Downs (1953-1978), a young mother who joined the party and dedicated all her time to movement. Carolyn Downs was the first free medical clinic in the Pacific Northwest, an important legacy of the Seattle Black Panther chapter. With the launching and success of such programs, increased membership, and party members no longer openly carrying weapons, the programs became the primary vehicle to address concerns and immediate needs of the community.
The 1970s -- Stormy Weather
As the 1960s came to a close, the party was about to turn over a new leaf, both good and bad. The Black Panther Party was arguably the most important revolutionary organization in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. No longer displaying weapons under the new gun law, the Panthers changed their standard uniform from black leather jackets and berets and toned down their rhetoric.

In 1970, Michael Dixon established the Business to Prisons Program with the assistance of Melvin Dickerson (1951-1994), using vans, cars, and a donated bus to transport friends and family for visits with those incarcerated in five state prisons on a regular basis. The same year, the Liberation School opened at two housing projects, focusing on Black history, writing skills, and political science. The school was held five days a week during the summer. Classes began at 9 a.m., lunch was served at noon, and school ended at 2:30 p.m. The focus was reading, exercise for maintaining health, fitness, and mind stimulation. Field trips were taken to enhance the students' learning experience. The school continued until 1972.

For a short period of time during 1970, free clothing and shoes were offered to the community, as was ambulance service. Other programs such as free food complemented the free breakfast program. Fifty bags of food were delivered every Wednesday to families across the city. These services were considered simple basic needs for the community. Securing the donations of food and funds for the programs was a fulltime job and not taken lightly.

The Seattle chapter was not destitute. Its primary steady source of income came from the sale of the Black Panther newspaper. Actors and entertainers would donate funds to the party, among them Greg Morris (1933-1996), James Brown (1933-2006), and Seattle native Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970). Hendrix asked to have Panthers as security guards during his concert on July 26, 1970, from 2:30 to 10 p.m. at Sicks' Stadium, the Seattle baseball venue, which turned out to be his last show in his hometown and in the U.S. Two months later, on September 18, 1970, Hendrix would pass away in London suddenly and too soon.

Unfortunately, the Black Panther Party began to fall apart at the seams midway through the 1970s. Why after a few years of explosive growth did the party unravel? The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its COINTELPRO program (created in 1956 to undermine radical groups) sought to break up the party. In fact, in 1969 FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) deemed the Black Panther Party the greatest threat to national security. The FBI tactics were extreme, with the goal to gut the entire party. The added pressure from the government caused the party to divide within itself at every level.

Not helping the added burden on the party, national Panther leaders Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver fell out with each other, resulting in a split that contributed to the party's demise. The Seattle chapter was beginning to weaken due to the party's organization and leadership changes. In 1972, Aaron Dixon was transferred to the party's Oakland headquarters, leaving the control of the chapter to Elmer Dixon. Some other chapter members were summoned to California while others stayed in Seattle.

In 1976 the Seattle chapter broke away from the national party in Oakland, and it officially disbanded two years later in 1978 after 10 short but powerful years of service to the community. The Seattle chapter was one of the party's longest-lived chapters and an integral part of the Black community. By 1982, the Black Panther Party officially ceased all operations.
Legacy
A major part of the Seattle Black Panther Party's legacy was helping the sick and poor through the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, which in 2018 was still welcoming everyone and treating them regardless of ability to pay. By then, of the 13 clinics the party started across the country, Seattle's was the only one still operating.

The legacy also lives on in later generations of Black-empowerment groups, including Black Lives Matter. The Panthers helped make "Black" a word to be proud of. The groups of today sprang from concerns of a younger generation of activists focused on social justice, economic equality, and self-determination. The Black Panthers' legacy is seen every day in activist groups holding today's leaders to the fire and demanding greater accountability.

The boldness of the Seattle Black Panther Party was matched by the boldness of the historical circumstances. The complex, rapidly changing political environment presented challenges to the short-lived party that pushed it to its limits. Members came up against questions to which there were no immediate answers. Still, they left subsequent activists and revolutionaries with a rich heritage to learn from.

In 2006, Aaron Dixon ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by Maria Cantwell. As of 2018 he spoke at colleges, gave interviews, and visited various communities, while Elmer Dixon III, field lieutenant, breakfast-program coordinator, and Seattle chapter leader, was principal owner of a leading diversity consulting firm and a community leader.

From April 26 to 28, 2018, the Seattle Black Panther Party celebrated its 50th anniversary with events at Seattle's Washington Hall and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. The celebration included appearances by actor Danny Glover; former Black Panther Party chair Elaine Brown; poet, activist, and former Seattle mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver; poet, activist, and hip-hop artist Rell Be Free; and others, along with dance performances, a fashion show, and many more performances and tributes.

Sources:

Kurt Schaefer, "The Black Panther Party in Seattle, 1968-1970," University of Washington Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project website accessed October 11, 2018 (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/Panthers1_schaefer.htm); Tikia Gilbert, "The Franklin High School Sit-in," University of Washington Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project website accessed October 11, 2018 (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/BSU_Franklin.htm#_edn14); "Frances Dixon -- Retired Clinical Assistant & Black Panther Mom," People of the Central Area & Their Stories website accessed Jun 22, 2018 (http://centralareacomm.blogspot.com/2016/06/frances-dixon-retired-clinical.html); Seattle Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary website accessed July 5, 2018 (https://www.seattlebpp50.com/); Daudi Abe and Quintard Taylor, "From Memphis and Mogadishu: The History of African Americans in Martin Luther King County, Washington, 1858-2014," BlackPast.org website accessed October 11, 2018 (https://blackpast.org/memphis-and-mogadishu-history-african-americans-martin-luther-king-county-washington-1858-2014); Craig Collisson, "Black Panther Party," BlackPast.org website accessed July 11, 2018 (http://www.blackpast.org/aah/black-panther-party); "The Black Panther Party: Seattle and the Nation," BlackPast.org website accessed July 15, 2018 (https://blackpast.org/the-black-panther-party-seattle-nation); "Braman Warns Panthers," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 14, 1968, p. 7; "Seattle Black Panther Leader Is Released on $3,000 Bond," The Seattle Times, July 31, 1968, p. 47; Ferdinand M. De Leon, "When King Was in Town," Ibid., January 16, 1994, p. L-1; Dale Nelson, "Black Militant Delegates Anger Some, But Wake Some Others," The Bellingham Herald, March 2, 1969, p 34; Historylink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "Black Panthers open the Sidney Miller Free Medical Clinic on December 1, 1969," "Capitol Hill and the Movement: Dotty DeCoster Remembers" (by Dotty DeCoster with Heather McIntosh), "Cirque Playhouse (Seattle, 1950-1981)" (by Peter Blecha), "College and high school students hold sit-in at Seattle's Franklin High on March 29, 1968" (by Alan J. Stein), "DeCoster, Dotty (1944-2015)" (by Priscilla Long), "Dwyer, William L. (1929-2002)" (by John Caldbick), "Gossett, Larry (b. 1945)" (by Doug Merlino), "Madrona Memories, Part 2 -- Civil Rights and Civil Unrest" (by Carol Richman), "Martin Luther King Jr. arrives for his sole Seattle visit on November 8, 1961" (by Mary T. Henry), "Mass arrests follow disturbances in Seattle's Central Area on July 31, 1968" (by David Wilma), "Riots erupt in Seattle's Central Area after Franklin High protestors are sentenced on July 1, 1968" (by David Wilma), "Rumors prompt armed Black Panthers to visit Rainier Beach High School on September 6, 1968" (by David Wilma), "Seattle Black Panther Party protests gun-control bill in Olympia on February 28, 1969" (by Linda Holden Givens), "Seattle Neighborhoods: Central Area -- Thumbnail History" (by Mary T. Henry), "Seattle police raid Black Panther office in Central Area, setting off riots, on July 29, 1968" (by Alan J. Stein), "Stokely Carmichael speaks to 4,000 at Seattle's Garfield High School on April 19, 1967" (by Priscilla Long), and "Women's Majority Union publishes Lilith's Manifesto, a women's liberation document, in the spring of 1969," http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed October 16, 2018); Aaron Dixon, My People Are Rising (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012); Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 159-169, 221-222; Jeffrey Zane and Judson L. Jeffries, "A Panther Sighting in the Pacific Northwest: The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party," in On the Ground: The Black Panther Party in Communities Across America ed. by Judson L. Jeffries (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), 41-95.

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Black Panther Party Seattle Chapter (1968-1978)

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The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was the party's first outside California and the second outside Oakland, where the party was founded in 1966. Nineteen-year-old Aaron Lloyd Dixon (b. 19

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Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project

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This is Maya Angelou being very inspirational

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This is a young child reciting this famous quote by Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou's "Hey Black Child," recited by 3-yr old Pe’Tehn Raighn Kem

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Ericka Huggins is a human rights activist, poet, teacher, former Black Panther member and political prisoner. Ericka’s political activism began in 1963, when she attended the “March on Washington” and committed from being unseen to being seen in the global human rights movement. In 1969, when she was 18 years old, she became a leader in the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party with her husband John Huggins. An impressive fact about her is that she is the only woman to spend 14 years working for the black panther party and the longest of any women in leadership. In May 1969, Ericka and fellow Party leader Bobby Seale were targeted by the police and arrested on conspiracy charges. Ericka was forced to spend time in solitary confinement and awaited her trial for two years before charges were dropped.  Like that she wouldn't go insane she taught herself to meditate, and has since been incorporating meditating and more spiritual practice into her community, work and teaching as a tool for relaxing, teaching and tools to help the students she teaches

By the Middlebury Institute of International Studies

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 1887 - 10 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA), through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism.

Garvey was born into a moderately prosperous Afro-Jamaican family in Saint Ann's Bay and was apprenticed into the print trade as a teenager. Working in Kingston, he got involved in trade unionism before living briefly in Costa Rica, Panama, and England. On returning to Jamaica, he founded the UNIA in 1914. In 1916, he moved to the United States and established a UNIA branch in New York City's Harlem district. Emphasising unity between Africans and the African diaspora, he campaigned for an end to European colonial rule in Africa and advocated the political unification of the continent. He envisioned a unified Africa as a one-party state, governed by himself, that would enact laws to ensure black racial purity. Although he never visited the continent, he was committed to the Back-to-Africa movement, arguing that part of the diaspora should migrate there. Garveyist ideas became increasingly popular and the UNIA grew in membership. His black separatist views -and his relationship with white racists like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in the interest of advancing their shared goal of racial separatism- caused a division between Garvey and other prominent African-American civil rights activists such as W. E. B. Du Bois who promoted racial integration.

Believing that black people needed to be financially independent from white-dominated societies, Garvey launched various businesses in the U.S., including the Negro Factories Corporation and Negro World newspaper. In 1919, he became President of the Black Star Line shipping and passenger company, designed to forge a link between North America and Africa and facilitate African-American migration to Liberia. In 1923 Garvey was convicted of mail fraud for selling the company's stock and he was imprisoned in the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta for nearly two years. Many commentators[who? ] have argued that the trial was politically motivated; Garvey blamed Jewish people, claiming that they were prejudiced against him because of his links to the KKK. After his sentence was commuted by U.S. president Calvin Coolidge, he was deported to Jamaica in 1927. Settling in Kingston with his wife Amy Jacques, Garvey established the People's Political Party in 1929, briefly serving as a city councillor. With the UNIA in increasing financial difficulty, he relocated to London in 1935, where his anti-socialist stance distanced him from many of the city's black activists. He died there in 1940, and in 1964 his body was returned to Jamaica for reburial in Kingston's National Heroes Park.

Garvey was a controversial figure. Some in the African diasporic community regarded him as a pretentious demagogue and they were highly critical of his collaboration with white supremacists, his violent rhetoric and his prejudice against mixed-race people and Jews. He received praise for encouraging a sense of pride and self-worth among Africans and the African diaspora amid widespread poverty, discrimination and colonialism. In Jamaica he is widely regarded as a national hero. His ideas exerted a considerable influence on such movements as Rastafari, the Nation of Islam and the Black Power Movement.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born on 17 August 1887 in Saint Ann's Bay, a town in the British colony of Jamaica. In the context of colonial Jamaican society, which had a colourist social hierarchy, Garvey was considered at the lowest end, being a black child who was of full African descent. However, later genetic research nevertheless revealed that he had ancestors from the Iberian Peninsula. Garvey's paternal great- grandfather had been born into slavery prior to its abolition in Jamaica. His surname, which was of Irish origin, had been inherited from his family's former enslavers.

His father, Malchus Garvey, was a stonemason; his mother, Sarah Richards, was a domestic servant and the daughter of peasant farmers. Malchus had had two previous partners before Sarah, having six children between them. Sarah bore him four additional children, of whom Marcus was the youngest, although two died in infancy. Because of his profession, Malchus' family were wealthier than many of their peasant neighbours; they were petty bourgeoise. Malchus was however reckless with his money and over the course of his life lost most of the land he owned to meet payments. Malchus had a book collection and was self-educated; he also served as an occasional layman at a local Wesleyan church. Malchus was an intolerant and punitive father and husband; he never had a close relationship with his son.

Up to the age of 14, Garvey attended a local church school; further education was unaffordable for the family. When not in school, Garvey worked on his maternal uncle's tenant farm. He had friends, with whom he once broke the windows of a church, resulting in his arrest. Some of his friends were white, although he found that as they grew older they distanced themselves from him; he later recalled that a close childhood friend was a white girl: "We were two innocent fools who never dreamed of a race feeling and problem." In 1901, Marcus was apprenticed to his godfather, a local printer. In 1904, the printer opened another branch at Port Maria, where Garvey began to work, traveling from Saint Ann's Bay each morning.

In 1905 he moved to Kingston, where he boarded in Smith Village, a working-class neighbourhood. In the city, he secured work with the printing division of the P.A. Benjamin Manufacturing Company. He rose quickly through the company ranks, becoming their first Afro-Jamaican foreman. His sister and mother, by this point estranged from his father, moved to join him in the city. In January 1907, Kingston was hit by an earthquake that reduced much of the city to rubble. He, his mother, and his sister were left to sleep in the open for several months. In March 1908, his mother died. While in Kingston, Garvey converted to Catholicism.

Garvey became a trade unionist, vice president of the compositors' section of the Printers' Union, and took a leading role in the November 1908 print workers' strike. The strike was broken several weeks later and Garvey was sacked. Henceforth branded a troublemaker, Garvey was unable to find work in the private sector. He then found temporary employment with a government printer. As a result of these experiences, Garvey became increasingly angry at the inequalities present in Jamaican society.

Garvey involved himself with the National Club, Jamaica's first nationalist organization, becoming its first assistant secretary in April 1910. The group campaigned to remove the Governor of Jamaica, Sydney Olivier, from office, and to end the migration of Indian " coolies", or indentured workers, to Jamaica, as they were seen as a source of economic competition by the established population. With fellow Club member Wilfred Domingo he published a pamphlet expressing the group's ideas, The Struggling Mass. In early 1910, Garvey began publishing a magazine, Garvey's Watchman-its name a reference to George William Gordon's The Watchman-although it only lasted three issues. He claimed it had a circulation of 3000, although this was likely an exaggeration. Garvey also enrolled in elocution lessons with the radical journalist Joseph Robert Love, coming to regard him as a mentor. With Garvey's enhanced skill at speaking in a Standard English manner, he entered several public-speaking competitions.

Economic hardship in Jamaica led to growing emigration from the island. In mid-1910, Garvey travelled to Costa Rica, where an uncle had secured him employment as a timekeeper on a large banana plantation in the Limón Province owned by the United Fruit Company (UFC). Shortly after his arrival, the area experienced strikes and unrest in opposition to the UFC's attempts to cut its workers' wages. Although as a timekeeper he was responsible for overseeing the manual workers, he became increasingly angered at how they were treated. In the spring of 1911 he launched a bilingual newspaper, Nation/ La Nación, which criticized the actions of the UFC and upset many of the dominant strata of Costa Rican society in Limón. His coverage of a local fire, in which he questioned the motives of the fire brigade, resulted in him being brought in for police questioning. After his printing press broke, he was unable to replace the faulty part and terminated the newspaper.

Garvey then travelled through Central America, undertaking casual work as he made his way through Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. While in the port of Colón in Panama, he set up a new newspaper, La Prensa ("The Press"). In 1911, he became seriously ill with a bacterial infection and decided to return to Kingston. He then decided to travel to London, the administrative centre of the British Empire, in the hope of advancing his informal education. In the spring of 1912 he sailed to England. Renting a room along Borough High Street in South London, he visited the House of Commons, where he was impressed by the politician David Lloyd George. He also visited Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park and began making speeches there. There were only a few thousand black people in London at the time, and they were often viewed as exotic; most worked as labourers. Garvey initially gained piecemeal work labouring in the city's docks. In August 1912, his sister Indiana joined him in London, where she worked as a domestic servant.

In early 1913 he was employed as a messenger and handyman for the African Times and Orient Review, a magazine based in Fleet Street that was edited by Dusé Mohamed Ali. The magazine advocated Ethiopianism and home rule for British-ruled Egypt. In 1914, Mohamed Ali began employing Garvey's services as a writer for the magazine. Garvey also took several evening classes in law at Birkbeck College in Bloomsbury. He planned a tour of Europe, spending time in Glasgow, Paris, Monte Carlo, Boulogne, and Madrid.

Back in London, he wrote an article on Jamaica for the Tourist magazine, and spent time reading in the library of the British Museum. There he discovered Up from Slavery, a book by the African-American entrepreneur and activist Booker T. Washington. Washington's book heavily influenced Garvey. Now almost financially destitute and deciding to return to Jamaica, he unsuccessfully asked both the Colonial Office and the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society to pay for his journey. After managing to save the funds for a fare, he boarded the in June 1914 for a three-week journey across the Atlantic. En route home, Garvey talked with an Afro-Caribbean missionary who had spent time in Basutoland and taken a Basuto wife. Discovering more about colonial Africa from this man, Garvey began to envision a movement that would politically unify black people of African descent across the world.

To the cultured mind the bulk of our [i.e. black] people are contemptible[...] Go into the country parts of Jamaica and you will see there villainy and vice of the worst kind, immorality, obeah and all kinds of dirty things[...] Kingston and its environs are so infested with the uncouth and vulgar of our people that we of the cultured class feel positively ashamed to move about. Well, this society [UNIA] has set itself the task to go among the people[...] and raise them to the standard of civilised approval.

- Garvey, from a 1915 Collegiate Hall speech published in the Daily Chronicle

Garvey arrived back in Jamaica in July 1914. There, he saw his article for Tourist republished in The Gleaner. He began earning money selling greeting and condolence cards which he had imported from Britain, before later switching to selling tombstones.

Also in July 1914, Garvey launched the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, commonly abbreviated as UNIA. Adopting the motto of "One Aim. One God. One Destiny", it declared its commitment to "establish a brotherhood among the black race, to promote a spirit of race pride, to reclaim the fallen and to assist in civilising the backward tribes of Africa." Initially, it had only few members. Many Jamaicans were critical of the group's prominent use of the term " Negro", a term which was often employed as an insult: Garvey, however, embraced the term in reference to black people of African descent.

Garvey became UNIA's president and travelling commissioner; it was initially based out of his hotel room in Orange Street, Kingston. It portrayed itself not as a political organization but as a charitable club, focused on work to help the poor and to ultimately establish a vocational training college modelled on Washington's Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Garvey wrote to Washington and received a brief, if encouraging reply; Washington died shortly after. UNIA officially expressed its loyalty to the British Empire, King George V, and the British effort in the ongoing First World War. In April 1915 Brigadier General L. S. Blackden lectured to the group on the war effort; Garvey endorsed Blackden's calls for more Jamaicans to sign up to fight for the Empire on the Western Front. The group also sponsored musical and literary evenings as well as a February 1915 elocution contest, at which Garvey took first prize.

In August 1914, Garvey attended a meeting of the Queen Street Baptist Literary and Debating Society, where he met Amy Ashwood, recently graduated from the Westwood Training College for Women. She joined UNIA and rented a better premises for them to use as their headquarters, secured using her father's credit. She and Garvey embarked on a relationship, which was opposed by her parents. In 1915 they secretly became engaged. When she suspended the engagement, he threatened to commit suicide, at which she resumed it.

Garvey attracted financial contributions from many prominent patrons, including the Mayor of Kingston and the Governor of Jamaica, William Manning. By appealing directly to Jamaica's white elite, Garvey had skipped the brown middle-classes, comprising those who were classified as mulattos, quadroons, and octoroons. They were generally hostile to Garvey, regarding him as a pretentious social climber and being annoyed at his claim to be part of the "cultured class" of Jamaican society. Many also felt that he was unnecessarily derogatory when describing black Jamaicans, with letters of complaint being sent into the Daily Chronicle after it published one of Garvey's speeches in which he referred to many of his people as "uncouth and vulgar". One complainant, a Dr Leo Pink, related that "the Jamaican Negro can not be reformed by abuse". After unsubstantiated allegations began circling that Garvey was diverting UNIA funds to pay for his own personal expenses, the group's support began to decline. He became increasingly aware of how UNIA had failed to thrive in Jamaica and decided to migrate to the United States, sailing there aboard the SS Tallac in March 1916.

The UNIA flag, a tricolour of red, black, and green. According to Garvey, the red symbolises the blood of martyrs, the black symbolizes the skin of Africans, and the green represents the vegetation of the African land.

Arriving in the United States, Garvey initially lodged with a Jamaican expatriate family living in Harlem, a largely black area of New York City. He began lecturing in the city, hoping to make a career as a public speaker, although at his first public speech he was heckled and fell off the stage. From New York City, he embarked on a U.S. speaking tour, crossing 38 states. At stopovers on his journey he listened to preachers from the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Black Baptist churches. While in Alabama, he visited the Tuskegee Institute and met with its new leader, Robert Russa Moton. After six months traveling across the U.S. lecturing, he returned to New York City.

In May 1917, Garvey launched a New York branch of UNIA. He declared membership open to anyone "of Negro blood and African ancestry" who could pay the 25 cents a month membership fee. He joined many other speakers who made speeches on the street, standing on step-ladders; he often did so at Speakers' Corner on 135th Street. In his speeches, he sought to reach across to both Afro-Caribbean migrants like himself and native African Americans. Through this, he began to associate with Hubert Harrison, who was promoting ideas of black self-reliance and racial separatism. In June, Garvey shared a stage with Harrison at the inaugural meeting of the latter's Liberty League of Negro-Americans. Through his appearance here and at other events organized by Harrison, Garvey attracted growing public attention.

After the U.S. entered the First World War in April 1917, Garvey initially signed up to fight but was ruled physically unfit to do so. He later became an opponent of African-American involvement in the conflict, following Harrison in accusing it of being a "white man's war". In the wake of the East St. Louis Race Riots in May to July 1917, in which white mobs targeted black people, Garvey began calling for armed self-defense. He produced a pamphlet, The Conspiracy of the East St Louis Riots, which was widely distributed; proceeds from its sale went to victims of the riots. The Bureau of Investigation began monitoring him, noting that in speeches he employed more militant language than that used in print; it for instance reported him expressing the view that "for every Negro lynched by whites in the South, Negroes should lynch a white in the North."

By the end of 1917, Garvey had attracted many of Harrison's key associates in his Liberty League to join UNIA. Garvey also secured the support of the journalist John Edward Bruce, agreeing to step down from the group's presidency in favor of Bruce. Bruce then wrote to Dusé Mohamed Ali to learn more about Garvey's past. Mohamed Ali responded with a negative assessment of Garvey, suggesting that he simply used UNIA as a money-making scheme. Bruce read this letter to a UNIA meeting and put pressure on Garvey's position. Garvey then resigned from UNIA, establishing a rival group that met at Old Fellows Temple. He also launched legal proceedings against Bruce and other senior UNIA members, with the court ruling that UNIA's name and membership-now estimated at 600-belonged to Garvey, who resumed control over the organization.

UNIA membership grew rapidly in 1918. In June that year it was incorporated, and in July a commercial arm, the African Communities' League, filed for incorporation. Garvey envisioned UNIA establishing an import-and-export business, a restaurant, and a launderette. He also proposed raising the funds to secure a permanent building as a base for the group. In April, Garvey launched a weekly newspaper, the Negro World, which Cronon later noted remained "the personal propaganda organ of its founder". Financially, the Negro World was backed by philanthropists such as Madam C. J. Walker, but six months after its launch was pursuing a special appeal for donations to keep it afloat.

Various journalists took Garvey to court for his failure to pay them for their contributions, a fact much publicized by rival publications; at the time, there were over 400 black-run newspapers and magazines in the U.S. Unlike many of these, Garvey refused to feature adverts for skin-lightening and hair-straightening products, urging black people to "take the kinks out of your mind, instead of out of your hair". By the end of its first year, the circulation of Negro World was nearing 10,000; copies circulated not only in the U.S., but also in the Caribbean, Central, and South America. Several British West Indian islands banned the publication.

In 1918, Garvey's UNIA began publishing the Negro World newspaper.

Garvey appointed his old friend Domingo, who had also arrived in New York City, as the newspaper's editor. However, Domingo's socialist views alarmed Garvey, who feared that they would imperil UNIA. Garvey had Domingo brought before UNIA's nine-person executive committee, where the latter was accused of writing editorials professing ideas at odds with UNIA's message. Domingo resigned several months later; he and Garvey henceforth became enemies. In September 1918, Amy Ashwood sailed from Panama to be with Garvey, arriving in New York City in October. In November, she became General Secretary of UNIA. At UNIA gatherings, she was responsible for reciting black-authored poetry, as was the actress Henrietta Vinton Davis, who had also joined the movement.

After the First World War ended, President Woodrow Wilson declared his intention to present a 14-point plan for world peace at the forthcoming Paris Peace Conference. Garvey joined various African Americans in forming the International League for Darker People, a group which sought to lobby Wilson and the conference to give greater respect to the wishes of people of color; their delegates nevertheless were unable to secure the travel documentation. At Garvey's prompting, UNIA sent a young Haitian, Eliezer Cadet, as its delegate to the conference. Despite these efforts, the political leaders who met in Paris largely ignored the perspectives of non-European peoples, instead reaffirming their support for continued European colonial rule.

In the U.S., many African Americans who had served in the military refused to return to their more subservient role in society and throughout 1919 there were various racial clashes throughout the country. The government feared that African Americans would be encouraged toward revolutionary behavior following the October Revolution in Russia, and in this context, military intelligence ordered Major Walter Loving to investigate Garvey. Loving's report concluded that Garvey was a "very able young man" who was disseminating "clever propaganda". The Bureau of Investigation's J. Edgar Hoover decided that Garvey was politically subversive and should be deported from the U.S., adding his name to the list of those to be targeted in the forthcoming Palmer Raids. To ratify the deportation, the Bureau of Investigation presented Garvey's name to the Labor Department under Louis F. Post, however Post's department refused to do so, stating that the case against Garvey was not proven.

Success and obstacles

UNIA grew rapidly and in just over 18 months it had branches in 25 U.S. states, as well as divisions in the West Indies, Central America, and West Africa. The exact membership is not known, although Garvey-who often exaggerated numbers-claimed that by June 1919 it had two million members. It remained smaller than the better established National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), although there was some crossover in membership of the two groups. The NAACP and UNIA differed in their approach; while the NAACP was a multi-racial organization which promoted racial integration, UNIA had a black-only membership policy. The NAACP focused its attention on what it termed the " talented tenth" of the African-American population, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, whereas UNIA included many poorer people and Afro-Caribbean migrants in its ranks, seeking to project an image of itself as a mass organization. To promote his views to a wide audience, Garvey took to shouting slogans from a megaphone as he was driven through Harlem in a Cadillac.

There were tensions between UNIA and the NAACP and the latter's supporters accused Garvey of stymieing their efforts at bringing about racial integration in the U.S. Garvey was dismissive of the NAACP leader W. E. B. Du Bois, and in one issue of the Negro World called him a "reactionary under [the] pay of white men". Du Bois generally tried to ignore Garvey, regarding him as a demagogue, but at the same time wanted to learn all he could about Garvey's movement. In 1921, Garvey twice reached out to Du Bois, asking him to contribute to UNIA publications, but the offer was rebuffed. Their relationship became acrimonious; in 1923, Du Bois described Garvey as "a little fat black man, ugly but with intelligent eyes and big head". By 1924, historian Colin Grant has suggested, the two hated each other.

UNIA established a restaurant and ice cream parlor at 56 West 135th Street, and also launched a millinery store selling hats. With an increased income coming in through UNIA, Garvey moved to a new residence at 238 West 131st Street; in 1919, a young middle-class Jamaican migrant, Amy Jacques, became his personal secretary. UNIA also obtained a partially-constructed church building at 114 West 138 Street in Harlem, which Garvey named "Liberty Hall" after its namesake in Dublin, Ireland, which had been established during the Easter Rising of 1916. The adoption of this name reflected Garvey's fascination with the Irish independence movement. Liberty Hall's dedication ceremony was held in July 1919. During the hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney Garvey supported solidarity strikes in support of MacSwiney and made appeals to the British government on his behalf.

Garvey also organized the African Legion, a group of uniformed men who would attend UNIA parades; a secret service was formed from Legion members, providing Garvey with intelligence about group members. The formation of the Legion further concerned the Bureau of Investigation, who sent their first full-time black agent, James Wormley Jones, to infiltrate UNIA. In January 1920, Garvey incorporated the Negro Factories League, through which he opened a string of grocery stores, a restaurant, a steam laundry, and publishing house. According to Grant, a personality cult had grown up around Garvey within the UNIA movement; life-size portraits of him hung in the UNIA headquarters and phonographs of his speeches were sold to the membership.

In August 1920, UNIA organized the First International Conference of the Negro Peoples in Harlem. This parade was attended by Gabriel Johnson, the Mayor of Monrovia in Liberia. As part of it, an estimated 25,000 people assembled in Madison Square Gardens. At the conference, UNIA delegates declared Garvey to be the Provisional President of Africa, charged with heading a government-in-exile that could take power in the continent when European colonial rule ended via decolonization. Some of the West Africans attending the event were angered by this, believing it wrong that an Afro-Jamaican, rather than a native African, was taking this role.

Many outside the movement ridiculed Garvey for giving himself this title. The conference then elected other members of the African government-in-exile, resulting in the production of a "Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World" which condemned European colonial rule across Africa. In August 1921, UNIA held a banquet in Liberty Hall, at which Garvey gave out honors to various supporters, including such titles as the Order of the Nile and the Order of Ethiopia.

UNIA established growing links with the Liberian government, hoping to secure land in the West African nation on which it could settle African-American migrants. Liberia was in heavy debt, with UNIA launching a fundraising campaign to raise $2 million towards a Liberian Construction Loan. In 1921, Garvey sent a UNIA team to assess the prospects of mass African-American settlement in Liberia. Internally, UNIA experienced various feuds. Garvey pushed out Cyril Briggs and other members of the African Blood Brotherhood from UNIA, wanting to place growing distance between himself and black socialist groups. In the Negro World, Garvey then accused Briggs-who was of mixed heritage-of being a white man posing as a black man. Briggs successfully sued Garvey for criminal libel. This was not the only time he faced this charge; in July 1919 Garvey had been arrested for comments made about Edwin Kilroe in the Negro World. When this case eventually came to court, the court ordered Garvey to provide a printed retraction.

Assassination attempts, marriage, and divorce

In October 1919, George Tyler, a part-time vendor of the Negro World, entered the UNIA office and told Garvey that Kilroe "had sent him" and tried to assassinate Garvey, Edwin P. Kilroe, was then the Assistant District Attorney in the District Attorney's office of the County of New York. Garvey was shot at four times with a .38-calibre revolver, and received two bullets in his right leg and scalp but survived. Tyler was soon apprehended but committed suicide by leaping from the third-tier of the Harlem jail; it was never revealed why he tried to kill Garvey. Garvey soon recovered from his wounds; five days later he gave a public speech in Philadelphia. After the assassination attempt, Garvey hired a bodyguard, Marcellus Strong. Shortly after the incident, Garvey proposed marriage to Amy Ashwood and she accepted. On Christmas Day, they had a private Catholic wedding, followed by a major ceremonial celebration in Liberty Hall, attended by 3000 UNIA members. Jacques was Ashwood's maid of honor. After the wedding, Garvey moved into Ashwood's apartment.

The newlyweds embarked on a two-week honeymoon in Canada, accompanied by a small UNIA retinue, including Jacques. There, Garvey spoke at two mass meetings in Montreal and three in Toronto. Returning to Harlem, the couple's marriage was soon strained. Ashwood complained of Garvey's growing closeness with Jacques. Garvey was upset by his inability to control his wife, particularly her drinking and her socializing with other men. She was pregnant, although the child was possibly not his; she did not inform him of this, and the pregnancy ended in miscarriage.

Three months into the marriage, Garvey sought an annulment, on the basis of Ashwood's alleged adultery and the claim that she had used "fraud and concealment" to induce the marriage. She launched a counter-claim for desertion, requesting $75 a week alimony. The court rejected this sum, instead ordering Garvey to pay her $12 a week. It refused to grant him the divorce. The court proceedings continued for two years. Now separated, Garvey moved into a 129th Street apartment with Jacques and Henrietta Vinton Davis, an arrangement that at the time could have caused some social controversy. He was later joined there by his sister Indiana and her husband, Alfred Peart. Ashwood, meanwhile, went on to become a lyricist and musical director for musicals amid the Harlem Renaissance.

The Black Star Line

Black Star Line was organized for the industrial, commercial and economic development of the race to carry out the program of U.N.I.A., that is to have ships to link up the Negro peoples of the world in commercial trade and in fraternities.

From 56 West 135th, UNIA also began selling shares for a new business, the Black Star Line. Seeking to challenge white domination of the maritime industry, the Black Star Line based its name on the White Star Line. Garvey envisioned a shipping and passenger line traveling between Africa and the Americas, which would be black-owned, black-staffed, and utilized by black patrons. He thought that the project could be launched by raising $2 million from African-American donors, publicly declaring that any black person who did not buy stock in the company "will be worse than a traitor to the cause of struggling Ethiopia".

Garvey incorporated the company and then sought about trying to purchase a ship. Many African Americans took great pride in buying company stock, seeing it as an investment in their community's future; Garvey also promised that when the company began turning a profit they would receive significant financial returns on their investment. To advertise this stock, he traveled to Virginia, and then in September 1919 to Chicago, where he was accompanied by seven other UNIA members. In Chicago, he was arrested and fined for violating the Blue Sky Laws which banned the sale of stock in the city without a license.

With growing quantities of money coming in, a three-man auditing committee was established, which found that UNIA's funds were poorly recorded and that the company's books were not balanced. This was followed by a breakdown in trust between the directors of the Black Star Line, with Garvey discharging two of them, Richard E. Warner and Edgar M. Grey, and publicly humiliating them at the next UNIA meeting. People continued buying stock regardless and by September 1919, the Black Star Line company had accumulated $50,000 (~$633,727 in 2022) by selling stock. It could thus afford a thirty-year old tramp ship, the SS Yarmouth. The ship was formally launched in a ceremony on the Hudson River on 31 October. The company had been unable to find enough trained black seamen to staff the ship, so its initial chief engineer and chief officer were white.

The ship's first assignment was to sail to Cuba and then to Jamaica, before returning to New York. After that first voyage, the Yarmouth was found to contain many problems and the Black Star Line had to pay $11,000 for repairs. On its second voyage, again to the Caribbean, it hit bad weather shortly after departure and had to be towed back to New York by the coastguard for further repairs. Garvey planned to obtain and launch a second ship by February 1920, with the Black Star Line putting down a $10,000 (~$111,216 in 2022) deposit on a paddle ship called the SS Shady Side. In July 1920, Garvey sacked both the Black Star Line's secretary, Edward D. Smith-Green, and its captain, Joshua Cockburn; the latter was accused of corruption. In early 1922, the Yarmouth was sold for scrap metal, bringing the Black Star Line less than a hundredth of its original purchase price. The worn-out steamboat Shady Side was abandoned on the mud flats at Fort Lee, New Jersey in the fall of 1922, when the Black Star Line collapsed.

In 1921, Garvey traveled to the Caribbean aboard a new Black Star Line ship, the Antonio Maceo. While in Jamaica, he criticized its inhabitants as being backward and claimed that "Negroes are the most lazy, the most careless and indifferent people in the world". His comments in Jamaica earned many enemies, who criticized him on multiple fronts, including the fact he had left his destitute father to die in an almshouse. Attacks back-and-forth between Garvey and his critics appeared in the letters published by The Gleaner.

From Jamaica, Garvey traveled to Costa Rica, where the United Fruit Company assisted his transportation around the country, hoping to gain his favor. There, he met with President Julio Acosta. Arriving in Panama, at one of his first speeches, in Almirante, he was booed after doubling the advertised entry price; his response was to call the crowd "a bunch of ignorant and impertinent Negroes. No wonder you are where you are and for my part you can stay where you are." He received a far warmer reception at Panama City, after which he sailed to Kingston. From there he sought a return to the U.S., but was repeatedly denied an entry visa. This was only granted after he wrote directly to the State Department.

In January 1922, Garvey was arrested and charged with mail fraud for having advertised the sale of stocks in a ship, the Orion, which the Black Star Line did not yet own. He was bailed for $2,500. Hoover and the BOI were committed to securing a conviction; they had also received complaints from a small number of the Black Star Line's stock owners, who wanted them to pursue the matter further. Garvey spoke out against the charges he faced, but focused on blaming not the state, but rival African-American groups, for them. As well as accusing disgruntled former members of UNIA, in a Liberty Hall speech, he implied that the NAACP were behind the conspiracy to imprison him. The mainstream press picked up on the charge, largely presenting Garvey as a con artist who had swindled African-American people.

After his arrest, Garvey announced that the activities of the BSL were being suspended. He also made plans for a tour of the western and southern states. This included a parade in Los Angeles, partly to woo back members of UNIA's California branch, which had recently splintered off to become independent. In June 1922, Garvey met with Edward Young Clarke, the Imperial Wizard pro tempore of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) at the Klan's offices in Atlanta. Garvey made a number of incendiary speeches in the months leading up to that meeting; in some, he thanked the whites for Jim Crow. Garvey once stated:

I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together. I like honesty and fair play. You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.

News of Garvey's meeting with the KKK soon spread and it was covered on the front page of many African-American newspapers, causing widespread upset. When news of the meeting was revealed, it generated much surprise and anger among African Americans; Grant noted that it marked "the most significant turning point in his popularity". Several prominent black Americans- Chandler Owen, A. Philip Randolph, William Pickens, and Robert Bagnall-launched the "Garvey Must Go" campaign in the wake of the revelation. Many of these critics played to nativist ideas by emphasising Garvey's Jamaican identity and sometimes calling for his deportation. Pickens and several other of Garvey's critics claimed to have been threatened, and sometimes physically attacked, by Garveyites. Randolph reported receiving a severed hand in the post, accompanied by a letter from the KKK threatening him to stop criticising Garvey and to join UNIA.

Garvey also proposed marriage to his secretary, Jacques. She accepted, although later stated: "I did not marry for love. I did not love Garvey. I married him because I thought it was the right thing to do." They married in Baltimore in July 1922. She proposed that a book of his speeches be published; it appeared as The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, although the speeches were edited to remove more inflammatory material. That year, UNIA also launched a new newspaper, the Daily Negro Times.

At UNIA's August 1922 convention, Garvey called for the impeachment of several senior UNIA figures, including Adrian Johnson and J. D. Gibson, and declared that the UNIA cabinet should not be elected by the organization's members, but appointed directly by him. When they refused to step down, he resigned both as head of UNIA and as Provisional President of Africa, probably in an act designed to compel their own resignations. He then began openly criticising another senior member, Reverend James Eason, and succeeded in getting him expelled from UNIA.

Following the murder, eight prominent African Americans signed a public letter calling Garvey "an unscrupulous demagogue who has ceaselessly and assiduously sought to spread among Negroes distrust and hatred of all white people". They urged the Attorney-General to bring forth the criminal case against Garvey and disband UNIA. Garvey was furious, publicly accusing them of "the greatest bit of treachery and wickedness that any group of Negroes could be capable of." In a pamphlet attacking them he focused on their racial heritage, lambasting the eight for the reason that "nearly all [are] Octoroons and Quadroons". Du Bois-who was not among the eight-then wrote an article critical of Garvey's activities in the U.S. Garvey responded by calling Du Bois "a Hater of Dark People", an "unfortunate mulatto who bewails every drop of Negro blood in his veins".

The Black Star Line brochure for the SS Phyllis Wheatley, central exhibit in the Mail Fraud case of 1921. The SS Phyllis Wheatley did not exist; this is a doctored photograph of an ex-German ship, the SS Orion, put up for sale by the United States Shipping Board. The Black Star Line had proposed to buy her but the transaction was never completed.

Having been postponed at least three times, in May 1923, the trial finally came to court, with Garvey and three other defendants accused of mail fraud. The judge overseeing the proceedings was Julian Mack, although Garvey disliked his selection on the grounds that he thought Mack an NAACP sympathiser. At the start of the trial, Garvey's attorney, Cornelius McDougald, urged him to plead guilty to secure a minimum sentence, but Garvey refused, dismissing McDougald and deciding to represent himself in court. The trial proceeded for more than a month. Throughout, Garvey struggled due to his lack of legal training. In his three-hour closing address he presented himself as a selfless leader who was beset by incompetent and thieving staff who caused all the problems for UNIA and the Black Star Line. On 18 June, the jurors retired to deliberate on the verdict, returning after ten hours. They found Garvey himself guilty, but his three co-defendants not guilty.

Garvey was furious with the verdict, shouting abuse in the courtroom and calling both the judge and district attorney "damned dirty Jews". Imprisoned in The Tombs jail while awaiting sentencing, he continued to blame a Jewish cabal for the verdict; in contrast, prior to this he had never expressed anti-semitic sentiment and was supportive of Zionism. When it came to sentencing, Mack sentenced Garvey to five years' imprisonment and a $1000 fine.

The severity of the sentence-which was harsher than those given to similar crimes at the time-may have been a response to Garvey's anti-Semitic outburst. He felt that they had been biased because of their political objections to his meeting with the acting imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan the year before. In 1928, Garvey told a journalist: "When they wanted to get me they had a Jewish judge try me, and a Jewish prosecutor. I would have been freed but two Jews on the jury held out against me ten hours and succeeded in convicting me, whereupon the Jewish judge gave me the maximum penalty."

Out on bail: 1923-1925

In September, Judge Martin Manton awarded Garvey bail for $15,000-which was duly raised by UNIA-while he appealed his conviction. Again a free man, he toured the U.S., giving a lecture at the Tuskegee Institute. In speeches given during this tour he further emphasised the need for racial segregation through migration to Africa, calling the United States "a white man's country". He continued to defend his meeting with the KKK, describing them as having more "honesty of purpose towards the Negro" than the NAACP. Although he previously avoided involvement with party politics, for the first time he encouraged UNIA to propose candidates in elections, often setting them against NAACP-backed candidates in areas with high black populations.

The American Negro has endured this wretch [Garvey] too long with fine restraint and every effort of cooperation and understanding. But the end has come. Every man who apologizes for or defends Marcus Garvey from this day forth writes himself down as unworthy of the countenance of decent Americans. As for Garvey himself, this open ally of the Ku Klux Klan should be locked up or sent home.

Garvey blamed Du Bois for this apparent change in the Liberian government's attitude, for the latter had spent time in the country and had links with its ruling elite; Du Bois denied the accusation. Later examination suggested that, despite King's assurances to the UNIA team, the Liberian government had never seriously intended to allow African-American colonization, aware that it would harm relations with the British and French colonies on their borders, who feared the political tensions it could bring with it.

UNIA faced further setbacks when Bruce died; the group organised a funeral procession ending in a ceremony at Liberty Hall. In need of additional finances, Negro World dropped its longstanding ban on advertising skin lightening and hair straightening products. The additional revenues allowed the Black Star Line to purchase a new ship, the SS General G W Goethals, in October 1924. It was then renamed the SS Booker T. Washington.

In early 1925, the U.S. Court of Appeal upheld the original court decision. Garvey was in Detroit at the time and was arrested while aboard a train back to New York City. In February he was taken to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary and incarcerated there. Imprisoned, he was made to carry out cleaning tasks. On one occasion he was reprimanded for insolence towards the white prison officers. There, he became increasingly ill with chronic bronchitis and lung infections. Two years into his imprisonment he would be hospitalized with influenza.

Garvey received regular letters from UNIA members and from his wife; she also visited him every three weeks. With his support, she assembled another book of his collected speeches, Philosophy and Opinions; these had often been edited to remove inflammatory comments about wielding violence against white people. He also wrote The Meditations of Marcus Garvey, its name an allusion to The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. From prison, Garvey continued corresponding with far-right white separatist activists like Earnest Sevier Cox of the White American Society and John Powell of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America; the latter visited Garvey in prison.

While Garvey was imprisoned, Ashwood launched a legal challenge against his divorce from her. Had the divorce been found void then his marriage to Jacques would have been invalid. The court ruled in favor of Garvey, recognising the legality of his divorce. With Garvey absent, William Sherrill became acting head of UNIA. To deal with the organization's financial problems, he re-mortgaged Liberty Hall to pay off debts and ended up selling off the SS Booker T Washington at a quarter of what UNIA had paid for it.

Garvey was angry and in February 1926 wrote to the Negro World expressing his dissatisfaction with Sherrill's leadership. From prison, he organized an emergency UNIA convention in Detroit, where delegates voted to depose Sherrill. The latter's supporters then held a rival convention in Liberty Hall, reflecting the growing schism in the organization. A subsequent court ruling determined that it was UNIA's New York branch, then controlled by Sherrill, rather than the central UNIA leadership itself, that owned Liberty Hall. The financial problems continued, resulting in Liberty Hall being repeatedly re-mortgaged and then sold.

The Attorney General, John Sargent, received a petition with 70,000 signatures urging for Garvey's release. Sargeant warned President Calvin Coolidge that African Americans were regarding Garvey's imprisonment not as a form of justice against a man who had swindled them but as "an act of oppression of the race in their efforts in the direction of race progress". Eventually, Coolidge agreed to commute the sentence so that it would expire immediately, on 18 November 1927. He stipulated, however, that Garvey should be deported straight after release. On being released, Garvey was taken by train to New Orleans, where around a thousand supporters saw him onto the SS Saramaca on 3 December. The ship then stopped at Cristóbal in Panama, where supporters again greeted him, but where the authorities refused his request to disembark. He then transferred to the SS Santa Maria, which took him to Kingston, Jamaica.

In Kingston, Garvey was greeted by supporters. UNIA members had raised $10,000 to help him settle in Jamaica, with which he bought a large house in an elite neighbourhood, which he called the "Somali Court". His wife shipped over his belongings-which included 18,000 books and hundreds of antiques-before joining him. In Jamaica, he continued giving speeches, including at a building in Kingston he had also named "Liberty Hall". He urged Afro-Jamaicans to raise their standards of living and rally against Chinese and Syrian migrants who had moved to the island. Meanwhile, the U.S. UNIA had been taken over by E. B. Knox; the latter was summoned to Jamaica for a meeting with Garvey after Laura Kofey, the leader of a group that had broken from UNIA, was killed, bringing the organization into further disrepute.

Garvey attempted to travel across Central America but found his hopes blocked by the region's various administrations, who regarded him as disruptive. Instead, he travelled to England in April, where he rented a house in London's West Kensington area for four months. On 6th June 1928 he spoke at the Royal Albert Hall. Later that year, he and his wife visited Paris, where he had his office at the black newspapers La Dépêche Africaine headquarter and spoke at the Club du Fauborg, before traveling to Switzerland. They then travelled to Canada, where Garvey was detained for one night before being barred from making speeches.

Back in Kingston, UNIA obtained Edelweiss Park in Cross Roads, which it established as its new headquarters. They held a conference there, opened by a parade through the city which attracted tens of thousands of onlookers. At Edelweiss Park, UNIA also began putting on plays. One of these, Coronation of an African King, was written by Garvey and performed in August 1930. Its plot revolved around the crowning of Prince Cudjoe of Sudan, although it anticipated the crowning of Haile Selassie of Ethiopia later that year. In Jamaica, Garvey became a de facto surrogate father to his niece, Ruth, whose father had recently died. In September 1930, his first son, Marcus Garvey III, was born; three years later a second son, Julius, followed.

In Kingston, Garvey was elected a city councillor and established the country's first political party, the People's Political Party (PPP), through which he intended to contest the forthcoming legislative council election. In September 1929 he addressed a crowd of 1,500 supporters, launching the PPP's manifesto, which included land reform to benefit tenant farmers, the addition of a minimum wage to the constitution, pledges to build Jamaica's first university and opera house, and a proposed law to impeach and imprison corrupt judges. The latter policy led to Garvey being charged with demeaning the judiciary and undermining public confidence in it. He pled guilty, and was sentenced to three months in a Spanish Town prison and a £100 fine.

While imprisoned, Garvey was removed from the Kingston council by other councillors. Garvey was furious and wrote an editorial against them, published in the Blackman journal. This resulted in his being charged with seditious libel, for which he was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison. His conviction was then overturned on appeal. He then campaigned as the PPP's candidate for the legislative assembly in Saint Andrew Parish, in which he secured 915 votes, being defeated by George Seymour-Jones.

In increasingly strained finances amid the Great Depression, Garvey began working as an auctioneer, and by 1935 was supplementing this with his wife's savings. He re-mortgaged his house and personal properties and in 1934 Edelweiss Park was foreclosed and auctioned off. Dissatisfied with life in Jamaica, Garvey decided to move to London, sailing aboard the SS Tilapa in March 1935. Once in London, he told his friend Amy Bailey that he had "left Jamaica a broken man, broken in spirit, broken in health and broken in pocket... and I will never, never, never go back."

Blue plaque at 53 Talgarth Road, London, installed in 2005

In London, Garvey sought to rebuild UNIA, although found there was much competition in the city from other black activist groups. He established a new UNIA headquarters in Beaumont Avenue, West Kensington and launched a new monthly journal, Black Man. Garvey returned to speaking at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. When he spoke in public, he was increasingly harangued by socialists for his conservative stances. He also had hopes of becoming a Member of Parliament, although this amounted to nothing.

In 1935, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War broke out as Italy invaded Ethiopia. Garvey spoke out against the Italians and praised the government of Haile Selassie. By October, however, he was becoming increasingly critical of Selassie, blaming his lack of preparedness for Ethiopia's failures in the war. When Selassie fled his homeland and arrived in Britain, Garvey was among the black delegates who arranged to meet him at Waterloo station, but was rebuffed. From that point he became more openly hostile to Selassie, describing him as a "feudal monarch who looks down upon his slaves and serfs with contempt" and "a great coward who ran away from his country to save his skin". Garvey's vocal criticisms of Selassie further ostracised him from the broader black activist community-including many Garveyites-most of whom were rallying around Selassie as a symbol of Ethiopia's struggle against colonialism.

In June 1937, Garvey's wife and children arrived in England, where the latter were sent to a school in Kensington Gardens. Shortly after, Garvey embarked on a lecture and fundraising tour of Canada and the Caribbean, in which he attended the annual UNIA convention in Toronto. In Trinidad, he openly criticised a recent oil workers' strike; this probably exacerbated tensions between him and two prominent Trinidadian Marxists then living in London, C. L. R. James and George Padmore. Once he had returned to London, Garvey took up a new family home in Talgarth Road, not far from UNIA's headquarters. In public debates, Garvey repeatedly clashed with Padmore, who was chair of the International African Service Bureau. In the summer of 1938, Garvey returned to Toronto for the next UNIA conference.

In January 1940, Garvey suffered a stroke which left him largely paralysed. His secretary, Daisy Whyte, took on responsibility for his care. At this point, Padmore spread rumours of Garvey's death; this led to many newspapers publishing premature obituaries in late May 1940, many of which he read. According to his secretary, on the second day of reading through his pile of obituaries, Garvey suffered another massive stroke and died two weeks later at the age of 52 on 10 June 1940. His body was interred in a vault in the catacombs of the chapel of St Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Kensal Green, West London.

The writer Richard Hart later noted that within a decade of his death "a veritable cult" had begun to grow around Garvey's memory in Jamaica. By the 1950s, Jamaican politicians of varied ideological backgrounds were invoking his name. Leslie Alexander, a Kingston real estate agent, proposed the removal of Garvey's body and its return to Jamaica. Alexander's campaign was successful and in 1964 Garvey's remains were exhumed and returned to Jamaica. The body lay in state at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston and thousands of visitors came for a viewing.

His body was then reburied in King George VI Memorial Park on 22 November 1964 with pomp and ceremony befitting a national hero; numerous foreign diplomats attended. The monument, designed by G. C. Hodges, consists of a tomb at the center of a raised platform in the shape of a black star, a symbol often used by Garvey. Behind it, a peaked and angled wall houses a bust, by Alvin T. Marriot, of Garvey, which was added to the park in 1956 (before his reinterment) and relocated after the construction of the monument.

Ethiopia, thou land of our fathers,
Thou land where the gods loved to be,
As storm cloud at night suddenly gathers
Our armies come rushing to thee.
We must in the fight be victorious
When swords are thrust outward to gleam;
For us will the vict'ry be glorious
When led by the red, black, and green.

Ideologically, Garvey was a black nationalist. Generally referring to dark-skinned peoples of African descent as "Negroes", he and the UNIA insisted that that term should be capitalized, thus affording dignity and respect to those whom it described. His ideas were influenced by a range of sources. According to Grant, while he was living in London, Garvey displayed "an amazing capacity to absorb political tracts, theories of social engineering, African history and the Western Enlightenment." Garvey was exposed to the ideas about race that were prevalent at the time; his ideas on race were also heavily informed by the writings of Edward Wilmot Blyden and by his work in London with Dusé Mohamed Ali.

During the late 1910s and 1920s, Garvey was also influenced by the ideas of the Irish independence movement, to which he was sympathetic. He saw strong parallels between the subjugation of Ireland and the global subjugation of black people, and identified strongly with the Irish independence leader Éamon de Valera. In 1922, he sent a message to Valera stating that "We believe Ireland should be free even as Africa shall be free for the Negroes of the world. Keep up the fight for a free Ireland."

For Garvey, Ireland's Sinn Féin and the Irish independence movement served as blueprints for his own black nationalist cause. In July 1919 he stated that "the time has come for the Negro race to offer up its martyrs upon the altar of liberty even as the Irish [had] given a long list from Robert Emmet to Roger Casement." He also expressed admiration for the Indian independence movement, which was seeking independence from British rule in India, describing Mahatma Gandhi as "one of the noblest characters of the day".

"Race first" was the adage which was widely used in Garveyism. In Garvey's view, "no race in the world is so just as to give others, for the asking, a square deal in things economic, political and social", but rather each racial group will favor its own interests. Rejecting the " melting pot" notion of much 20th century American nationalism, he thought that European Americans would never willingly grant equality to African Americans, and thus it was inefficient for the latter to ask for it. He was hostile to the efforts of the progressive movement to agitate for social and political rights for African Americans, arguing that this was ineffective and that laws would never change the underlying racial prejudice of European Americans.

He argued that the European-American population of the U.S. would never tolerate the social integration which was being advocated by activists like Du Bois because he believed that campaigns for such integration would lead to anti-black riots and lynchings. He openly conceded that the U.S. was a white man's country and thus, he did not think that African Americans should expect equal treatment within it. Thus, he opposed attempts to socially and economically integrate the different races which lived within the country. Garveyism promoted the view that whites had no duty to help blacks achieve racial equality, maintaining the view that the latter needed to advance themselves on their own initiative. He advocated racial separatism, but he did not believe in black supremacy. He also rallied against Eurocentric beauty standards among blacks, seeing them as impediments to black self-respect.

In the U.S., ideas about the need for black racial purity became central to Garvey's thought. He vehemently denounced miscegenation, believing that mixed-race individuals were "torn by dual allegiances" and they would often ally themselves "with the more powerful race," thus, they would become "traitors to the [black] race". Garvey argued that mixed-race people would be bred out of existence. Cronon believed that Garvey exhibited "antipathy and distrust of anybody but the darkest-skinned Negroes"; the hostility towards black people whose African blood was not considered "pure" was a sentiment which Garvey shared with Blyden.

Garvey's belief in racial separatism, his advocacy of the migration of African Americans to Africa, and his opposition to miscegenation endeared him to the KKK, which supported many of the same policies. Garvey was willing to collaborate with the KKK in order to achieve his aims, and it was willing to work with him because his approach effectively acknowledged its belief that the U.S. should only be a country for white people and campaigns for advanced rights for African Americans who are living within the U.S. should be abandoned. Garvey called for collaboration between black and white separatists, stating that they shared common goals: "the purification of the races, their autonomous separation and the unbridled freedom of self-development and self-expression. Those who are against this are enemies of both races, and rebels against morality, nature and God." In his view, the KKK and other far-right white groups were "better friends" of black people "than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together" because they were honest about their desires and intentions.

Garvey was a Pan-Africanist, and an African nationalist. In Jamaica, he and his supporters were heavily influenced by the pan-Africanist teachings of Dr Love and Alexander Bedward. In the wake of the First World War, Garvey called for the formation of "a United Africa for the Africans of the World". The UNIA promoted the view that Africa was the natural homeland of the African diaspora. While he was imprisoned, he penned an editorial for the Negro World titled "African Fundamentalism", in which he called for "the founding of a racial empire whose only natural, spiritual and political aims shall be God and Africa, at home and abroad."

Garvey supported the Back-to-Africa movement, which had been influenced by Edward Wilmot Blyden, who migrated to Liberia in 1850. However, Garvey did not believe that all African Americans should migrate to Africa. Instead, he believed that an elite group, namely those African Americans who were of the purest African blood, should do so. The rest of the African-American population, he believed, should remain in the United States, where it would become extinct within fifty years.

In the 1920s, Garvey referred to his desire for a "big black republic" in Africa. Garvey's envisioned Africa was to be a one-party state in which the president could have "absolute authority" to appoint "all of his lieutenants from cabinet ministers, governors of States and Territories, administrators and judges to minor offices". According to the scholar of African-American studies Wilson S. Moses, the future African state which Garvey envisioned was " authoritarian, elitist, collectivist, racist, and capitalistic", suggesting that it would have resembled the later Haitian government of François Duvalier. Garvey told the historian J. A. Rogers that he and his followers were "the first fascists", adding that " Mussolini copied Fascism from me, but the Negro reactionaries sabotaged it".

Garvey never visited Africa himself, and he did not speak any African language. He knew very little about the continent's varied customs, languages, religions, and traditional social structures, and his critics frequently believed that his views of the continent were based on romanticism and ignorance. It has been suggested that the European colonial authorities would not have given Garvey permission to visit colonies where he would be calling for decolonization.

Moses stated that instead of being based on respect for indigenous African cultures, Garvey's views of an ideal united Africa were based on an "imperial model" of the kind which was promoted by western powers. When he extolled the glories of Africa, Garvey cited the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians who had built empires and monumental architectural structures, which he cited as evidence of civilization, rather than the smaller-scale societies which lived on other parts of the continent. In doing so, he followed the lead of white academics of that era, who were similarly ignorant of most of African history and who focused nearly exclusively on ancient Egypt. Moses thought that Garvey "had more affinity for the pomp and tinsel of European imperialism than he did for black African tribal life". Similarly, the writer Richard Hart noted that Garvey was "much attracted by the glamour of the British nobility", an attraction which was reflected when he honored prominent supporters by giving them such British-derived titles as "Lords", "Ladies", and "Knights". Garvey's head was not turned, however, by the scholarly authority of Harvard University professor George Reisner whose opinion Garvey challenged on the pages of The Negro World.

Garvey believed in economic independence for the African diaspora and through the UNIA, he attempted to achieve it by forming ventures like the Black Star Line and the Negro Factories Corporation. In Garvey's opinion, "without commerce and industry, a people perish economically. The Negro is perishing because he has no economic system". In his view, European-American employers would always favor European-American employees, so to gain more security, African Americans needed to form their own businesses. In his words, "the Negro[...] must become independent of white capital and white employers if he wants salvation." He believed that financial independence for the African-American community would ensure greater protection from discrimination, and provide the foundation for social justice.

Economically, Garvey supported capitalism, stating that "capitalism is necessary to the progress of the world, and those who unreasonably and wantonly oppose it or fight against it are enemies of human advancement." In the U.S., Garvey promoted a capitalistic ethos for the economic development of the African-American community, advocating black capitalism. His emphasis on capitalist ventures meant, according to Grant, that Garvey "was making a straight pitch to the petit-bourgeois capitalist instinct of the majority of black folk."

There is no evidence to support the view that Garvey was ever sympathetic to socialism. While he was living in the U.S., he strongly opposed attempts to recruit African Americans into the trade union movement by socialist and communist groups, and he urged African Americans not to support the Communist Party. This led to heavy scrutiny from communist group leaders and figureheads such as Grace Campbell, among others. He believed that the communist movement did not serve the interests of African Americans because it was a white person's creation. He stated that communism was "a dangerous theory of economic or political reformation because it seeks to put government in the hands of an ignorant white mass who have not been able to destroy their natural prejudices towards Negroes and other non-white people. While it may be a good thing for them, it will be a bad thing for the Negroes who will fall under the government of the most ignorant, prejudiced class of the white race." In response, the Communist International characterised Garveyism as a reactionary bourgeois philosophy.

Grant noted that "Garveyism would always remain a secular movement with a strong under-tow of religion". Garvey envisioned a form of Christianity which would specifically be designed for black African people, a sort of black religion. Reflecting his own view of religion, he wanted this black-centric Christianity to be as close to Catholicism as possible.

Garvey emphasised the idea of black people worshipping a God who was also depicted as black. In his words, "If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. Since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out to see our God through our own spectacles[...] we shall worship Him through the spectacles of Ethiopia." He called for black people to worship images of Jesus of Nazareth and the Virgin Mary that depicted these figures as black Africans. In doing so, he did not make use of pre-existing forms of black-dominated religions. Garvey had little experience with them, because he had attended a white-run Wesleyan congregation when he was a child, and later, he converted to Catholicism.

Physically, Garvey was short and stocky. He suffered from asthma, and was prone to lung infections; and throughout his adult life, he was affected by bouts of pneumonia. Tony Martin called Garvey a "restless young man", while Grant thought that Garvey had a "naïve but determined personality" in his early years. Grant noted that Garvey "possessed a single-mindedness of purpose that left no room for the kind of spectacular failure that was always a possibility".

He was an eloquent orator, with Cronon suggesting that his "peculiar gift of oratory" stemmed from "a combination of bombast and stirring heroics". Grant described Garvey's public speeches as "strange and eclectic - part evangelical [...] partly formal King's English, and part lilting Caribbean speechifying". Garvey enjoyed arguing with people, and he wanted to be seen as a learned man; he read widely, particularly in history.

Cronon suggested that "Garvey's florid style of writing and speaking, his fondness for appearing in a richly colored cap and gown, and his use of the honorary degree initials " D.C.L." after his name were crude attempts to compensate" for his lack of formal academic qualifications. Grant thought that Garvey was an "extraordinary salesman who'd developed a philosophy where punters weren't just buying into a business but were placing a down payment on future black redemption." Even his enemies acknowledged that he was a skilled organiser and promoter.

For Grant, Garvey was "a man of grand, purposeful gestures". He thought that the black nationalist leader was an "ascetic" who had "conservative tastes". Garvey was a teetotaller who believed that alcohol consumption was morally reprehensible; he collected antique ceramics and enjoyed going around antique shops and flea markets and searching for items to add to his collection. He placed value on courtesy and respect, discouraging his supporters from being loutish.

Garvey enjoyed dressing up in military costumes, and he also adored regal pomp and ceremony; he believed that pageantry would stir the black masses out of their apathy, despite the accusations of buffoonery which were made by members of the African-American intelligentsia. Grant noted that Garvey had a "tendency to overstate his achievements", but Cronon thought that Garvey tended to surround himself with sycophants rather than more competent advisors. In 1947, the Jamaican historian J. A. Rogers included Garvey in his book, the World's Great Men of Colour, where he noted that "had [Garvey] ever come to power, he would have been another Robespierre", resorting to violence and terror to enforce his ideas.

Garvey was a Catholic. In 1919, he married Amy Ashwood in a Catholic ceremony, but they separated after three months. The New York court did not grant Garvey a divorce, but later, he obtained a divorce in Jackson County, Missouri. Ashwood contested the legitimacy of this divorce, and for the rest of her life, she claimed that she was Garvey's legitimate spouse. His first son, Marcus Garvey III (1930 - 8 December 2020), became an electrical engineer and served as the seventh president-general of the UNIA-ACL. His second son, Julius Garvey, (born 1933) became a cardiovascular surgeon and he is currently based in Flushing, New York.

Garvey has invariably been described as the Black Moses of his race, a group psychologist and an idealist planner, an iconoclast, an egotist, a zealot, a charlatan and a buffoon. He has also been portrayed as flamboyant, dynamic, bombastic, defiant, ruthless, a dreamer and a fool. Regardless of what history will write about him, and his personal shortcomings notwithstanding, Marcus Garvey was undoubtedly the peerless champion of his race. He was a bulwark for the world-wide organization of people of African descent.

- Milfred C. Fierce in The Black Scholar, 1972

A polarizing figure, Garvey was both revered and reviled. Grant noted that views on him largely divided between two camps, one camp portrayed him as a charlatan and the other camp portrayed him as a saint; similarly, Cronon noted that Garvey was varyingly perceived as a "strident demagogue or a dedicated prophet, a martyred visionary or a fabulous con man". Martin noted that by the time Garvey returned to Jamaica in the 1920s, he was "just about the best known Black man in the whole world". The size and scope of the UNIA has also attracted attention; Mark Christian described Garvey as the leader of "the largest Black mass movement in modern history," and John Henrik Clarke termed it "the first Black mass protest crusade in the history of the United States". Garvey's ideas influenced many black people who never became paying members of the UNIA, with Graves noting that "more than anything else, Garvey gave Negroes self-assertion and self-reliance."

In Jamaica, Garvey is considered a national hero. In 1969, Jamaica's government posthumously conferred the Order of the National Hero upon him. The scholar of African-American studies Molefi Kete Asante included Garvey on his 2002 list of 100 Greatest African Americans, and in 2008, the American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates described Garvey as the "patron saint" of the black nationalist movement. Grant thought that Garvey, along with Du Bois, deserved to be seen as the "father of Pan-Africanism", and the Nigerian historian B. Steiner Ifekwe called Garvey "one of the greatest Pan-African leaders of the time". Garvey has received praise from people who believe that he was a "race patriot", and many African Americans believe that he encouraged black people to develop a sense of self-respect and pride. While he was living in the U.S., Garvey was frequently referred to-sometimes sarcastically-as the "Negro Moses", implying that like the eponymous Old Testament figure, he would lead his people out of the oppressive situation which they were living in.

In 1955, Cronon stated that while Garvey "achieved little in the way of permanent improvement" for black people, he "awakened fires of Negro nationalism that have yet to be extinguished". In Cronon's view, Garvey was important because he gave African-descended peoples a new feeling of collective pride and a sense of individual worth. Hart believed that Garvey's importance lay in the fact that he stirred millions of people who were otherwise apathetic into action. In this way, Hart believed that Garvey had helped lay the groundwork for the U.S. civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s, even though that movement's call for racial integration and equality within the U.S. ran contrary to Garvey's belief in racial separation and his advocacy of migration to Africa.

Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, wrote in his autobiography that of all the works of literature which he had studied, the book that inspired him more than any other book was The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, or Africa for the Africans. Nkrumah went on to name Ghana's national shipping line the "Black Star Line", and there is a Black Star Square in Accra, and the Ghanaian flag also contains a black star. Ghana's national football team is also nicknamed the Black Stars.

While he was living in the U.S., Garvey faced strong opposition from many prominent figures in the African-American community as well as from leading progressive and left-wing organisations. He was also unpopular within elite sections of the African-American community, in part perhaps out of envy of his successes in attracting the support of the black masses, and in part out of concern that he was leading their community astray. Critics regarded him as an idealist, and he was sometimes regarded as "an egotist, a zealot, a charlatan and a buffoon". Garvey obtained a reputation for failing to pay his debts, and his detractors accused him of dishonesty.

During his lifetime, some African Americans wondered if he really understood the racial issues which were present in U.S. society because he was a foreigner, and later African-American leaders frequently held the view that Garvey had failed to adequately address anti-black racism in his thought. Grant noted that in the years after Garvey's death, his life was primarily presented by his political opponents. Writing for The Black Scholar in 1972, the scholar of African-American studies Wilson S. Moses expressed concern about the "uncritical adulation" of Garvey within African-American political circles. In Moses' opinion, this adulation led to "red baiting" and "divisive rhetoric" about being "Blacker-than-thou". Moses argued that it was wrong for people to regard Garvey as a "man of the people" because he had a petty bourgeoise background and as a result, he had "enjoyed cultural, economic, and educational advantages which few of his black contemporaries" had enjoyed.

In the late 1920s Garvey had some ties to the French black movement, especially the group of the Comité de Défense de la Race Noire, and the editor of its journal, Maurice Satineau. As the group was somewhat divided between a larger group of colonial reformists and a smaller group of representants of the Négritude, there was strong concern by moderate members about Garvey as they were afraid of his radical nationalist approach, resulting in a cut of the ties.

In the Colony of Jamaica, Garvey was largely forgotten in the years after his death, but interest in him was revived by the Rastafari religious movement. Jacques wrote a book about her late husband, Garvey and Garveyism, and after finding that no publishers were interested in it she self-published the volume in 1963. In 1962, when Jamaica became independent, the government hailed Garvey as a hero. In 1969, he was posthumously conferred with the Order of the National Hero by the Jamaican government. In 1975 the reggae artist Burning Spear released the album Marcus Garvey.

In his autobiography, Kwame Nkrumah, the prominent Pan-Africanist activist who became Ghana's first president, acknowledged Garvey's influence on him. The flag that Ghana adopted when it became independent adopted the colours of UNIA (See: Pan-African colours). In November 1964, Garvey's body was removed from West Kensal Green Cemetery and taken to Jamaica. There, it lay in state in Kingston's Catholic Cathedral before a motorcade took it to King George VI Memorial Park, where it was re-buried.

During a trip to Jamaica, Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King visited Garvey's shrine on 20 June 1965 and laid a wreath. In a speech he told the audience that Garvey "was the first man of color to lead and develop a mass movement. He was the first man to give millions of Negroes a sense of dignity and destiny on a mass scale and level. And he was the first man to make the Negro feel that he was somebody." The Vietnamese Communist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh said that Garvey and Korean nationalists shaped his political outlook during his stay in America. Thandeka K. Chapman believed that Garveyism contributed to the formation of the multicultural education movement during the 1960s. Chapman believed that both "Garveyism and multicultural education share the desire to see students of color learning and achieving academic success", and both allotted significant attention to generating racial pride.

Garvey never regarded himself as a religious visionary but he was perceived as such by some of his followers. Various Bedwardites for example regarded him as the reincarnation of Moses. The Moorish Science Temple of America regarded Garvey as a prophet akin to John the Baptist in relation to their prophet Noble Drew Ali, whom they regarded as a Jesus figure. Garvey's ideas were a significant influence on the Nation of Islam, a religious group for African Americans established in the U.S. in 1930.

Garvey and Garveyism was a key influence on Rastafari, a new religious movement that appeared in 1930 Jamaica. According to the scholar of religion Maboula Soumahoro, Rastafari "emerged from the socio-political ferment inaugurated by Marcus Garvey", while for the sociologist Ernest Cashmore, Garvey was the "most important" precursor of the Rastafari movement. Rastafari does not promote all of the views that Garvey espoused, nevertheless, it shares many of them. Garvey knew of the Rastas from his time in Jamaica during the 1930s but his view of them, according to the scholar Barry Chevannes, "bordered on scorn".

According to Chevannes, Garvey would have regarded the Rastas' belief in the divinity of Haile Selassie as blasphemy. Many Rastas regard Garvey as a prophet, believing that he prophesied the crowning of Haile Selassie in a manner which was similar to how John the Baptist prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ. Many legends and tales are told about him within Jamaica's Rasta community. Many attribute him with supernatural attributes, for instance there is a tale told about him-and also independently told about the pioneering Rasta Leonard Howell -that Garvey miraculously knew that his bath had been poisoned and refused to get into it. Other stories among Jamaica's Rastas hold that Garvey never really died and remained alive, perhaps living in Africa. Some Rastas also organise meetings, known as Nyabinghi Issemblies, to mark Garvey's birthday.

A statue of Garvey along the Harris Promenade in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago

Garvey's birthplace, 32 Market Street, St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, has a marker signifying it as a site of importance in the nation's history. His likeness was on the 20-dollar coin and 25-cent coin of the Jamaican dollar. In 2012 the Jamaican government declared 17 August as Marcus Garvey Day. The Governor General's proclamation stated "from here on every year this time, all of us here in Jamaica will be called to mind to remember this outstanding National Hero and what he has done for us as a people, and our children will call this to mind also on this day" and went on to say "to proclaim and make known that the 17th Day of August in each year shall be designated as Marcus Garvey Day and shall so be observed."

The Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City, is home to Marcus Garvey Village, whose construction was completed in 1976. This building complex is home to the first energy storage microgrid at an affordable housing property in the country. It will use the energy storage system to cut electricity costs, improve grid reliability, and provide backup power during extended outages.

In the 1980s, Garvey's two sons launched a campaign requesting that the U.S. government issue a pardon for their father. In this they had the support of Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel. In 2006, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller tasked various Jamaican lawyers with investigating how they could assist this campaign. The Obama Administration declined to pardon Garvey in 2011, writing that its policy was not to consider requests for posthumous pardons.

There have been several proposals to make a biopic of Garvey's life. Those mentioned in connection with the role of Garvey have included the Jamaican-born actor Kevin Navayne and the British-born actor of Jamaican descent Delroy Lindo.

Marcus Garvey appears in Jason Overstreet's The Strivers' Row Spy, a 2016 historical novel about the Harlem Renaissance. The novel also includes as characters W. E. B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Adam Clayton Powell, among other historically significant figures.

The 2021 documentary film African Redemption: The Life and Legacy of Marcus Garvey, directed by Roy T. Anderson, was made with the collaboration of Julius Garvey.

In 2023, the short film Mosiah became the first narrative film released about Marcus Garvey. The film was shot and directed by Jirard. The script was co-written by the lead actor, Samuel Lee Fudge and Jirard.

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Burkett, Randall K. (1978). Garveyism as a Religious Movement: The Institutionalization of a Black Civil Religion. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-1163-8.

Campbell, Horace (1987). Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney. Africa World Press. ISBN 978-0-86543-034-1.

Clarke, John Henrik, ed. (1974). Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-394-71888-0.

Dagnini, Jeremie Kroubo (15 March 2008). "Marcus Garvey: a controversial figure in the history of Pan-Africanism" (PDF). Journal of Pan African Studies. 2 (3): 198-210. Gale A192353347.

Ewing, Adam (2014). The Age of Garvey: How a Jamaican Activist Created a Mass Movement and Changed Global Black Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15779-5.

Garvey, Amy Jacques (1963). Garvey and Garveyism. OCLC 949351288.

Hill, Robert A., editor. Marcus Garvey, Life and Lessons: A Centennial Companion to the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

Hill, Robert A. The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. Vols. I-VII, IX. University of California Press, c. 1983- (ongoing).

James, Winston. Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century America. London: Verso, 1998.

Kearse, Gregory S. "Prince Hall's Charge of 1792: An Assertion of African Heritage." Heredom, Vol. 20. Washington, D.C. Scottish Rite Research Society, 2012, p. 275.

Kornweibel Jr., Theodore. Seeing Red: Federal Campaigns Against Black Militancy 1919-1925. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Lemelle, Sidney, and Robin D. G. Kelley. Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora. London: Verso, 1994.

Lewis, Rupert, and Maureen Warner-Lewis. Garvey: Africa, Europe, The Americas. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1986, 1994.

Manoedi, M. Mokete. Garvey and Africa. New York: New York Age Press, 1922, 20 pages.

Martin, Tony. Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts, and the Harlem Renaissance. Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983.

Martin, Tony. African Fundamentalism: A Literary and Cultural Anthology of Garvey's Harlem Renaissance. Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983, 1991.

Martin, Tony. The Pan-African Connection: From Slavery to Garvey and Beyond. Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983.

Martin, Tony. The Poetical Works of Marcus Garvey. Dover, Mass.: Majority Press, 1983.

Smith-Irvin, Jeannette. Marcus Garvey's Footsoldiers of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1989.

Solomon, Mark. The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African-Americans, 1917-1936. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1998.

Stein, Judith. The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class in Modern Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986.

Tolbert, Emory J. The UNIA and Black Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Center of Afro-American Studies, University of California, 1980.

Vincent, Theodore. Black Power and the Garvey Movement. Berkeley, Calif.: Ramparts Press, 1971.

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (17 August 1887 - 10 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA), through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa.

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The Civil Rights Movement was a history changing movement for America. There were many well-known activists that led this movement to change America’s treatment of African Americans. Malcolm X was one of those leaders. Watch this video and then complete the lesson to learn more about how Malcolm X led America through a revolution.

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Kathleen Neal Cleaver was born in Dallas, Texas and spent much of her childhood living abroad with her family due to her father's position in the Foreign Service. After the family returned to the United States, she attended a Quaker boarding school and later attended Oberlin College and Barnard College.

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Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was born on August 17, 1887, in Saint Ann's Bay, Jamaica. His father was a stonemason, and his mother was a domestic servant. As a young man, Garvey travelled and worked in several Latin American countries before relocating to London, England.

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Poet Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on June 7, 1943, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with a degree in history from Fisk University. A world-renowned poet and one of the foremost authors of the Black Arts Movement, her notable books of poetry are Black Judgment...

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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou

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This is a link to a Britannica article about the Ten-Point Program

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Roland Martin Roland Martin is a freelance writer living in San Francisco.

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Black Panther Ten-Point Program | Definition, Black Panther Party, Black Nationalism, Intercommunalism, & Facts

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Black Panther Ten-Point Program, document first published on May 15, 1967, in the second issue of The Black Panther, the newspaper of the militant Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Composed in October 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the cofounders of the Black Panther Party, the

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Amiri Baraka interviewed by fellow poet, Williams. On his style and influences.

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Amiri Baraka interviewed by fellow poet, Williams. On his style and influences.

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Amiri Baraka, like Cecil in our novel, was an activist-poet, who often wrote poems in the style of the spoken word. This style influences hip hop artists in 70s.

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Amiri Baraka on his poetry and breaking rules

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Transcript

NARRATOR: Muhammad Ali training for a fight in the 1970s - the best boxer of all time keeping himself in shape. Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. Growing up he still went by his given name, Cassius Clay. In 1964 he converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Ali began boxing at the age of 12. His bike had been stolen and he wanted to train so he could give the thieves a good beating one day. He quit school when he was 16 to concentrate solely on boxing. He created a completely new playful and fleet-footed style of fighting.

MUHAMMAD ALI: "The style, the grace, the boxing, ability, the speed, the footwork, the colorfulness, not exactly clowning."

NARRATOR: His most famous quip was float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Ali was never at a loss for words.

ALI: "I'm the champ of the world."

NARRATOR: He irritated the general public and his opponents alike with his cockiness. But he is modest and friendly when talking to fans, leaving all traces of boastfulness and arrogance by the wayside. This is the champ as he really is.

Muhammad Ali is courageous outside the ring as well. He uses his fame to tackle political issues. He is a champion of his religion, Islam, but also of peace and African-American causes. In 1984 Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a disorder that attacks the central nervous system, it causes palsy and limits the motor skills and speech functions of its victims. Despite this, the Sportsman of the Century continues to appear in public. He is courageously facing his illness. Muhammad Ali has not lost any of his fighting spirit.

ANGELO DUNDEE: "And he is still the same guy, same kid. It's just we have both gotten old, he knows it and I know it. But we have fun. We enjoy each other."

NARRATOR: And the next Ali is ready to go. Ali's daughter Laila has become a professional boxer. And Ali himself can still strike the pose of a world champion pugilist.

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Muhammad Ali | One of the Greatest Boxers of All Time | Britannica

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Overview of Muhammad Ali's life and career.

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Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom

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How the Black Panther Party Revolutionized Fashion

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Article by University of Washington about the Black panther party for self defense in Seattle,Washington

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Article by University of Washington about the Black panther party for self defense in Seattle,Washington

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This article explores the first three years of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party from its founding by Black Student Union members in 1968 through the 1970 crisis negotiated by Mayor Wes Uhlman. The essay is presented in three parts:
Part 1: Background--the BSU and Black Power
Part 2: Seattle Panthers Part 3: The Panthers and the Politicians Background--the BSU and Black Power
The American civil rights movement has benefited from the contributions of various individuals and organizations that have employed a variety of strategies. In the early and mid 1960s under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the movement achieved breakthrough victories using non-violent civil disobedience. Yet while his strategies brought some successes, King experienced his share of frustrations. These setbacks and other historical realities encouraged some African Americans to pursue alternative methods. One product of that search for alternatives was the Black Panther Party, a chapter of which was founded in Seattle in 1968.

Seattle shared a number of similarities with the nation's other northern and western metropolitan centers with regard to race relations. ThoughSeattle's black population had been quite small for much of its history, during World War II it grew by 413% as blacks came west to work in the region's defense industries. 1Prior to the war,Seattleblacks had been more or less forced to live in what was known as the city's Central Area.That trend continued both during and after the war. 2 Hence, just like in other cities, blacks were socially quarantined into a small district of the city, a neighborhood that offered limited housing opportunities and second rate facilities and infrastructure.

Though Seattle's black population had been historically small, the city had been no stranger to racial problems Generally speaking African Americans were never denied their right to vote or demonstrate, nor were they ever the victims of systematic violence. However, they were constantly confronted with hiring discrimination and housing restrictions, along with some instances of police brutality. Many of Seattle's blacks fought back in one form or another, some by participating in civil rights and self defense organizations including the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the National Negro Congress, the Nation of Islam, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Black Panther Party.

The Black Panther Party became known as one of the most radical and violent of the black civil rights organizations. In some cases, this persona was justified. The group existed in numerous cities across the nation and during its initial years each chapter promoted armed militancy as its primary tenet. Shootouts between Panthers and police bear witness to the seriousness of the Panthers' pledge. That a chapter would emerge in Seattle, a place where racism existed, but was perhaps less severe than in other American cities, might seem surprising. But the fact that the chapter did form there reveals the complexities of the civil rights movement. The Party's existence in Seattle shows that racism does not have to be violent to be intolerable. At the same time, the Seattle BPP revealed that a group that is willing to resort to violence is not predestined to always employ that strategy in order to meet its aims.

One final point worth considering is that most cities that had a BPP chapter had politicians who exhibited a strong urge to confront and destroy the organization. Raids on BPP offices in Chicago , New York , Hartford , Los Angeles and Philadelphia are some of the more notable examples of this activity. Seattle , however, was different. As stated earlier, though racism in Seattle was real, it could still be described as muted. The existence of a tempered racism created an opportunity for some state and local leaders to take actions and make statements that could certainly be termed tolerant, if not conciliatory, toward the Party. These actions can be understood as just one more example of the independence that has predominated in Northwest politics for quite some time. 3
BEGINNINGS
The Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party was formed out a sense of anger and frustration. Blacks in that city, as well as across the nation, had heard many promises with regard to the attainment of racial equality. However, time and time again, the promises were only partially kept, or simply forgotten. Consequently some Seattle blacks felt that they had invested enough patience and hope into the government and available civil rights institutions. A handful of Seattle blacks concluded that the platform of the newly formed Black Panther Party offered a more affective method of securing the fruits of racial equality. The presence of the BPP in Seattle raised the civil rights debate in the city to a new plane. This debate revealed both a heightened black consciousness as well as a countervailing white concern about what steps blacks might take to project and protect that consciousness.

This story begins with the Dixon family who came to Seattle's Central Area from Chicago in 1958. They joined many other blacks who immigrated to Puget Sound for economic opportunity. 4 The family's children were told of their great great-grandmother's experience as a slave as well as their parents' subsequent experiences with racism. Aaron and Elmer Dixon were the two oldest sons in this family and they were molded by their parents' stories. They recall being active in protest at an early age when they marched with Martin Luther King during his visit to Seattle in 1961. 5 As the two boys grew to adulthood in Seattle, both had their own experiences that would influence their understandings of race and racism. 6

Aaron, who is one year older than Elmer, learned of racism's cruelties first hand when he became one of the first students in Seattle to be involved with the city's voluntary school integration program. He eventually attended the predominantly white Queen Anne High School. While there Aaron said he experienced a subtle form of racism. He received unusually poor grades and he said he noticed that the teachers did not treat him or the other black students the same as his white classmates. Meanwhile, he often was the target of racially derogatory remarks. Racism came in other forms as well. Aaron recalled participating on a Seattle Parks Department tennis team that competed for the city championship. His teammates were all Black players save for one white Jewish player. They played an all-white team for the city title at the Lake Washington Tennis Club, a venue that had a segregationist policy. The prize for the winning team was lunch at the club and time in the facility's swimming pool. Aaron's team won. This represented a challenge to the tennis club's policy, but the club did not back down. Ultimately only the Jewish player was allowed inside to enjoy his lunch, while Dixon and the other Black players had to eat hot dogs outside in the parking lot. None of the winners were able to enjoy the pool. 7

Elmer Dixon's early experience with race was different. He said that up until the age of seventeen he "was not consumed with race." Elmer noted that his family lived in the Madrona neighborhood, a predominantly African-American community that was also home to numerous other races. "My friends were a full reflection of the rainbow. I had friends that were Chinese, Japanese, Latino, and white." But Elmer recalled racism's affects. "My mom was denied a job because she was black. She called up on the telephone at one place and they told her that she could have the job when she got down there. When they saw that she was black, they told her they did not have any jobs left." 8

These two anecdotes represent just some of the indignities that blacks faced while growing up in Seattle. Incidents like these compelled Aaron and Elmer Dixon to search for a way to effectively react to the treatment they received. Of the options that were available, the Dixons would eventually conclude that the Black Power movement offered the best promise.

The term "Black Power" has been traced to a speech given in 1965 by then New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. 9 The actual ideology behind the term came well before that, as its ideals can be seen in the movement of Marcus Garvey and the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th Century. The Black Muslim movement, which began in the 1930s, also promoted the philosophy of racial solidarity and pride. But it was not until the 1960s that Black Power gained broader acceptance in black America when Stokely Carmichael, the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) co-opted James Meredith's attempted Freedom March through the state of Mississippi in 1966. Then in 1967, Carmichael published Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America, a manifesto that called for Blacks in America to embrace a new attitude and strategy regarding civil rights. He wrote,

[Black Power] is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations, and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this society. 10

Carmichael's belief was that in order for blacks to gain equality, they had to create strength and unity among themselves. Once that was accomplished they would then be able to negotiate with whites from a position of strength rather than dependency. 11 The Black Power movement of the 1960s gained a wide following in short order. 12

Black Power's arrival in Seattle did not occur on one particular day. But the theory certainly became much more relevant within the city after Stokely Carmichael delivered a set of speeches there on April 19, 1967. During his visit, Carmichael addressed an audience of around 4,000 listeners at the University of Washington. He then spoke to another 6,500 people at Garfield High School later that afternoon. Carmichael reiterated the themes of his book by criticizing whites for their role in denying Blacks their freedom. He said it was time for Blacks to experience a "new day" as well as strike back for the "church bombings, the cattle prodding and shooting of our homes." He discussed Black Power, defining it as a "coming together of black people to fight for their liberation by any means necessary." He explained that he preferred to use the word "Black" as opposed to "Negro" when talking of African Americans because, "We are Black and we are beautiful." According to a reporter, the predominantly black listeners of various ages were enthralled with the message. 13

Aaron and Elmer Dixon were in the Garfield High audience. Though they heard the same words, they initially left the speech with different conclusions. Almost four decades later, Aaron Dixon recalled Carmichael's speech as being a turning point in his life. "For the first time I heard a black person speaking very defiantly against white Americans and racism...It was very powerful and very electrifying and it totally changed me." Dixon noted that Carmichael's speech prepared him to take a more active and militant approach to civil rights. "I think that the interpretation that I had was that it was a new day, that no longer would we sit idly by and be beaten up, or let racist incidents happen without some kind of repercussions. If we had to burn the whole city down, that's what we would do." 14 Elmer, who was sixteen years old at the time, was not equally affected. "I didn't know who this guy was. I remember walking away from there thinking, oh, that's B.S. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is or what clothes you wear. My best friends were white..." But Elmer said after a period of contemplation, he developed a different understanding of what Carmichael was trying to say. He began to see validity in Carmichael's argument that the term "Black" had been consistently attributed with qualities of evil and negativity. Also, he realized that Carmichael was not attacking his white friends as racist, but rather targeting the institutionalization of racism and its perpetuation of inequity in the black community. 15

Many blacks in Seattle interpreted Carmichael's Black Power message as a call to action. But their interpretations of how Black Power should be employed were not always in complete unison. The Dixons were to pursue one strategy. The experiences of Larry Gossett can serve as an example of another option.

Larry Gossett grew up in Seattle and though he was occasionally the target of racial indignities, he, like Elmer Dixon remained somewhat passive concerning racial issues. However, midway through his college career at the University of Washington Gossett joined the VISTA program, and he was assigned to Central Harlem. It was there that Gossett said he was confronted with realities that were both "shocking and enlightening." What shocked Gossett the most was the intense poverty and the "compressed humanity", as people were crammed into rat-infested, run-down, and squalid apartments. In Gossett's mind this was the epitome of racial oppression. 16 Though Gossett was in Harlem when Stokely Carmichael spoke in Seattle, he did hear Carmichael's cohort, H. Rap Brown, speak in New York. Gossett said he likewise became exposed to the ideas of Malcolm X, who had established his headquarters in Harlem after his split with the Nation of Islam. Gossett said that these experiences revealed to him the possibilities of Black Power. Gossett recalled, "When I went into VISTA I was a Negro capitalist. When I came out I was a Black Revolutionary Socialist. 17

BLACK STUDENT UNION

In September of 1967, Gossett returned from Harlem to the University of Washington and joined the local SNCC chapter. It was through this organization that he first met Aaron Dixon, a University of Washington freshman, and his brother Elmer. During the Thanksgiving weekend that fall, they, along with several other black university students, traveled to Los Angeles for a Black Youth Conference where the students were introduced to representatives of Black Power groups that included the Black Student Union (BSU), the United Slaves (US), and the Black Panther Party (BPP). Upon their return to Seattle, Gossett decided to establish a BSU chapter at the University of Washington. Gossett was elected to lead the organization and soon he and his cohorts, who included Aaron and high school student Elmer Dixon, began an effort to start BSU chapters at high schools and middle schools across Seattle. 18

As head of the University of Washington BSU Gossett became one of several prominent spokesmen for Black Power in Seattle. In a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article he stated, "I believe that black people must be obsessed with thinking black. Then they will understand the need for determining their own destiny." He added that blacks should have the same amount of power that reflects their numbers in the community. "If there are thirty-percent black people they should be represented by thirty-percent of the decision-makers." In a statement that echoed the words of Carmichael as well as a portent of an increasingly defiant voice emanating from Seattle's black community, Gossett stated that Black Power meant, "self determination, self-respect and self defense, by any means necessary." 19

Michael Ross of the Seattle Legal Services Program was also interviewed for the article, and while he shared Gossett's overall theory of Black Power, he represented yet another opinion on where it should be focused. Ross believed that the Black Power should speak primarily to the city's poor. He criticized Blacks "that have been homogenized by the university and who now serve as spokesmen and leaders for the black community because whites feel at ease with them." He said they were not the ones who could develop Black Power in its truest sense. He continued that Black Power would only be legitimate when Black leaders come forth who communicate in the way and manner of the people who sit in the ghetto porches and hang out on the ghetto street corners. For Ross, Black Power leadership should arise from the carpenters, welfare recipients, and unemployed. 20

Ross' comments were reminiscent of previous debates regarding the idea of whether revolution should be led from the top or the bottom. His statements also revealed that Black Power could be understood in different contexts. His ideas were indicative of a militant philosophy that was already being applied in the West Coast port city of Oakland. It would eventually be incorporated into the Central Area of Seattle, through the efforts of Aaron and Elmer Dixon.

As Seattle's Black Power advocates debated methodology, they put their beliefs into practice. One of the first issues they tackled was educational integration. On March 6, 1968, the Central Area Civil Rights Council (CACRC) announced plans to close five schools in the Central Area. It was the hope of the CACRC that these closures would force black students into white schools where, they believed, better educational opportunities existed. The Seattle Area Black Student Unions (SABSU) joined other organizations in criticizing the plan arguing that the CACRC did not understand the needs or feelings of the Central Area's lower class residents. In line with Black Power's call for keeping black students together rather than dispersing them to other institutions, the SABSU argued that the schools needed to be fixed, not abandoned. The CACRC ultimately backed down from their plan. 21

After successfully halting the CACRC's plan, the BSU became active in further protests. One demonstration became Seattle Black Power's symbolic Lexington and Concord. On March 29, 1968, Larry Gossett, Aaron Dixon, and Carl Miller, a fellow BSU member, led over 100 students in a sit-in at Franklin High School. The protest was a complaint against the suspension of two black students. The protestors called for more black history courses and the right to wear Afro hairstyles. Police were called to the scene and they warned the protestors that, if necessary, they would enter the school and physically remove them. The students dispersed but Gossett, Dixon, Miller, and another Franklin High School student were all arrested. 22

The bond hearing for the men was set for April 4, 1968. During the hearing, bail was announced and Dixon, Gossett, and Miller were all led away for detainment until the bond could be posted. As the hearing was taking place, Elmer Dixon, who was involved in the Franklin High School incident but was not arrested, sat in his high school geometry class at Garfield . He recalled that his teacher walked up to him and told him he was wanted in the office. "...As soon as I stepped out of the classroom there were two detectives there who put handcuffs on me and told me I was under arrest for unlawful assembly, and they took me to juvenile." 23 As the four young men were being detained that afternoon, they all learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. Aaron Dixon said when he received the news he was sitting in a dark, dingy King County jail. The fact that he got the news of King's death while in that predicament served to harden him. Aaron believed that King had had worthy ideas, but that over time his stance seemed overly compliant and too static. Nevertheless Dixon said he respected what King was trying to do and his death only seemed to justify his frustration with American society. "When King was killed there was an uprising throughout...all of black America. I know I said at that point...it's time to turn to more violent ways of doing things because they killed a man of peace through violence. We have no other alternative but to turn towards violence." 24

The detainment of the Dixons and Larry Gossett is yet a further example of how and why Black Power, and eventually the Black Panther Party, could take root in Seattle. Though Seattle did not experience the same level of racial confrontations that numerous other cities did, it was obviously still a place where a black man could end up in jail for making a statement of conscience. All three men were educated, middle-class, African Americans who were feeling that frustration. It was a frustration that would compel the Dixons to move beyond the possibilities of the Black Student Union.

FUNERAL IN OAKLAND

Soon after their release from jail, Gossett and the Dixon brothers joined a contingent of fellow BSU members for a trip to San Francisco to attend a BSU conference at San Francisco State University. While there they met BPP co-founder Bobby Seale. He told them that the Party was holding a funeral for its first recruit, seventeen-year-old Bobby Hutton, who had been killed in a shoot-out with Oakland police on April 6, just two days after the death of Reverend King. The funeral was to forever change the way some members of the Seattle contingent viewed the definition of militancy. 25

The Seattle contingent's attendance at Hutton's funeral proved memorable. Gossett remembered the "beauty" of what seemed like 1,000 black men and women in berets and leather jackets paying homage to their fallen comrade. 26 Elmer Dixon recalled, "We actually landed [off from the Bay Bridge] in a Black Panther neighborhood. There were so many people around with leather jackets and berets on. We had to walk several blocks [to the church]. We thought that we were in an army camp of black revolutionaries." 27 The group was able to get into the church and view Hutton's body, which lay in an open casket at the insistence of his family. Elmer Dixon stated, "I remember following the line and seeing the seventeen-year old [Hutton] lying in there...I was seventeen at the time, and I think for me, and I know for several others, that the commitment to be involved in the Party was cast at that moment." 28 The final defining moment came that evening when Bobby Seale gave a speech. Aaron Dixon recalled that it was the "most electrifying, powerful speech that I have ever heard. I still haven't heard a speech like that." He added that Seale's main point was Blacks had to stand up to acts of violence directed toward them by whites. 29

When Seale concluded his address, Gossett, the Dixons and other members of their group approached the speaker. They complimented him on the power of his words and discussed the possibility of starting a BPP chapter in Seattle. Seale said he would consider it. Before the following week was over, Seale visited the Puget Sound and gave his blessing to the new branch, naming eighteen year old Aaron Dixon as the party captain. 30 The general public of Seattle was made aware of the new Black Panther Party soon after Seale's visit to the Puget Sound. Johnny Garrett, western coordinator for the Black Students Union was speaking at a forum being held at the University of Washington when he briefly mentioned that a BPP branch was being established in Seattle. He noted that the BPP's purpose was to confront "police harassment," adding that "integration is an empty notion." 31

Up to this time, the Black Student Union in Seattle had provided an outlet for various individuals to express their discontent and partake in militant activities. One observer has concluded that in performing this function, the BSU acted as the seedbed for further action. He writes, "...it catered to young educated African Americans in a protective, nurturing environment-a university campus." Within the BSU, Gossett and the Dixons were able to create and implement an ideology. 32 But while Gossett remained committed to the BSU, Aaron and Elmer Dixon's experiences compelled them to take a separate path.

As he recalled the choices that he and his brother made, with those made by Gossett, Aaron Dixon said that the BSU did a lot of positive things for blacks in Seattle, but the BPP took militancy to a different level. "The BPP was a paramilitary organization. You had to have two weapons and you had to have two-thousand rounds of ammunition." Dixon added that with the BPP one was not just talking about working at "community organizing, you were talking about graduating to picking up weapons and...guerilla warfare and confronting the police. You're talking your life. You may die at any time...Not everybody was ready for that." 33

Meanwhile, Larry Gossett offers a different way of understanding his decision to remain with the BSU. He notes that both Black Power organizations shared many goals, so when the BPP was established, he did not see it as an entirely new approach. Gossett adds that despite this sharing of goals, the groups did have different emphasis. The BSU's focus was upon making changes within educational institutions by establishing black educational curriculum and insuring student rights. On the other hand, the BPP directed its attention toward improving the general community. Gossett today admits that some BPP members accused the BSU of not being revolutionary enough. But he argues the differences in strategy were not severe. He notes that when the BSU conducted protests at various schools, including the University of Washington, BPP members would often participate. 34

Despite the goals that they shared, there was no confusing the methods each organization initially chose to employ. The BSU and the BPP both advocated militancy to make their points. But they parted ways regarding the tools of persuasion they employed.

Continue Part 2: Seattle Panthers
(c) Kurt Schaefer 2005
1 Quintard Taylor, Jr., The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era, Seattle: university of Washington Press , 1994, 159.

2 Seattle 's Central Area, also known as the Central District, sits between Seattle 's main business district and Lake Washington . It is Seattle 's oldest surviving residential area. It's boundaries are understood to be East Madison street on the north, Martin Luther King, Jr. Way to the east, while its western border is 12th Avenue and Jackson Street marks its southern demarcation. See: "Seattle Neighborhoods: Central Area-Thumbnail History" @ http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3079

3 See: Paul Kleppner, "Politics Without Parties: The Western States, 1900-1984," in The Twentieth-Century West, Historical Interpretations, edited by Gerald D. Nash and Richard W. Etulain, 295-338, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989.

4 Aaron and Elmer Dixon's father had been stationed at Fort Lewisduring World War II. After the War he became a technical illustrator for the Air Force and was offered, and accepted, a job in Seattle in 1958.

5 King was in Seattle from November 8-11, 1961, at the behest of Reverend Samuel B. McKinney, a classmate of King's at Morehouse College. Aside from a community march, King also gave lectures at the University of Washington , the Temple de Hirsch, Garfield High Schooland at the Eagles Auditorium. Upon leaving the city King told McKinney he was taken by the city's progressive racial attitude. See: "Martin Luther King Jr. arrives for his sole Seattle visit on November 8, 1961" @ http://historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=673.

6 Elmer Dixon, Interviewed by Kurt Kim Schaefer, April 1, 2005, Seattle, Washington and Aaron Dixon, Interviewed by Kurt Kim Schaefer, February 25, 28, 2005, Seattle, Washington.

7 Aaron Dixon Interview.

8 Elmer Dixon Interview.

9 George Feavor, "The Panther's Road to Suicide, A Black Tragedy," Encounter, 1971, 36(5): 29.

10 Carmichael and Hamilton, 44.

11 Ibid., 66. Carmichael noted that groups with unequal power will have different goals. Consequently, the weaker group will have to do most, if not all of the compromising, because it has no trump over the stronger group.

12 Even Martin Luther King, who along with other moderates, initially argued against Black Power as nihilistic and a step backward, eventually understood that he would have to compromise his position. This was made evident in 1967 when he published the book Chaos or Community, in which he conceded the worth of Black militancy and African cultural identity. King admitted that the achievement of complete civil rights was but one goal to be achieved. Pride in being Black he admitted was also an important part of the equation. See: John T. McCartney, Black Power Ideologies: An Essay in African American Political Thought, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992, 131-132. Also, Runcie, "The Black Cultural Movement and the Black Community," Journal of American Studies, 1976, 10 (2): 201-202, and Ogbar, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity, 150-152. Ogbar reminds us that in 1966, King moved to Chicago to fight that city's racial attitudes. In July of 1966 he led a march through some of the city's all-white neighborhoods. Whites came out en mass and screamed racial slurs at the Black marchers. King received a gash in his head due to a thrown rock. The viciousness of the whites shocked King into questioning the possibilities of integration.

13 Lane Smith, "Black Community Power Will End Abuses, Says Carmichael," Seattle Times (April 20, 1967): 5.

14 Aaron Dixon Interview.

15 Elmer Dixon Interview.

16 Larry Gossett, Interviewed by Kurt Kim Schaefer, March 3, 2005, Seattle , Washington .

19Hilda Bryant, "Black Power Here: Threat or Promise?" Seattle Post-Intelligencer (December 27, 1967): 8.

21 Zane, 106-108.

22 Dan Hannula, "Non-Franklin Students Led Negro Sit-In, Says Principal," Seattle Times, (March 30, 1968).

23 Elmer Dixon Interview.

24 Aaron Dixon Interview. Elmer Dixon was also maddened by the circumstances. Today he guesses that his arrest and the detainment of his brother, Gossett and Miller may occurred because of King's death than the Franklin High School incident. "I don't know if it was irony or if it was deliberate. I happened to feel it was deliberate, to pull us off the street, out of concern that we were going to go out and incite a riot, as was happening all over the country."

25 Hutton and BPP Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver were participants in a gun battle with Oakland police. Cleaver was able to surrender but Hutton was killed as he emerged from behind a barricade. The BPP viewed Hutton's death as an act of police brutality and sought to publicize the young man's death as yet another example of the police department's colonial "occupation" of Black neighborhoods.

26 Larry Gossett Interview.

27 Elmer Dixon Interview.

29 Aaron Dixon Interview.

30 Some Seattle police department members had a different understanding of how the BPP started in their town. During a Congressional hearing, Seattle police department sergeant Archie Porter stated the party was established by an outsider named John Henry Wilson (a.k.a. "Voodoo Man") who initially organized the group and then handed the reigns of it over to the Dixons and a cohort named Curtis Harris, who was the Dixon's brother-in-law. See: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives (Black Panther Party, Part 2, Investigation of the Seattle Chapter) May 12, 13, and 20, 1970, 4299.

31 "Black Panther Group Plans Seattle Unit," Seattle Times, April 20, 1968, A-2.

33 Aaron Dixon Interview.

34 Larry Gossett Interview.

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Black Panther Ten-Point Program | Definition, Black Panther Party, Black Nationalism, Intercommunalism, & Facts

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Black Panther Ten-Point Program, document first published on May 15, 1967, in the second issue of The Black Panther, the newspaper of the militant Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Composed in October 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the cofounders of the Black Panther Party, the

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The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was the party's first outside California and the second outside Oakland, where the party was founded in 1966. Nineteen-year-old Aaron Lloyd Dixon (b. 1949) was appointed captain of the Seattle chapter by party co-founder Bobby Seale (b. 1936) at the Dixon family home in Seattle's Madrona neighborhood in April 1968, a week after Dixon and other young activists from Seattle met Seale and other Panthers at a conference in California. Within two years the Seattle chapter grew from a neighborhood storefront office to a main headquarters providing free breakfasts for schoolchildren, free transportation to visit family members in prison, and a free medical clinic. The Seattle Black Panther Party disbanded in 1978 after 10 years serving the community.
From Chicago to Seattle
Aaron Lloyd Dixon, son of Elmer James Dixon Jr. (1924-1985) and Frances Emma Sledge Dixon (b. 1925), was born January 2, 1949, and raised in Chicago with his older sister Joanne Marie (b. 1947), and two younger brothers, Elmer James III (b. 1950) and Michael R. (b. 1951).

Elmer Jr. worked as a technical illustrator at Chanute Air Force Base in Champaign County, Illinois. In 1957, he received multiple job offers from Spain, Alabama, and Seattle. Boeing offered him an opportunity to work in the Pacific Northwest. He had always had concerns about his young boys getting into some kind of trouble and making the right decisions in raising them. He did not want to take any chances with what he saw as the influence of bad behavior (gangs, mafia) spreading throughout Chicago. Getting involved in gang activity was not going to happen to his children. Ultimately, this concern led him to accept the offer to work at Boeing in Seattle.

To make the move, however, the Dixon family would leave the safe haven, family, friends, and security of Birch Village, formerly a military-housing facility for air-force pilots at the base. Elmer, a natural explorer, adventurer, and artist, was excited about moving his tight-knit family 2,000 miles from Illinois to Seattle in a 1952 Plymouth. In contrast, the 1957 move was a harrowing experience for the children. They missed their family and many tears were shed along the way.

In 1960, after changing residences and schools several times since arriving in Seattle three years earlier, the Dixons moved into their own home at 905 33rd Avenue in Madrona, a mixed neighborhood on the east of Seattle's Central Area (or Central District) neighborhood. Aaron Dixon recalled in his 2012 memoir that "The neighborhood residents were Black, White, Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese. At that time, the Central District was the only part of Seattle where Asians, Blacks, and Jews were allowed to live due to the practice of 'redlining' and racial restrictive covenants" ( My People Are Rising, 24).

The purchase of their own home was a turning point in the family's life and brought pride and gratification to Elmer Jr. He planted trees around the house that represented each of his children. The house was large and spacious with hardwood floors. As the family settled into the home, they began to make friends and forge relationships in the neighborhood.
Civil Rights in Seattle
Seattle residents were no strangers to the civil-rights movement that by the 1960s was a dominant force nationwide. Racism existed but was less than in other American cities. Many Seattle Blacks fought back in organizations such as the Nation Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Urban League, Universal Negro Improvement Association, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), National Negro Congress, the Nation of Islam, and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), among others.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) made a single visit to Seattle, arriving on November 8, 1961. The civil-rights leader was invited by Reverend Samuel B. McKinney (1926-2018), a friend and former classmate at Morehouse College. King's itinerary was packed with public appearances including at the University of Washington, Temple de Hirsch, Garfield High School, and Eagles Auditorium.

Twelve-year-old Aaron Dixon attended the speech at Garfield, sitting on the edge of the bandstand watching and listening to King's words. After two days of lectures and speeches, King left Seattle on November 10, having made an impression on everyone he encountered. "He was the right man at the right time at the right place with the right message," said McKinney (De Leon).
"Black Power" and Student Activism
Huey P. Newton (1942-1989) and Robert George "Bobby" Seale launched the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in West Oakland, California, on October 15, 1966. The party's main goal and original purpose was to prevent police brutality against African Americans and improve the Black community. Within two years, the small hilltop neighborhood of Madrona would become home to the Black Panther Party's Seattle chapter.

A major inspiration for that Seattle chapter came on April 19, 1967, when flamboyant civil-rights leader Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998), who coined the phrase "Black Power," came to Garfield High in Seattle to speak to an estimated 4,000 students. When he spoke in Seattle, Carmichael was chairman of SNCC, but he would soon resign that position to join the Black Panther Party.

Sitting in the front row for the Garfield speech were brothers Aaron and Elmer Dixon and their friend Michael Dean. Carmichael walked on stage wearing black sunglasses and shouting "Black Power!" to the cheering audience as he raised his fist. His speech impacted many Seattleites Black, white, brown, and yellow. Aaron Dixon remembered:

"We left the Garfield auditorium with a much different view of whites than what we had before. A slow current of anger began to brew inside me, and to my mind whites were now the cause of all the problems that Black people faced. I walked out of the auditorium transformed. I was not the same person who had entered. From that day forward, I looked at the world and everyone around me with anger and rage" ( My People Are Rising, 58).

In June 1967, Aaron Dixon graduated from Garfield and in September began attending the University of Washington, where he joined the Black Student Union (BSU). By early 1968, tensions were growing fast in Seattle as housing, employment, health care, and relations with police had all become explosive issues for Black residents. On March 29, 1968, a rainy Tuesday, things came to a head at Franklin High School. Accounts differ as to exactly what triggered the events, with some indicating that the BSU received a call from Trollis Flavors (b. 1949), a Franklin student who was suspended following a fight with a white student while the white student remained in school.

An estimated 25 to 30 Black Student Union members from UW including Aaron Dixon; Anthony Ware (b. 1951); Larry Gossett (b. 1944), president of the Washington-Oregon Black Student Union; and Carl Miller (b. 1945), chairman of the Seattle chapter of SNCC, decided to go to Franklin to channel the students' anger in constructive directions, gathering outside a sandwich shop across from the school demanding reinstatement of suspended students among other demands.

Gossett and Miller led the group of BSU members and Franklin students to the school office, asking to meet with principal Loren Ralph (1909-1987), who refused to talk with them. Between 12:30 and 1 p.m., Gossett and Miller held a sit-in rally at the principal's office, then moved to the school auditorium to speak to an estimated 100 students. The group of protestors left the school grounds and the confrontation ended.

Gossett, Aaron Dixon, Miller, and Flavors were arrested on April 4, 1968, and taken to the King County Jail. Elmer Dixon and Anthony Ware were taken to juvenile detention. Later that evening, news broke that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. A cloud of sadness filled the air not only in Seattle but through the world, and violence flared in more than 100 cities across America. As Larry Gossett recalled:

"About six or seven hours after we got in jail, news came that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. And the Black prisoners, their conception of Black power was that they were going to go beat up these white prisoners" (Gilbert).
Black Panther Party Comes to Madrona
On April 5, 1968, the day after King's assassination, the student activists were released from jail, but the shock of Martin's death was immediate and strong. On April 11, some 20 eager young men, both BSU members from Garfield High and SNCC members, rented four or five cars to drive to the second annual West Coast BSU Conference at San Francisco State College.

While in California, on April 12 the group from Seattle attended a memorial service for 17-year-old Robert "Little Bobby" James Hutton (1950-1968) at the Ephesian Church of God in Berkeley. Hutton was the treasurer and first recruit to have joined the Black Panther Party in 1966. Hutton was killed on April 6, two days after King's assassination, when he and Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), writer, activist, and early leader of the Black Panther Party, were confronted by police.

After Hutton's funeral, the group headed back to the BSU Conference to listen to the keynote speech by Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale. After two hours of listening, inspired by Seale and the party, Aaron and Elmer Dixon and Anthony Ware approached Seale. Aaron said, "We want a Panther chapter in Seattle" ( My People Are Rising, 80). The four talked briefly and they left a phone number with Seale.

A week later, after the Seattle contingent had returned home, Seale called Aaron with word that he and two other Panthers were arriving in Seattle the next day, April 20. Elmer Dixon and Ware went to the airport that afternoon and picked up Seale and the others. After arriving at the Dixon family home in Madrona, Seale spoke, providing instructions and recommendations and outlining the Panther platform to a group of young men and women. The meeting lasted all day and into the evening. Then Seale asked the question, "Who's going to be the defense captain?" ( My People Are Rising, 83). Fingers pointed at six-foot-tall, 19-year-old Aaron Dixon, who did not respond immediately. Reluctantly, he accepted the role of captain, launching the first Black Panther Party chapter outside California and the second outside Oakland.

Aaron soon flew to Oakland and spent a week training in the world of an official Black Panther. After the training, there were meetings, selling Panther newspapers, and introductions to numerous party members including co-founder Huey P. Newton, who had been arrested and was in the Alameda County Jail. Meeting Newton was a requirement for all new captains. Aaron was now armed with a clear vision of how to organize Seattle's Black Panther chapter and envisioned a society with equal justice for everyone.

The first task was to find an office somewhere in the Central Area. On May 26, 1968, one was located at 1127 34th Avenue, near the intersection with E Union Street in Madrona, owned by Benjamin Brill (1897-1971) of Brill Realty. Brill was a longtime resident of Madrona. Panther members Willie Brazier (b. 1948), Chester Edward Northington (b. 1944), and Curtis Ray Harris (b. 1947), the Dixons' brother-in-law, approached Brill about the vacant office space. After first refusing he eventually agreed to rent to the party. The quiet working-class Madrona neighborhood on the hill above Lake Washington had given birth to and would provide a home for the new Seattle Black Panther Party.

Within days, the party headquarters opened, and the news spread quickly throughout the Central Area. In the first two months of operation, more than 300 membership applications were received. The party attracted a wide range of people who lived in the community. A number of young Asian Americans who had grown up in the neighborhood applied. Guy Kurose (1953-2002), a martial-arts expert and son of Japanese American teacher and activist Akiko Kurose (1925-1998), would later work on the party's breakfast program and march in rallies for justice. Mike Gillespie (b. 1951), a Filipino American trumpet player, and Mike Tagawa (b. 1944), a Japanese American and veteran of the Vietnam War, also joined. At 25, Tagawa was a few years older than most members; he had been born during World War II at the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. Considering himself "a foot soldier," Tagawa did weapons training and cleaning and taught political education classes.

Young women were also among the applicants. Joanne Dixon Harris, Aaron and Elmer's older sister, participated in a variety of activities, as did Joyce Redmond (b. 1947), who already had a reputation for being fierce, and Kathy Jones, who was still in high school. "Maud Helen Allen was captain of the women, Kathleen M. Halley was deputy minister of finance and treasurer, and Alice Spencer was communications secretary" ("From Memphis and Mogadishu"). New members were required to go through six weeks of military training and learn to follow orders, but women who joined were not required to participate in the training. "Years later Panther Michael Dixon, younger brother of Aaron Dixon, pointed out that female members often challenged male chauvinism within the party" ("From Memphis and Mogadishu").
Growing Pains -- Golden Years (1968-1969)
The Seattle Black Panther chapter experienced immediate growing pains. By the end of 1968, the party had an estimated 2,000 members across the country. From 1968 through the end of 1969, Panthers were constantly being scrutinized, arrested, and jailed, accused of numerous crimes, and sometimes murdered. This did not deter the party from working for the community, but the struggle was always in day-to-day survival mode.

As the party developed a framework for the future, the Madrona neighborhood was transforming into a Black Panther community. A mixture of fear, apprehension, pride, and hope was common to many. The very sight of Panthers brought shivers and fear to some onlookers when they walked by in black leather jackets, black pants, black berets, afros, and dark sunglasses, symbolizing the power they had. The phones in the office rang constantly with people asking for assistance.

When the party was barely more than three months old, on the hot summer night of July 29, 1968, Seattle police raided the headquarters and chapter captain Aaron Dixon and defense minister Curtis Harris were arrested for the alleged theft of a typewriter from the nearby Legal Service Center at 1700 E Cherry Street. No drugs, no weapons, a stolen typewriter! The arrest touched off a full-scale three-day riot in Seattle, resulting in additional arrests, wounded police officers, civilians hit by gunfire and rocks, and property damage throughout the Central Area. Dixon and Harris would later be acquitted of the theft charge. The riot was not on the scale of some in larger cities, but was the start of scattered firebombing, rock throwing, and gunfire aimed at closing down known racist businesses. The riot also marked the beginning of conflict between police and the party that would last two years.

But no matter what the community was facing, the Panthers saw themselves as there to protect. In September 1968, a Black mother called the headquarters stating her son was beaten several times by white students at Rainier Beach High School. She continued to call daily to report other Black students were being attacked and threatened by white students and the school staff refused to protect them. On September 6, 1968, after several calls from other Black mothers, 13 Panthers arrived at the school carrying rifles and confronted principal Donald S. Means (1920-1971), demanding protection for Black students. He agreed and the Panthers returned to the chapter office. Seattle Mayor Dorm Braman (1901-1980) pushed to have a gun law passed that would restrict firearms in the city or weapons used in a manner manifesting intent to intimidate others. This set the stage for more battles and a Panther protest against state gun-control legislation.

Early the next year, Seattle Panthers heard that the state legislature was planning to pass a gun bill like that advocated by Mayor Braman. On February 28, 1969, party members drove to Olympia to demonstrate in support of their right to bear arms. The Panthers walked up the steps of the capitol building holding rifles and shotguns and stood in formation led by Elmer Dixon with the weapons pointed upright. Asked to unload the weapons, they did so peacefully. Aaron Dixon went inside the building and read a prepared statement. But the gun bill had already passed and was quickly signed by Governor Dan Evans (b. 1925). Before the year ended, the Panthers were no longer carrying weapons in public.

In 1969, the Panthers established a Free Breakfast Program for schoolchildren coordinated by Elmer Dixon III at the Madrona Community Presbyterian Church at 832 32nd Avenue. The program would eventually expand to five locations serving "an estimated 300,000 meals from 1969 to 1977" ("A Panther Sighting ...," 68). The Seattle group also helped to maintain and manage the Black Panther Party in Tacoma as well as Oregon offices in Portland and Eugene. By the fall of 1969, the Seattle chapter headquarters moved from the Madrona office to a two-story home located at 173 20th Avenue in the Central Area.

Party member Leon "Valentine" Hobbs III (b. 1949) was assigned to work with University of Washington neurosurgeon Dr. John R. Green to open a medical clinic by December 1969 in the new headquarters. Green and other physicians and nurses volunteered their time. The clinic was opened on December 1, 1969, and named the Sidney Miller Free Clinic after a Panther member who was shot and killed during a robbery.

The clinic, which also tested for sickle cell anemia, relocated several more times before settling at 2101 E. Yesler Way. It was renamed the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center in 1978, honoring Carolyn Jean Downs (1953-1978), a young mother who joined the party and dedicated all her time to movement. Carolyn Downs was the first free medical clinic in the Pacific Northwest, an important legacy of the Seattle Black Panther chapter. With the launching and success of such programs, increased membership, and party members no longer openly carrying weapons, the programs became the primary vehicle to address concerns and immediate needs of the community.
The 1970s -- Stormy Weather
As the 1960s came to a close, the party was about to turn over a new leaf, both good and bad. The Black Panther Party was arguably the most important revolutionary organization in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. No longer displaying weapons under the new gun law, the Panthers changed their standard uniform from black leather jackets and berets and toned down their rhetoric.

In 1970, Michael Dixon established the Business to Prisons Program with the assistance of Melvin Dickerson (1951-1994), using vans, cars, and a donated bus to transport friends and family for visits with those incarcerated in five state prisons on a regular basis. The same year, the Liberation School opened at two housing projects, focusing on Black history, writing skills, and political science. The school was held five days a week during the summer. Classes began at 9 a.m., lunch was served at noon, and school ended at 2:30 p.m. The focus was reading, exercise for maintaining health, fitness, and mind stimulation. Field trips were taken to enhance the students' learning experience. The school continued until 1972.

For a short period of time during 1970, free clothing and shoes were offered to the community, as was ambulance service. Other programs such as free food complemented the free breakfast program. Fifty bags of food were delivered every Wednesday to families across the city. These services were considered simple basic needs for the community. Securing the donations of food and funds for the programs was a fulltime job and not taken lightly.

The Seattle chapter was not destitute. Its primary steady source of income came from the sale of the Black Panther newspaper. Actors and entertainers would donate funds to the party, among them Greg Morris (1933-1996), James Brown (1933-2006), and Seattle native Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970). Hendrix asked to have Panthers as security guards during his concert on July 26, 1970, from 2:30 to 10 p.m. at Sicks' Stadium, the Seattle baseball venue, which turned out to be his last show in his hometown and in the U.S. Two months later, on September 18, 1970, Hendrix would pass away in London suddenly and too soon.

Unfortunately, the Black Panther Party began to fall apart at the seams midway through the 1970s. Why after a few years of explosive growth did the party unravel? The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its COINTELPRO program (created in 1956 to undermine radical groups) sought to break up the party. In fact, in 1969 FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) deemed the Black Panther Party the greatest threat to national security. The FBI tactics were extreme, with the goal to gut the entire party. The added pressure from the government caused the party to divide within itself at every level.

Not helping the added burden on the party, national Panther leaders Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver fell out with each other, resulting in a split that contributed to the party's demise. The Seattle chapter was beginning to weaken due to the party's organization and leadership changes. In 1972, Aaron Dixon was transferred to the party's Oakland headquarters, leaving the control of the chapter to Elmer Dixon. Some other chapter members were summoned to California while others stayed in Seattle.

In 1976 the Seattle chapter broke away from the national party in Oakland, and it officially disbanded two years later in 1978 after 10 short but powerful years of service to the community. The Seattle chapter was one of the party's longest-lived chapters and an integral part of the Black community. By 1982, the Black Panther Party officially ceased all operations.
Legacy
A major part of the Seattle Black Panther Party's legacy was helping the sick and poor through the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, which in 2018 was still welcoming everyone and treating them regardless of ability to pay. By then, of the 13 clinics the party started across the country, Seattle's was the only one still operating.

The legacy also lives on in later generations of Black-empowerment groups, including Black Lives Matter. The Panthers helped make "Black" a word to be proud of. The groups of today sprang from concerns of a younger generation of activists focused on social justice, economic equality, and self-determination. The Black Panthers' legacy is seen every day in activist groups holding today's leaders to the fire and demanding greater accountability.

The boldness of the Seattle Black Panther Party was matched by the boldness of the historical circumstances. The complex, rapidly changing political environment presented challenges to the short-lived party that pushed it to its limits. Members came up against questions to which there were no immediate answers. Still, they left subsequent activists and revolutionaries with a rich heritage to learn from.

In 2006, Aaron Dixon ran for the U.S. Senate seat held by Maria Cantwell. As of 2018 he spoke at colleges, gave interviews, and visited various communities, while Elmer Dixon III, field lieutenant, breakfast-program coordinator, and Seattle chapter leader, was principal owner of a leading diversity consulting firm and a community leader.

From April 26 to 28, 2018, the Seattle Black Panther Party celebrated its 50th anniversary with events at Seattle's Washington Hall and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. The celebration included appearances by actor Danny Glover; former Black Panther Party chair Elaine Brown; poet, activist, and former Seattle mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver; poet, activist, and hip-hop artist Rell Be Free; and others, along with dance performances, a fashion show, and many more performances and tributes.

Sources:

Kurt Schaefer, "The Black Panther Party in Seattle, 1968-1970," University of Washington Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project website accessed October 11, 2018 (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/Panthers1_schaefer.htm); Tikia Gilbert, "The Franklin High School Sit-in," University of Washington Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project website accessed October 11, 2018 (http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/BSU_Franklin.htm#_edn14); "Frances Dixon -- Retired Clinical Assistant & Black Panther Mom," People of the Central Area & Their Stories website accessed Jun 22, 2018 (http://centralareacomm.blogspot.com/2016/06/frances-dixon-retired-clinical.html); Seattle Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary website accessed July 5, 2018 (https://www.seattlebpp50.com/); Daudi Abe and Quintard Taylor, "From Memphis and Mogadishu: The History of African Americans in Martin Luther King County, Washington, 1858-2014," BlackPast.org website accessed October 11, 2018 (https://blackpast.org/memphis-and-mogadishu-history-african-americans-martin-luther-king-county-washington-1858-2014); Craig Collisson, "Black Panther Party," BlackPast.org website accessed July 11, 2018 (http://www.blackpast.org/aah/black-panther-party); "The Black Panther Party: Seattle and the Nation," BlackPast.org website accessed July 15, 2018 (https://blackpast.org/the-black-panther-party-seattle-nation); "Braman Warns Panthers," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 14, 1968, p. 7; "Seattle Black Panther Leader Is Released on $3,000 Bond," The Seattle Times, July 31, 1968, p. 47; Ferdinand M. De Leon, "When King Was in Town," Ibid., January 16, 1994, p. L-1; Dale Nelson, "Black Militant Delegates Anger Some, But Wake Some Others," The Bellingham Herald, March 2, 1969, p 34; Historylink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, "Black Panthers open the Sidney Miller Free Medical Clinic on December 1, 1969," "Capitol Hill and the Movement: Dotty DeCoster Remembers" (by Dotty DeCoster with Heather McIntosh), "Cirque Playhouse (Seattle, 1950-1981)" (by Peter Blecha), "College and high school students hold sit-in at Seattle's Franklin High on March 29, 1968" (by Alan J. Stein), "DeCoster, Dotty (1944-2015)" (by Priscilla Long), "Dwyer, William L. (1929-2002)" (by John Caldbick), "Gossett, Larry (b. 1945)" (by Doug Merlino), "Madrona Memories, Part 2 -- Civil Rights and Civil Unrest" (by Carol Richman), "Martin Luther King Jr. arrives for his sole Seattle visit on November 8, 1961" (by Mary T. Henry), "Mass arrests follow disturbances in Seattle's Central Area on July 31, 1968" (by David Wilma), "Riots erupt in Seattle's Central Area after Franklin High protestors are sentenced on July 1, 1968" (by David Wilma), "Rumors prompt armed Black Panthers to visit Rainier Beach High School on September 6, 1968" (by David Wilma), "Seattle Black Panther Party protests gun-control bill in Olympia on February 28, 1969" (by Linda Holden Givens), "Seattle Neighborhoods: Central Area -- Thumbnail History" (by Mary T. Henry), "Seattle police raid Black Panther office in Central Area, setting off riots, on July 29, 1968" (by Alan J. Stein), "Stokely Carmichael speaks to 4,000 at Seattle's Garfield High School on April 19, 1967" (by Priscilla Long), and "Women's Majority Union publishes Lilith's Manifesto, a women's liberation document, in the spring of 1969," http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed October 16, 2018); Aaron Dixon, My People Are Rising (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012); Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle's Central District from 1870 Through the Civil Rights Era (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994), 159-169, 221-222; Jeffrey Zane and Judson L. Jeffries, "A Panther Sighting in the Pacific Northwest: The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party," in On the Ground: The Black Panther Party in Communities Across America ed. by Judson L. Jeffries (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), 41-95.

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Black Panther Party Seattle Chapter (1968-1978)

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The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was the party's first outside California and the second outside Oakland, where the party was founded in 1966. Nineteen-year-old Aaron Lloyd Dixon (b. 19

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Surprisingly I couldn't find much good info on him so I used the Wikipedia page

- Charlie W

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Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 - August 22, 1989) was an African American revolutionary and political activist who founded the Black Panther Party. He ran the party as its first leader and crafted its ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966.

Under Newton's leadership, the Black Panther Party founded over 60 community support programs (renamed survival programs in 1971) including food banks, medical clinics, sickle cell anemia tests, prison busing for families of inmates, legal advice seminars, clothing banks, housing cooperatives, and their own ambulance service. The most famous of these programs was the Free Breakfast for Children program which fed thousands of impoverished children daily during the early 1970s. Newton also co-founded the Black Panther newspaper service, which became one of America's most widely distributed African-American newspapers. In 1967, he was involved in a shootout which led to the death of police officer John Frey and injuries to himself and another police officer. In 1968, he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for Frey's death and sentenced to 2 to 15 years in prison. In May 1970, the conviction was reversed and after two subsequent trials ended in hung juries, the charges were dropped. Later in life, he was also accused of murdering Kathleen Smith and Betty Van Patter, although he was never convicted for either death.

Newton learned to read using Plato's , which influenced his philosophy of activism. He went on to earn a PhD in social philosophy from the University of California at Santa Cruz's History of Consciousness program in 1980. In 1989, he was murdered in Oakland, California by Tyrone Robinson, a member of the Black Guerrilla Family.

Newton was known for being an advocate of self-defense and used his position as a leader within the Black Panther Party to welcome women as well.

Newton's senior year yearbook photo, 1959

Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1942 during World War II, the youngest child of Armelia Johnson and Walter Newton, a sharecropper and Baptist preacher. His parents named him after Huey Long, former governor of Louisiana. Monroe is located in Louisiana's Ouachita Parish, which has had a history of violence against Black people since the Reconstruction era. According to a 2015 report by the Equal Justice Initiative, from 1877 to 1950, a total of 37 Black people were documented as lynched in that parish. Most murders had taken place around the turn of the 20th century. This was the fifth-highest total of lynchings of any county in the Southern United States.

As a response to the violence, the Newton family migrated to Oakland, California, participating in the second wave of the Great Migration of African-Americans out of the South. The Newton family was close-knit, but quite poor. They moved often within the San Francisco Bay Area during Newton's childhood. Despite this, Newton said he never went without food and shelter as a child. As a teenager, he was arrested several times for criminal offenses, including gun possession and vandalism at age 14. Growing up in Oakland, Newton stated that he was "made to feel ashamed of being black".

In his autobiography Revolutionary Suicide, he wrote:

During those long years in Oakland public schools, I did not have one teacher who taught me anything relevant to my own life or experience. Not one instructor ever awoke in me a desire to learn more or to question or to explore the worlds of literature, science, and history. All they did was try to rob me of the sense of my own uniqueness and worth, and in the process nearly killed my urge to inquire.

Newton graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1959. He attended Merritt College, where he earned an Associate of Arts degree in 1966. Plato's was an influential work in Newton's early adult life; he told the court during the trial for the killing of officer John Frey, that he had learned to read from studying the Republic. After that, he started "questioning everything". In his autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide, he states: "Most of all, I questioned what was happening in my own family and in the community around me."

Newton continued his education, studying at San Francisco Law School, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He was a member of Phi Beta Sigma. He later continued his studies and, in 1980, he completed a PhD in social philosophy at Santa Cruz.

As a student of the Merritt College in Oakland, Newton became involved in Bay Area politics. He joined the Afro-American Association (AAA), became a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity's Beta Tau chapter, and played a role in getting the first African-American history course adopted as part of the college's curriculum. Newton learned about black history from Donald Warden (who later would change his name to Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour), the leader of the AAA. Later Newton concluded that Warden offered solutions that didn't work. In his autobiography, Newton says of Warden, "The mass media, the oppressors, give him public exposure for only one reason: he will lead the people away from the truth of their situation." In college, Newton read the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Zedong, Émile Durkheim, and Che Guevara.

During his time at Merritt College, he met Bobby Seale, with whom he co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP) in October 1966. Based on a casual conversation, Seale became chairman and Newton became minister of defense. The Black Panther Party was an African-American left-wing organization advocating for the right of self-defense for black people in the United States. The Black Panther Party's beliefs were greatly influenced by Malcolm X. Newton stated: "Therefore, the words on this page cannot convey the effect that Malcolm has had on the Black Panther Party, although, as far as I am concerned, the Party is a living testament to his life work." The party achieved national and international renown through their deep involvement in the Black Power movement and the politics of the 1960s and 1970s.

Newton adopted what he termed "revolutionary humanism". Although he had previously attended Nation of Islam mosques, he wrote that "I have had enough of religion and could not bring myself to adopt another one. I needed a more concrete understanding of social conditions. References to God or Allah did not satisfy my stubborn thirst for answers." Later, however, he stated that "As far as I am concerned, when all of the questions are not answered, when the extraordinary is not explained, when the unknown is not known, then there is room for God because the unexplained and the unknown is God." Newton later decided to join a Christian church after the party disbanded during his marriage to Fredrika.

Newton would frequent pool halls, campuses, bars and other locations deep in the black community where people gathered in order to organize and recruit for the Panthers. While recruiting, Newton sought to educate those around him about the legality of self-defense. One of the reasons, he argued, why black people continued to be persecuted was their lack of knowledge of the social institutions that could be made to work in their favor. In Newton's autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide, he writes, "Before I took Criminal Evidence in school, I had no idea what my rights were."

Newton also wrote in his autobiography, "I tried to transform many of the so-called criminal activities going on in the street into something political, although this had to be done gradually." He attempted to channel these "daily activities for survival" into significant community actions. Eventually, the illicit activities of a few members would be superimposed on the social program work performed by the Panthers, and this mischaracterization would lose them some support in black communities and white.

Newton had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for repeatedly stabbing another man, Odell Lee, with a steak knife in mid-1964. He served six months in prison. By October 27-28, 1967, he was out celebrating the release from his probationary period. Just before dawn on October 28, Newton and a friend were pulled over by Oakland Police Department officer John Frey. Realizing who Newton was, Frey called for backup. After fellow officer Herbert Heanes arrived, shots were fired, and all three were wounded.

Heanes testified that the shooting began after Newton was under arrest, and one witness testified that Newton shot Frey with Frey's own gun as they wrestled. No gun on either Frey or Newton was found. Newton stated that Frey shot him first, which made him lose consciousness during the incident. Frey was shot four times and died within the hour, while Heanes was left in serious condition with three bullet wounds. Black Panther David Hilliard took Newton to Oakland's Kaiser Hospital, where he was admitted with a bullet wound to the abdomen. Newton was soon handcuffed to his bed and arrested for Frey's killing. A doctor, Thomas Finch, and nurse, Corrine Leonard, attended to Newton when he arrived at the hospital, and Finch stated that Newton was "agitated" when asking for treatment and that Newton was given a tranquilizer to calm him.

Newton was convicted in September 1968 of voluntary manslaughter for the killing of Frey and was sentenced to 2 to 15 years in prison. In May 1970, the California Appellate Court reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. After two subsequent trials ended in hung juries, the district attorney said he would not pursue a fourth trial, and the Alameda County Superior Court dismissed the charges. In his autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide, Newton wrote that Heanes and Frey were opposite each other and shooting in each other's direction during the shootout.

Hugh Pearson, in his book Shadow of the Panther, writes that Newton, while intoxicated, boasted about having willfully killed Frey.

"Free Huey!" campaign

Newton was arrested on the day of the shooting on October 28, 1967, and pled not guilty to the murder of officer John Frey. The Black Panther Party immediately went to work organizing a coalition to rally behind Newton and champion his release. In December the Peace and Freedom Party, a majority white anti-war political organization, joined with the Black Panther Party in support of Newton. This alliance served the dual purpose of legitimizing Newton's cause while boosting the credibility of the party within the community of more radical activists.

In 1970, after his release from prison, Newton received an invitation to visit the People's Republic of China. On learning of Nixon's plan to visit China in 1972, Newton decided to visit before him. Newton made the trip in late September 1971 with fellow Panthers, Elaine Brown and Robert Bay, and stayed for 10 days. At every Chinese airport he landed in, Newton was greeted by thousands of people waving copies of the "Little Red Book" (officially titled Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung) and displaying signs that said "we support the Black Panther Party, down with U.S. imperialism" or "we support the American people but the Nixon imperialist regime must be overthrown."

During the trip, the Chinese arranged for him to meet and have dinner with an ambassador from North Korea, an ambassador from Tanzania, and delegations from both North Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam. Newton was under the impression he was going to meet Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, but instead had two meetings with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai. One of these meetings also included Mao's wife Jiang Qing. Newton described China as "a free and liberated territory with a socialist government".

Following Newton's Asian trip, the Black Panther Party began incorporating North Korea's ideals into the party's ideology.

In January 1977, Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ (commonly shortened to the Peoples Temple), visited Newton in Havana, Cuba.

That same year after Jones fled to " Jonestown", a commune he established in Guyana for his followers, Newton spoke to Temple members in Jonestown via telephone expressing support for Jones during one of the Temple's earliest " White Nights". Newton's cousin, Stanley Clayton, was one of the few residents of Jonestown to escape the area before the 1978 mass murder of over 900 Temple members by Jones and his enforcers through forced suicide.

Newton in August 1977

By the 1970s, Newton had allegedly became increasingly paranoid, addicted to crack cocaine, and prone to violent behavior.

On August 6, 1974, Kathleen Smith, a 17-year-old Oakland native and child prostitute was shot; she died three months later. According to the prosecutor handling the case, Newton is believed to have shot Smith after a casual exchange on the street during which she referred to him as "Baby", a childhood nickname he hated. The main witness of this case refused to testify due to an assassination attempt against her and, after two deadlocked jury trials, Newton was not convicted.

Newton was subsequently arrested a second time for the murder of Smith, but was able to post an additional $80,000 bond, thus securing his release until trial. Newton and his girlfriend (later his wife) Gwen Fontaine then fled to Havana, Cuba, where they lived until 1977, which prevented further prosecution on the two charges. Elaine Brown took over as chairperson of the Black Panther Party in his absence. Newton returned to the United States in 1977 to stand trial for the murder of Smith and the assault on the tailor.

In October 1977, three Black Panthers attempted to assassinate Crystal Gray, a key prosecution witness in Newton's upcoming trial who had been present the day of Kathleen Smith's murder. Unknown to the assailants, they attacked the wrong house and the occupant returned fire. During the shootout one of the Panthers, Louis Johnson, was killed, and the other two assailants escaped. One of the two surviving assassins, Flores Forbes, fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, with the help of Panther paramedic Nelson Malloy. In November 1977, Malloy was found by park rangers paralyzed from the waist down from bullet wounds to the back in a shallow grave in the desert outside of Las Vegas. According to Malloy, he and Forbes were ordered by "higher-ups" to be killed to eliminate any eyewitness accounts of the attempted murder of Crystal Gray. Malloy recovered from the assault and told police that fellow Panthers Rollin Reid and Allen Lewis were behind his attempted murder. Newton denied any involvement or knowledge, and said that the events "might have been the result of overzealous party members". After the assassination attempt on Crystal Gray, she declined to testify against Newton. After two trials and two deadlocked juries, the prosecution decided not to retry Newton for Smith's murder.

During Newton's trial for assaulting the tailor, who changed his testimony several times, eventually told the jury that he did not know who assaulted him. Newton was acquitted of the assault in September 1978, but convicted of illegal firearms possession and served 9 months in prison in 1987.

In the early hours of August 22, 1989, Newton was murdered in front of 1456 9th Street, near the corner of Center Street in the Lower Bottoms section of Oakland, California. Within days, Tyrone Robinson was arrested as a suspect; he was on parole and admitted the murder to police, claiming self-defense, though police found no evidence that Newton was carrying a gun. In 1991, Robinson was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to a prison term of 32 years to life. His next parole hearing is set for November 2028. Robinson stated that his motive was to advance in the Black Guerrilla Family, a Marxist-Leninist narcotics prison gang, in order to get a crack franchise.

Newton's funeral was held at Allen Temple Baptist Church, where he attended following his conversion. Some 1,300 mourners were accommodated inside, and another 500 to 600 listened to the service from outside. Newton's achievements in civil rights and work on behalf of Black children and families with the Black Panther Party were celebrated. Newton's body was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.

On February 17, 2021, in commemoration of the Black Panther Party the City of Oakland erected a bust of Huey Newton near the corner where he was murdered. That same year, a commemorative plaque "Dr. Huey P. Newton Way" was applied to this section of 9th Street.

Newton received a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1974. In 1978, while in prison, Newton met evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers after Newton applied to do a reading course with Trivers as part of a graduate degree in history of consciousness. He and Trivers became close friends, they published an analysis of the role of flight crew self-deception in the 1982 crash of Air Florida Flight 90, and Trivers dedicated one chapter of his autobiography to his relationship with Newton.

Newton earned a PhD in the social philosophy program of History of Consciousness from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1980. His doctoral dissertation titled War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America "analyzes certain features of the Party and incidents that are significant in its development", among which are how the United States federal government responded to the BPP as well as to the assassinations of Fred Hampton, Bunchy Carter, and John Huggins. Sources for material used to support the dissertation include two federal civil rights lawsuits. One suit was against the FBI and other government officials, while the other was initially against the City of Chicago.

Later, Newton's widow, Fredrika Newton, would discuss her husband's often-ignored academic research during C-SPAN's American Perspectives program on February 18, 2006. After the decline of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton completed and copyrighted dozens of essays on philosophy, political theology, evolutionary biology, and political economy which remain unpublished and held in archive at Stanford University.

Huey Newton Speaks - oral history (Paredon Records, 1970)

, Franz Schurmann (Introduction) (Random House, 1972)

Newton, Huey P.; Herman Blake, J. (2009), Revolutionary Suicide, National Geographic Books, ISBN 978-0143105329 , with J. Herman Blake (Random House, 1973; republished in 1995 with introduction by Blake)

, with Ericka Huggins (1975)

The Crash of Flight 90: Doomed by Self-Deception?, with Robert Trivers (Science Digest, 1982)

(Harlem River Press, 1996: the published version of Newton's PhD thesis)

, edited by David Hilliard and Donald Weise (Seven Stories Press)

Essays from the Minister of Defense, Black Panther Party, 1968, Oakland (pamphlet)

The Genius of Huey P. Newton, Awesome Records (June 1, 1993)

The original vision of the Black Panther Party, Black Panther Party (1973)

Huey Newton talks to the movement about the Black Panther Party, cultural nationalism, SNCC, liberals and white revolutionaries (The Movement, 1968)

, edited by Toni Morrison, foreword by Elaine Brown (Random House, 1972; City Lights Publishers, 2009)

, edited by David Hilliard and Donald Weise, introduction by Elaine Brown (Seven Stories Press, 2019)

In the song "Propaganda" (2000) by Dead Prez, on their album Let's Get Free, Newton is referenced in the lyrics "31 years ago I would've been a Panther. They killed Huey cause they knew he had the answer. The views that you see in the news is propaganda." As well as in the outro of the song, which samples an interview with Newton:

[Outro: Huey P. Newton] Uh, we view each other with a great love and a great understanding. And that we try to expand this to the general black population, and also, people - oppressed people all over the world. And, I think that we differ from some other groups simply because we understand the system better than most groups understand the system. And with this realization, we attempt to form a strong political base based in the community with the only strength that we have and that's the strength of a potentially destructive force if we don't get freedom.

The song "Up in Arms" (2015) by American songwriter Bhi Bhiman is based on Newton's life.

Agnès Varda's 1968 documentary on the Black Panthers features extensive interviews with Newton during his incarceration.

The Boondocks comic strip by Aaron McGruder, and related TV cartoon, features a main character known as Huey Freeman, a 10-year-old African-American revolutionary, who was named after Newton; Freeman starts an independent newspaper, dubbing it the Free Huey World Report.

In 2012, French LFKs collective presented a contemporary opera referring to Huey P. Newton, directed by Jean Michel Bruyère at the Festival international d'art lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence. Une situation HUEY P. NEWTON was the second chapter of vitaNONnova, a series of stage and film productions around the Black Panther Party and its founders.

The fourth track on St. Vincent's 2014 album is named after Newton.

The song "Free Huey" by the Boo Radleys, from their album (1998) is about the activities of the Black Panther Party when Newton was an activist.

Foner, Philip S. (editor). The Black Panthers Speak - The Manifesto of the Party: The First Complete Documentary Record of the Panther's Program (Dial, 1970).

Keating, Edward M. (1971). Free Huey!. a Dell book. Charles R. Garry (introduction). Berkeley, CA: Rapparts Press. ISBN 978-0878670000.

Hevesi, Dennis. "Huey Newton Symbolized the Rising Black Anger of a Generation" (obituary), The New York Times, August 23, 1989.

Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power (Anchor Books, 1993). ISBN 0385471076.

Horowitz, David. "Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes" Spence Pub, September 1, 1999.

Hillard, David with Zimmerman, Keith and Kent. Huey: Spirit of the Panther (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005).

Rower, Alyssa; Belk, Caroline (2003). "People of the State of California, Plaintiff-Respondent v. Miranda Moore, Defendant-Appellate". Whittier Law Journal of Child & Family Advocacy. 3: 191.

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Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 - August 22, 1989) was an African American revolutionary and political activist who founded the Black Panther Party. He ran the party as its first leader and crafted its ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966.

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The Ten-Point Program or The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program is a party platform written by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 for the Black Panther Party.

The Ten-Point Program is a set of guidelines to the Black Panther Party that states their ideals and ways of operation, a "combination of the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence."

The document was created in 1966 by the founders of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, whose political thoughts lay within the realm of Marxism and Black Nationalism. Each one of the statements were put in place for all of the Black Panther Party members to live by and actively practice every day. The Ten-Point program was released on May 15, 1967, in the second issue of the party's weekly newspaper, The Black Panther. All succeeding 537 issues contained the program, titled "What We Want Now!."

The Ten Point Program comprised two sections: The first, titled "What We Want Now!" described what the Black Panther Party wants from the leaders of American Society. The second section, titled "What We Believe," outlines the philosophical views of the party and the rights that African Americans should have, but are denied. It is structured similarly to the United States Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.

"What We Believe" expands on the first section, making demands of what will be deemed sufficient payment for the injustices committed against the Black Community. For example, one section states that, "We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as a restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people". It continues to state that "We will accept this payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities." Newton and Seale believed that the Black community had been deprived of these benefits over the years, and that the only way to correct this injustice was in repayment of assets that had been lost to them over many years of slavery.

The ten-point platform was important for the Black Panther Party because it laid out the "physical needs and all the philosophical principles" they expected and that could be understood by everyone. When Huey Newton talked about the platform, he stated that these things were not something new but something that "black people have been voicing all along for over 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation and even before that." This platform was essential to the party, because it allowed for them to state their wants, needs, and beliefs that people could read and easily understand.

The Black Panther Party Platform (Ten-Point Program) as reprinted in the Seattle underground paper Helix, May 9, 1968

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.

We believe that black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in our communities.

2. We want full employment for our people.

We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. We want an end to the robbery by the capitalist of our black and oppressed communities.

We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.

4. We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.

We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed communities, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for the people.

5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.

We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and the world, then you will have little chance to know anything else.

6. We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people.

We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all black and oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care.

7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the United States.

We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against black people, other people of color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend ourselves against such armed forces, and that all black and oppressed people should be armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.

8. We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.

We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the U.S. government or its lackeys do not cease these aggressive wars that it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means necessary against their aggressors.

9. We want freedom for all black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.

We believe that the many black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. prisons and jails have not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the U.S. military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial that they must be guaranteed, by the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment while awaiting trials.

10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's community control of modern technology.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

The Ten-Point Program formed the basis for the Black Panther Party and was seen as the governing document that defined the actions of the Party. In addition, a highly symbolic photo of Huey P. Newton was circulated alongside the Ten Point Program. He is wearing the famous Black Panther black cap, tilted to the side, and covering his right ear, and dressed in the standard Black Panther uniform. "He sits comfortably, but alert, his feet positioned, ready to stand."

In 1970, Newton shifted the focus of his political activities from Black Nationalism to " intercommunalism," seeking to unite and empower all disenfranchised groups. In 1972 the Ten Point Program was modified to reflect this changing focus-for instance, adding a demand for completely free health care - leading to tension within the party. The Party had changed from merely focusing on Blacks themselves to now focusing on more minority groups and how to improve their lives. Focusing on injustices, they began to see their struggle as one that many people faced.

The Ten-Point Program was ultimately unsuccessful, though it played a meaningful role in the development of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s. The Ten-Point Program also influenced the political outlook of those who came of age in the post-civil rights era and the hip-hop generation. Notably, rap music artist Tupac Shakur, the son of former Black Panther Afeni Shakur, loosely based his philosophy of T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E.-"an attempt to codify practices that could reduce violence in the Black community and restore dignity to humiliated, disrespected, and disowned Black men"-on insights from the Ten-Point Program.

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Ten-Point Program (Black Panther Party) - Wikipedia

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The Ten-Point Program or The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program is a party platform written by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 for the Black Panther Party. The Ten-Point Program is a set of guidelines to the Black Panther Party that states their ideals and ways of operation, a "combination of the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence."

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Melody

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A native of Louisville, Clay first made a name for himself at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, winning the gold medal in the light heavyweight class. After turning pro, he won 19 consecutive bouts to earn the right to face Liston who was a two time heavyweight champion. Cassius clay entered the showdown while liston had an 8 to 1 betting favorite. But Liston, two-time heavyweight champ and one of the best boxers if not the best, failed to silence his talkative foe, suffering a humiliating and sad defeat to Clay, who within a matter of weeks would change his name to Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam. Ali would successfully defend his heavyweight title nine times before he was stripped of it in 1967 by refusing to enter into the U.S. Army for the Vietnam war. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali’s draft evasion conviction, paving the way for him to regain his title in 1974 with a win over George Foreman in Zaire, a bout that was known as “The Rumble in the jungle.

From Primerus, by tom curvy, article Cassius clay (Muhammad Ali)

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Stokley was a good person and focused on the civil rights movement and cared a lot about black people

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Maya Angelou made a book called I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing. She was also the first woman to work as a conductor on the San Francisco rail cars.

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June Millicent Jordan was born on July 9, 1938 in Harlem, New York and died on June 14, 2002 from breast cancer in Berkeley, California. She was an only child with both of her parents being immigrants from Panama and Jamaica and began writing poetry at the age of 7. Her father was a postal worker and her mother was a part time nurse. She went to Barnard College in New York. She was married to Michael Meyer in 1955 and had a single child with him, Christopher David Meyer, before getting divorced in 1965 leaving her to raise the child alone. She later came out as bisexual and published her first book in 1969 and published 27 more in her lifetime.

-Hannah L.

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The Black Arts Movement was and African American led arts movement that redefined African American identity and artistic expression.

-Clara Lapsa

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-Avery

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Shirley Anita Chisholm ( St. Hill; November 30, 1924 - January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In the 1972 United States presidential election, she became the first African-American candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Born in Brooklyn, Chisolm studied and worked in early childhood education, becoming involved in local Democratic party politics in the 1950s. In 1964, overcoming some resistance because she was a woman, she was elected to the New York State Assembly. Four years later she was elected to Congress, where she led expansion of food and nutrition programs for the poor and rose to party leadership. She retired from Congress in 1983 and taught at Mt Holyoke College, while continuing her political organizing. Although nominated for an ambassadorship in 1993, health issues caused her to withdraw. In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Shirley Anita St. Hill was born on November 30, 1924, to immigrant parents. She was of Guyanese and Bajan descent. She had three younger sisters, two born within three years of her and one later. Her father, Charles Christopher St. Hill, was born in British Guiana before moving to Barbados. He arrived in New York City via Antilla, Cuba, in 1923. Her mother, Ruby Seale, was born in Christ Church, Barbados, and arrived in New York City in 1921.

Charles St. Hill was a laborer who worked in a factory that made burlap bags and as a baker's helper. Ruby St. Hill was a skilled seamstress and domestic worker, and had trouble working and raising the children at the same time. As a consequence, in November 1929 when Shirley turned five, she and her two sisters were sent to Barbados on the MS Vulcania to live with their maternal grandmother, Emaline Seale. She later said, "Granny gave me strength, dignity, and love. I learned from an early age that I was somebody. I didn't need the black revolution to tell me that." St. Hill and her sisters lived on their grandmother's farm in the Vauxhall village in Christ Church, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse. She returned to the United States on May 19, 1934, aboard the in New York. As a result of her time in Barbados, Shirley spoke with a West Indian accent throughout her life. In her 1970 autobiography Unbought and Unbossed, she wrote: "Years later I would know what an important gift my parents had given me by seeing to it that I had my early education in the strict, traditional, British-style schools of Barbados. If I speak and write easily now, that early education is the main reason." As a result of her time on the island, and regardless of her U.S. birth, St. Hill would always consider herself a Barbadian American. Beginning in 1939, St. Hill attended Girls' High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, a highly regarded, integrated school that attracted girls from throughout Brooklyn. St. Hill earned her Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College in 1946, where she won prizes for her debating skills. In addition, during her time at Brooklyn College, she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and the Harriet Tubman Society. As a member of the Harriet Tubman Society, Chisholm advocated for inclusion, specifically in terms of the integration of black soldiers in the military during World War II, the addition of courses that focused on African-American history, and the involvement of more women in the student government. However, this was not her first introduction to activism or politics. Growing up, Chisholm was surrounded by politics as her father was an avid supporter of Marcus Garvey and a dedicated supporter of the rights of trade union members. Also, she was no stranger to seeing her community advocate for their rights as she witnessed the Barbados workers' and anti-colonial independence movements.

St. Hill met Conrad O. Chisholm in the late 1940s. He had migrated to the U.S. from Jamaica in 1946 and later became a private investigator who specialized in negligence-based lawsuits. They married in 1949 in a large West Indian-style wedding.

After graduating from college in 1946, Chisholm began working as a teacher's aide at a childcare center in Harlem. Chisholm taught in a nursery school while furthering her education, earning her MA in elementary education from Teachers College of Columbia University in 1952.

From 1953 to 1959, she was director of the Friends Day Nursery in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and of the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center in Lower Manhattan. From 1959 to 1964, she was an educational consultant for the Division of Day Care. She became known as an authority on issues involving early education and child welfare.

Chisholm entered the world of politics in 1953 when she joined Wesley "Mac" Holder's effort to elect Lewis Flagg Jr. to the bench as the first black judge in Brooklyn. The Flagg election group later transformed into the Bedford-Stuyvesant Political League (BSPL). The BSPL pushed candidates to support civil rights, fought against racial discrimination in housing, and sought to improve economic opportunities and services in Brooklyn. Chisholm eventually left the group around 1958 after clashing with Holder over Chisholm's push to give female members of the group more input in decision making.

She also worked as a volunteer for white-dominated political clubs in Brooklyn, like the Brooklyn Democratic Clubs and the League of Women Voters. With the Political League, she was part of a committee that chose the recipient of its annual Brotherhood Award. She also was a representative of the Brooklyn branch of the National Association of College Women. Furthermore, within the political organizations she joined, Chisholm sought to make meaningful changes to the structure and make-up of the organizations, specifically the Brooklyn Democratic Clubs, which resulted in her being able to recruit more people of color into the 17th District Club and, thus, local politics.

In 1960, Chisholm joined a new organization, the Unity Democratic Club (UDC) led by former Elect Flagg member Thomas R. Jones. The UDC's membership was mostly middle class, racially integrated, and included women in leadership positions. Chisholm campaigned for Jones who lost the election for an assembly seat in 1960, but ran again two years later and won, becoming Brooklyn's second black assemblyman.

After Jones chose to accept a judicial appointment rather than run for reelection, Chisholm sought to run for his seat in the New York state assembly in 1964. Chishom faced resistance based on her sex with the UDC hesitant to support a female candidate. Chisholm chose to appeal directly to women voters, including using her role as Brooklyn branch president of Key Women of America to mobilize female voters. Chisholm won the Democratic primary in June 1964. She then won the seat in December with over 18,000 votes over Republican and Liberal party candidates, neither of which received more than 1,900 votes.

Chisholm was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1965 to 1968, sitting in the 175th, 176th and 177th New York State Legislatures. By May 1965 she had already been honored in a "Salute to Women Doers" affair in New York. One of her early activities in the Assembly was to argue against the state's literacy test requiring English, holding that just because a person "functions better in his native language is no sign a person is illiterate". By early 1966 she was a leader in a push by the statewide Council of Elected Negro Democrats for black representation on key committees in the Assembly.

Her successes in the legislature included getting unemployment benefits extended to domestic workers. She also sponsored the introduction of a SEEK program (Search for Education, Elevation and Knowledge) to the state, which provided disadvantaged students the chance to enter college while receiving intensive remedial education.

In August 1968, she was elected as the Democratic National Committeewoman from New York State.

In 1968 she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 12th congressional district, which as part of a court-mandated reapportionment plan had been significantly redrawn to focus on Bedford-Stuyvesant and was thus expected to result in Brooklyn's first black member of Congress. ( Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. had, in 1945, become the first black member of Congress from New York City as a whole.) As a result of the redrawing, the white incumbent in the former 12th, Representative Edna F. Kelly, sought re-election in a different district. Chisholm announced her candidacy around January 1968 and established some early organizational support. Her campaign slogan was "Unbought and unbossed". In the June 18, 1968, Democratic primary, Chisholm defeated two other Black opponents, State Senator William S. Thompson and labor official Dollie Robertson. In the general election, she staged an upset victory over James Farmer, the former director of the Congress of Racial Equality who was running as a Liberal Party candidate with Republican support, winning by an approximately two-to-one margin. Chisholm thereby became the first black woman elected to Congress, and was the only woman in the freshman class that year.

Chisholm was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. Given her urban district, she felt the placement was irrelevant to her constituents. When Chisholm confided to Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson that she was upset and insulted by her assignment, Schneerson suggested that she use the surplus food to help the poor and hungry. Chisholm subsequently met Robert Dole, and worked to expand the food stamp program. She later played a critical role in the creation of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. Chisholm would credit Schneerson for the fact that so many "poor babies [now] have milk and poor children have food". Chisholm was then also placed on the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Soon after, she voted for Hale Boggs as House Majority Leader over John Conyers. As a reward for her support, Boggs assigned her to the much-prized Education and Labor Committee, which was her preferred committee. She was the third highest-ranking member of this committee when she retired from Congress.

Chisholm only hired women for her office; half of them were black. Chisholm said that she had faced much more discrimination during her New York legislative career because she was a woman than because of her race.

Chisholm joined the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971 as one of its founding members. In the same year, she was also a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus.

In May 1971 she, along with fellow New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug, introduced a bill to provide $10 billion in federal funds for child care services by 1975. A less expensive version introduced by Senator Walter Mondale eventually passed the House and Senate as the Comprehensive Child Development Bill, but was vetoed by President Richard Nixon in December 1971, who said it was too expensive and would undermine the institution of the family.

Chisholm created controversy when she visited rival and ideological opposite George Wallace in the hospital soon after his shooting in May 1972, during the presidential primary campaign. Several years later, when Chisholm worked on a bill to give domestic workers the right to a minimum wage, Wallace helped gain votes of enough Southern congressmen to push the legislation through the House.

From 1977 to 1981, during the 95th Congress and 96th Congress, Chisholm was elected to a position in the House Democratic leadership, as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus.

Throughout her tenure in Congress, Chisholm worked to improve opportunities for inner-city residents. She was a vocal opponent of the draft and supported spending increases for education, health care and other social services, and reductions in military spending.

In the area of national security and foreign policy, Chisholm worked for the revocation of Internal Security Act of 1950. She opposed the American involvement in the Vietnam War and the expansion of weapon developments. During the Jimmy Carter administration, she called for better treatment of Haitian refugees.

Chisholm's first marriage ended in divorce in February 1977. Later that year she married Arthur Hardwick, Jr., a former New York State Assemblyman whom Chisholm had known when they both served in that body and who was now a Buffalo liquor store owner. Chisholm had no children.

Hardwick was subsequently injured in an automobile accident; desiring to take care of him, and also dissatisfied with the course of liberal politics in the wake of the Reagan Revolution, she announced her retirement from Congress in 1982. Hardwick died in 1986.

Chisholm began exploring her candidacy in July 1971, and formally announced her presidential bid on January 25, 1972, in a Baptist church in her district in Brooklyn. There she called for a "bloodless revolution" at the forthcoming Democratic nomination convention. Chisholm became the first Black major-party candidate to run for President of the United States, in the 1972 U.S. presidential election, making her also the first woman ever to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination (U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith had previously run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964). In her presidential announcement, Chisholm described herself as representative of the people and offered a new articulation of American identity: "I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman and equally proud of that. I am the candidate of the people and my presence before you symbolizes a new era in American political history."

Her campaign was underfunded, only spending $300,000 in total. She also struggled to be regarded as a serious candidate instead of as a symbolic political figure; she was ignored by much of the Democratic political establishment and received little support from her black male colleagues. She later said, "When I ran for the Congress, when I ran for president, I met more discrimination as a woman than for being black. Men are men." In particular, she expressed frustration about the "black matriarch thing", saying, "They think I am trying to take power from them. The black man must step forward, but that doesn't mean the black woman must step back." Her husband, however, was fully supportive of her candidacy and said, "I have no hangups about a woman running for president." Security was also a concern, as during the campaign three confirmed threats were made against her life; Conrad Chisholm served as her bodyguard until U.S. Secret Service protection was given to her in May 1972.

Chisholm skipped the initial March 7 New Hampshire contest, instead focusing on the March 14 Florida primary, which she thought would be receptive due to its "blacks, youth, and a strong women's movement". But due to organizational difficulties and Congressional responsibilities, she only made two campaign trips there and ended with 3.5 percent of the vote for a seventh-place finish. Chisholm had difficulties gaining ballot access, but campaigned or received votes in primaries in fourteen states. Her largest number of votes came in the June 6 California primary, where she received 157,435 votes for 4.4 percent and a fourth-place finish, while her best percentage in a competitive primary came in the May 6 North Carolina one, where she got 7.5 percent for a third-place finish. Overall, she won 28 delegates during the primaries process itself. Chisholm's base of support was ethnically diverse and included the National Organization for Women. Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem attempted to run as Chisholm delegates in New York. Altogether during the primary season, she received 430,703 votes, which was 2.7 percent of the total of nearly 16 million cast and represented seventh place among the Democratic contenders. In June, Chisholm became the first woman to appear in a United States presidential debate.

At the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, there were still efforts taking place by the campaign of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey to stop the nomination of Senator George McGovern. After that failed and McGovern's nomination was assured, as a symbolic gesture, Humphrey released his black delegates to Chisholm. This, combined with defections from disenchanted delegates from other candidates, as well as the delegates she had won in the primaries, gave her a total of 152 first-ballot votes for the nomination during the July 12 roll call. (Her precise total was 151.95.) Her largest support overall came from Ohio, with 23 delegates (slightly more than half of them white), even though she had not been on the ballot in the May 2 primary there. Her total gave her fourth place in the roll call tally, behind McGovern's winning total of 1,728 delegates. Chisholm said she ran for the office "in spite of hopeless odds ... to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo".

It is sometimes stated that Chisholm won a primary in 1972, or won three states overall, with New Jersey, Louisiana, and Mississippi being so identified. None of these fit the usual definition of winning a plurality of the contested popular vote or delegate allocations at the time of a state primary, caucus, or state convention.[citation needed ] In the June 6 New Jersey primary, there was a complex ballot that featured both a delegate selection vote and a non-binding, non-delegate-producing "beauty contest" presidential preference vote. Only Chisholm and former governor of North Carolina Terry Sanford were on the statewide preference ballot. Sanford had withdrawn from the contest three weeks earlier. Chisholm received the majority of votes in the non-binding statewide contest: 51,433, which was 66.9 percent. During the actual balloting at the national convention, Chisholm received votes from only 4 of New Jersey's 109 delegates, with 89 going to McGovern.

In the May 13 Louisiana caucuses, there was a battle between forces of McGovern and Governor George Wallace; nearly all of the delegates chosen were those who identified as uncommitted, many of them black. Leading up to the convention, McGovern was thought to control 20 of Louisiana's 44 delegates, with most of the rest uncommitted. During the actual roll call at the national convention, Louisiana passed at first, then cast 18.5 of its 44 votes for Chisholm, with the next best finishers being McGovern and Senator Henry M. Jackson with 10.25 each. As one delegate explained, "Our strategy was to give Shirley our votes for sentimental reasons on the first ballot. However, if our votes would have made the difference, we would have gone with McGovern." In Mississippi, there were two rival party factions that each selected delegates at their own state conventions and caucuses: "regulars", representing the mostly-white state Democratic Party, and "loyalists", representing many blacks and white liberals. Each slate professed to be largely uncommitted, but the regulars were thought to favor Wallace and the loyalists McGovern. By the time of the national convention, the loyalists were seated following a credentials challenge, and their delegates were characterized as mostly supporting McGovern, with some support for Humphrey. During the convention, some McGovern delegates became angry about what they saw as statements from McGovern that backed away from his commitment to end U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, and cast protest votes for Chisholm as a result. During the actual balloting, Mississippi went in the first half of the roll call, and cast 12 of its 25 votes for Chisholm, with McGovern coming next with 10 votes.

During the campaign, the German filmmaker Peter Lilienthal shot the documentary film Shirley Chisholm for President for the German television channel ZDF.

After leaving Congress, Chisholm made her home in suburban Williamsville, New York. She resumed her career in education, being named to the Purington Chair at the all-women Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. As such she was not a member of any particular department, but would be able to teach classes in a variety of areas; those previously holding the position included W. H. Auden, Bertrand Russell, and Arna Bontemps.

In 1984, Chisholm and C. Delores Tucker co-founded the National Congress of Black Women.[citation needed ]

During those years, she continued to give speeches at colleges, by her own count visiting over 150 campuses since becoming nationally known. She told students to avoid polarization and intolerance: "If you don't accept others who are different, it means nothing that you've learned calculus." Continuing to be involved politically, she traveled to visit different minority groups and urging them to become a strong force at the local level. In 1984 and 1988, she campaigned for Jesse Jackson for the presidential elections. In 1990, Chisholm, along with 15 other black women and men, formed the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom.

Chisholm retired to Florida in 1991. In 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated her to be United States Ambassador to Jamaica, but she could not serve due to poor health and the nomination was withdrawn. In the same year she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Chisholm died on January 1, 2005, in Ormond Beach near Daytona Beach, after suffering several strokes. She is buried in the Birchwood Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, where the legend inscribed on her vault reads: "Unbought and Unbossed".

In 1984, The National Black Women's Political Caucus was established during the vice presidential campaign of Geraldine Ferraro. African American women from various political organizations convened to set forth a political agenda emphasizing the needs of women of African descent. Chisholm was chosen as its first chair.

In February 2005, Shirley Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed, a documentary film, aired on U.S public television. It chronicled Chisholm's 1972 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. It was directed and produced by independent African-American filmmaker Shola Lynch. The film was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. On April 9, 2006, the film was announced as a winner of a Peabody Award.

In 2014, the first adult biography of Chisholm was published, Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change, by Brooklyn College history professor Barbara Winslow, who was also the founder and first director of the Shirley Chisholm Project. Until then, only several juvenile biographies had appeared.

Chisholm's speech "For the Equal Rights Amendment", given in 1970, is listed as No. 91 in American Rhetoric's Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (listed by rank).

On Jan. 20, 2021, Kamala Harris, the first black woman to become Vice President, wore a purple dress in Shirley Chisholm's honor during her inauguration.

The Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn Women's Activism (formerly known as the Shirley Chisholm Center for Research) exists at Brooklyn College to promote research projects and programs on women and to preserve the legacy of Chisholm. The Chisholm Project also houses an archive as part of the Chisholm Papers in the college library Special Collections.

In January 2018, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his intent to build the Shirley Chisholm State Park, a 407-acre (165 ha) state park along 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of the Jamaica Bay coastline, adjoining the Pennsylvania Avenue and Fountain Avenue landfills south of Spring Creek Park's Gateway Center section. The state park was dedicated to Chisholm that September. The park opened to the public on July 2, 2019.

A memorial monument of Chisholm is planned for the entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn by Parkside Avenue station, designed by artists Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous.

Chisholm's legacy came into renewed prominence during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton staged their historic "firsts" battle - where the victor would either be the first major-party African-American nominee, or the first woman nominee - with at least one observer crediting Chisholm's 1972 campaign as having paved the way for both of them.

Chisholm has been a major influence on other women of color in politics, among them California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who stated in a 2017 interview that Chisholm had a profound impact on her career.

Kamala Harris recognized Chisholm's presidential campaign by using a similar color scheme and typography in her own 2020 presidential campaign's promotional materials and logo. That red-and-yellow design could be seen in a video announcing Harris's run for president. Harris launched her presidential campaign 47 years to the day after Chisholm's presidential campaign.

Actress Uzo Aduba portrays Chisholm in the miniseries Mrs. America released in April 2020, which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series. Danai Gurira has been cast as Shirley Chisholm in "The Fighting Shirley Chisholm". The film will follow Chisholm's historical run for president in 1972.The film will be directed by Cherien Dabis. Another Shirley Chisholm film was announced in February 2021, with Regina King starring as Chisholm and John Ridley directing.

In 1974, Chisholm was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Aquinas College and was their commencement speaker.

In 1975, Chisholm was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Smith College.

In 1996, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Stetson University, in Deland, Florida.

Chisholm wrote two autobiographical books.

This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Shirley Chisholm", which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.

1. ^ Freeman, Jo (February 2005). "Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign". University of Illinois at Chicago Women's History Project. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.

2. Winslow, Shirley Chisholm, pp. 7-8.

3. Winslow, Shirley Chisholm, p. 9.

4. ^

5. ^

6. ^ Gallagher, Julie (2007). "Waging 'The Good Fight': The Political Career of Shirley Chisholm, 1953-1982". The Journal of African American History. 92 (3): 392-416. doi:10.1086/JAAHv92n3p392. JSTOR 20064206. S2CID 140827104.

7. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (January 18, 2011). "R. Sargent Shriver, Peace Corps Leader, Dies at 95". The New York Times.

8. ^

9. Schanberg, Sydney H. (June 19, 1968). "Seymour and Cellar Win House Contests" (PDF). The New York Times. pp. 1, 31.

10. Landers, Jackson, ^ 'Unbought And Unbossed': When a Black Woman Ran for the White House, Smithsonian Magazine, April 25, 2016

11. ^ Telushkin, Joseph (2014). Rebbe: The Life and Teachings of Menachem M. Schneerson, the Most Influential Rabbi in Modern History. HarperCollins. pp. 13-14.

12. ^

13. ^ "Shirley Chisholm, pioneer in Congress, dies at 80". NBC News. January 4, 2005.

14. ^ Babcock, Charles R. (June 18, 1980). "Rep. Chisholm Asks Equity For Haiti's Black Refugees". Washington Post.

15. ^ House resolution 97, Recognizing Contributions, Achievements, and Dedicated Work of Shirley Anita Chisholm, [Congressional Record: June 12, 2001 (House). Page H3019-H3025] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:cr12jn01-85]

16. ^

17. ^ Watkins, Wesley (July 13, 1972). "Seniority seen as key to party merger". Delta Democrat-Times. Greenville, Mississippi. p. 3 - via Newspapers.com.

18. ^

19. ^ Kathryn Cullen-DuPont (August 1, 2000). Encyclopedia of women's history in America. Infobase Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-8160-4100-8.

20. ^ "Statement on the Withdrawal of the Nomination of Shirley Chisholm To Be Ambassador to Jamaica". The White House. October 13, 1993.

21. National Women's Hall of Fame, Women of the Hall - ^ Shirley Chisholm

22. ^ 65th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2006.

23. ^ Malkin, Marc (July 7, 2020). "Listen: Uzo Aduba on Playing Political Pioneer Shirley Chisholm in 'Mrs. America'". Variety.

24. Phil Helsel - ^ "Obama honoring Spielberg, Streisand and more with medal of freedom," NBC News, November 24, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2015

25. ^ "Stetson University Commencement Program". Stetson University. May 12, 1996.

26. ^ "Home - National Women's Hall of Fame". National Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015.

27. ^ "Scott new Issues Update". Linn's Stamp News. 87 (4455): 60-61. March 17, 2014. ISSN 0161-6234.

Brooks-Bertram, Peggy; Nevergold, Barbara A. (2009). Uncrowned Queens, Volume 3: African American Women Community Builders of Western New York. In Commemoration of the Centennial of the Niagara Movement. Buffalo, New York. ISBN 978-0-9722977-2-1.

Howell, Ron Boss of Black Brooklyn: The Life and Times of Bertram L. Baker Fordham University Press Bronx, New York 2018

Winslow, Barbara (2014). Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change. Lives of American Women. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-4769-1.

Fitzpatrick, Ellen (2016). The Highest Glass Ceiling : Women's Quest for the American Presidency. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674088931. LCCN 2015045620.

United States Congress. "Shirley Chisholm (id: C000371)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Chisholm speech on the Equal Rights Amendment

Shirley Chisholm Biography at Encyclopaedia Britannica

Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Presidential Campaign

Before Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm, Rajini Vaidyanathan BBC News, Washington, January 26, 2016

Chisholm '72 - Unbought & Unbossed PBS American Documentary | POV documentary by Shola Lynch

Chisholm '72 - Unbought & Unbossed Women Make Movies documentary by Shola Lynch

Feature on Shirley Chisholm, with writing from Gloria Steinem and video clips from Chisholm '72 Unbought & Unbossed, by the International Museum of Women.

Shirley Chisholm at Find a Grave

Image of Shirley Chisholm meeting students at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 1972. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

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Shirley Anita Chisholm ( St. Hill; November 30, 1924 - January 1, 2005) was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983.

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8.5K views · 180 reactions | THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON depicts the brutal murder of the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party by the Chicago police and its... | By Turner Classic Movies: TCM | Facebook

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THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON depicts the brutal murder of the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party by the Chicago police and its...

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Elaine Brown was born in North Philadelphia and raised by her mother. Although she grew up in a single-parent home and experienced economic hardship, Elaine had the opportunity to attend a private school where she participated in extracurricular activities such as classical piano and ballet. She was noted to have had many white friends because of this. After high school, Brown briefly attended Temple University before withdrawing to pursue a music career in Los Angeles. While there, she enrolled in University of California, Los Angeles.

Search the Catalog for Records on Elaine Brown Social Networks and Archival Context - Elaine Brown

Selected Records Relating to Elaine Brown

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Elaine Brown was born in North Philadelphia and raised by her mother. Although she grew up in a single-parent home and experienced economic hardship, Elaine had the opportunity to attend a private school where she participated in extracurricular activities such as classical piano and ballet.

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Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 - December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, and Bob Moses, as leaders in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Baker criticized professionalized, charismatic leadership; she promoted grassroots organizing, radical democracy, and the ability of the oppressed to understand their worlds and advocate for themselves. She realized this vision most fully in the 1960s as the primary advisor and strategist of the SNCC. Biographer Barbara Ransby calls Baker "one of the most important American leaders of the twentieth century and perhaps the most influential woman in the civil rights movement". She is known for her critiques of both racism in American culture and sexism in the civil rights movement.

Ella Josephine Baker was born on December 13, 1903, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Georgiana (called Anna) and Blake Baker, and first raised there. She was the second of three surviving children, bracketed by her older brother Blake Curtis and younger sister Maggie. Her father worked on a steamship line that sailed out of Norfolk, and so was often away. Her mother took in boarders to earn extra money. In 1910, Norfolk had a race riot in which whites attacked black workers from the shipyard. Her mother decided to take the family back to North Carolina while their father continued to work for the steamship company. Ella was seven when they returned to her mother's rural hometown near Littleton, North Carolina.

As a child, Baker grew up with little influence. Her grandfather Mitchell had died, and her father's parents lived a day's ride away. She often listened to her grandmother, Josephine Elizabeth "Bet" Ross, tell stories about slavery and leaving the South to escape its oppressive society. At an early age, Baker gained a sense of social injustice, as she listened to her grandmother's horror stories of life as an enslaved person. Her grandmother was beaten and whipped for refusing to marry an enslaved man her owner chose, and told Ella other stories of life as an African-American woman during this period. Giving her granddaughter context to the African-American experience helped Baker understand the injustices black people still faced.

Ella attended Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated with valedictorian honors. Decades later, she returned to Shaw to help found SNCC.

Early activism

First efforts (1930-1937)

Baker worked as editorial assistant at the Negro National News. In 1930, George Schuyler, a black journalist and anarchist (and later an arch-conservative), founded the Young Negroes Cooperative League (YNCL). It sought to develop black economic power through collective networks. They conducted "conferences and trainings in the 1930s in their attempt to create a small, interlocking system of cooperative economic societies throughout the US" for black economic development. Having befriended Schuyler, Baker joined his group in 1931 and soon became its national director.

Baker also worked for the Worker's Education Project of the Works Progress Administration, established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Baker taught courses in consumer education, labor history, and African history. She immersed herself in the cultural and political milieu of Harlem in the 1930s, protesting Italy's invasion of Ethiopia and supporting the campaign to free the Scottsboro defendants in Alabama. She also founded the Negro History Club at the Harlem Library and regularly attended lectures and meetings at the YWCA.

During this time, Baker lived with and married her college sweetheart, T. J. (Bob) Roberts. They divorced in 1958. Baker rarely discussed her private life or marital status. According to fellow activist Bernice Johnson Reagon, many women in the Civil Rights Movement followed Baker's example, adopting a practice of dissemblance about their private lives that allowed them to be accepted as individuals in the movement.

Baker befriended John Henrik Clarke, a future scholar and activist; Pauli Murray, a future writer and civil rights lawyer; and others who became lifelong friends. The Harlem Renaissance influenced her thoughts and teachings. She advocated widespread, local action as a means of social change. Her emphasis on a grassroots approach to the struggle for equal rights influenced the growth and success of the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.

NAACP (1938-1953)

In 1938 Baker began her long association with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), then based in New York City. In December 1940 she started work there as a secretary. She traveled widely for the organization, especially in the South, recruiting members, raising money, and organizing local chapters. She was named director of branches in 1943, and became the NAACP's highest-ranking woman. An outspoken woman, Baker believed in egalitarian ideals. She pushed the NAACP to decentralize its leadership structure and to aid its membership in more activist campaigns at the local level.

Baker believed that the strength of an organization grew from the bottom up, not the top down. She believed that the branches' work was the NAACP's lifeblood. Baker despised elitism and placed her confidence in many. She believed that the bedrock of any social change organization is not its leaders' eloquence or credentials, but the commitment and hard work of the rank and file membership and their willingness and ability to engage in discussion, debate, and decision-making. She especially stressed the importance of young people and women in the organization.

While traveling throughout the South on the NAACP's behalf, Baker met hundreds of black people, establishing lasting relationships with them. She slept in their homes, ate at their tables, spoke in their churches, and earned their trust. She wrote thank-you notes and expressed her gratitude to the people she met. This personalized approach was one important aspect of Baker's effectiveness in recruiting more NAACP members. She formed a network of people in the South who would be important in the continued fight for civil rights. Whereas some northern organizers tended to talk down to rural southerners, Baker's ability to treat everyone with respect helped her in recruiting. Baker fought to make the NAACP more democratic. She tried to find a balance between voicing her concerns and maintaining a unified front.

Between 1944 and 1946, Baker directed leadership conferences in several major cities, such as Chicago and Atlanta. She got top officials to deliver lectures, offer welcoming remarks, and conduct workshops.

In 1946, Baker took in her niece Jackie, whose mother was unable to care for her. Due to her new responsibilities, Baker left her full-time position with the NAACP and began to serve as a volunteer. She soon joined the NAACP's New York branch to work on local school desegregation and police brutality issues. She became its president in 1952. In this role, she supervised the field secretaries and coordinated the national office's work with local groups. Baker's top priority was to lessen the organization's bureaucracy and give women more power in the organization; this included reducing Walter Francis White's dominating role as executive secretary.[citation needed ]

Baker believed the program should be primarily channeled not through White and the national office, but through the people in the field. She lobbied to reduce the rigid hierarchy, place more power in the hands of capable local leaders, and give local branches greater responsibility and autonomy. In 1953 she resigned from the presidency to run for the New York City Council on the Liberal Party ticket, but was unsuccessful.

Civil rights movement

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957-1960)

In January 1957, Baker went to Atlanta to attend a conference aimed at developing a new regional organization to build on the success of the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama. After a second conference in February, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was formed. This was planned as a loosely structured coalition of church-based leaders who were engaged in civil rights struggles across the South. The group wanted to emphasize the use of nonviolent actions to bring about social progress and racial justice for southern blacks. They intended to rely on the existing black churches, at the heart of their communities, as a base of its support. Its strength would be built on the political activities of local church affiliates. The SCLC leaders envisioned themselves as the political arm of the black church.

The SCLC first appeared publicly as an organization at the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. Baker was one of three major organizers of this large-scale event. She demonstrated her ability to straddle organizational lines, ignoring and minimizing rivalries and battles. The conference's first project was the 1958 Crusade for Citizenship, a voter registration campaign to increase the number of registered African-American voters for the 1958 and 1960 elections. Baker was hired as Associate Director, the first staff person for the SCLC. Reverend John Tilley became the first Executive Director. Baker worked closely with southern civil rights activists in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and gained respect for her organizing abilities. She helped initiate voter registration campaigns and identify other local grievances. Their strategy included education, sermons in churches, and efforts to establish grassroots centers to stress the importance of the vote. They also planned to rely on the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to protect local voters. While the project did not achieve its immediate goals, it laid the groundwork for strengthening local activist centers to build a mass movement for the vote across the South. After John Tilley resigned as director of the SCLC, Baker lived and worked in Atlanta for two and a half years as interim executive director until Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker started in the role in April 1960.

Baker's job with the SCLC was more frustrating than fruitful. She was unsettled politically, physically, and emotionally. She had no solid allies in the office. Historian Thomas F. Jackson notes that Baker criticized the organization for "programmatic sluggishness and King's distance from the people. King was a better orator than democratic crusader[, she] concluded."

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1960-1966)

That same year, 1960, on the heels of regional desegregation sit-ins led by black college students, Baker persuaded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to invite southern university students to the Southwide Youth Leadership Conference at Shaw University on Easter weekend. This was a gathering of sit-in leaders to meet, assess their struggles, and explore the possibilities for future actions. At this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced "snick") was formed.

Baker saw the potential for a special type of leadership by the young sit-in leaders, who were not yet prominent in the movement. She believed they could revitalize the Black Freedom Movement and take it in a new direction. Baker wanted to bring the sit-in participants together in a way that would sustain the momentum of their actions, teach them the skills necessary, provide the resources that were needed, and also help them to coalesce into a more militant and democratic force. To this end she worked to keep the students independent of the older, church-based leadership. In her address at Shaw, she warned the activists to be wary of "leader-centered orientation". Julian Bond later described the speech as "an eye opener" and probably the best of the conference. "She didn't say, 'Don't let Martin Luther King tell you what to do,'" Bond remembers, "but you got the real feeling that that's what she meant."

SNCC became the most active organization in the deeply oppressed Mississippi Delta. It was more open to women than the other prominent Civil Rights organizations, including the SCLC, where Baker witnessed extensive misogynistic teachings and the suppression of women activists. But widespread sexism and appeals to male supremacy pervaded its membership. After the conference at Shaw, Baker resigned from the SCLC and began a long and close relationship with SNCC. Along with Howard Zinn, she was one of SNCC's highly revered adult advisors, known as the "Godmother of SNCC".

In 1961 Baker persuaded the SNCC to form two wings: one wing for direct action and the second wing for voter registration. With Baker's help SNCC, along with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), coordinated the region-wide Freedom Rides of 1961. They also expanded their grassroots movement among black sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and others throughout the South. Ella Baker insisted that "strong people don't need strong leaders", and criticized the notion of a single charismatic leader of movements for social change. In keeping the idea of "participatory democracy", Baker wanted each person to get involved. She also argued that "people under the heel", the most oppressed members of any community, "had to be the ones to decide what action they were going to take to get (out) from under their oppression".

She was a teacher and mentor to the young people of SNCC, influencing such important future leaders as Julian Bond, Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Curtis Muhammad, Bob Moses, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. Through SNCC, Baker's ideas of group-centered leadership and the need for radical democratic social change spread throughout the student movements of the 1960s. For instance, the Students for a Democratic Society, the major antiwar group of the day, promoted participatory democracy. These ideas also influenced a wide range of radical and progressive groups that would form in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1964 Baker helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as an alternative to the all-white Mississippi Democratic Party. She worked as the coordinator of the Washington office of the MFDP and accompanied a delegation of the MFDP to the 1964 National Democratic Party convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The group wanted to challenge the national party to affirm the rights of African Americans to participate in party elections in the South, where they were still largely disenfranchised. When MFDP delegates challenged the pro-segregationist, all-white official delegation, a major conflict ensued. The MFDP delegation was not seated, but their influence on the Democratic Party later helped to elect many black leaders in Mississippi. They forced a rule change to allow women and minorities to sit as delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

The 1964 schism with the national Democratic Party led SNCC toward the " black power" position. Baker was less involved with SNCC during this period, but her withdrawal was due more to her declining health than to ideological differences. According to her biographer Barbara Ransby, Baker believed that black power was a relief from the "stale and unmoving demands and language of the more mainstream civil rights groups at the time." She also accepted the turn towards armed self-defense that SNCC made in the course of its development. Her friend and biographer Joanne Grant wrote that "Baker, who always said that she would never be able to turn the other cheek, turned a blind eye to the prevalence of weapons. While she herself would rely on her fists ... she had no qualms about target practice."

Later years

Southern Conference Education Fund (1962-1967)

From 1962 to 1967, Baker worked as the staff of the Southern Conference Education Fund (SCEF). Its goal was to help black and white people work together for social justice; the interracial desegregation and human rights group was based in the South. SCEF raised funds for black activists, lobbied for implementation of President John F. Kennedy's civil rights proposals, and tried to educate southern whites about the evils of racism. Federal civil rights legislation was passed by Congress and signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and 1965, but implementation took years.

In SCEF, Baker worked closely with her friend Anne Braden, a white longtime anti-racist activist. Braden had been accused in the 1950s of being a communist by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Baker believed that socialism, the transitory phase toward communism, was a humane alternative to capitalism. She became a staunch defender of Braden and her husband Carl; she encouraged SNCC to reject red-baiting as divisive and unfair. During the 1960s, Baker participated in a speaking tour and co-hosted several meetings on the importance of linking civil rights and civil liberties.

Final efforts (1968-1986)

In 1967 Baker returned to New York City, where she continued her activism. She later collaborated with Arthur Kinoy and others to form the Mass Party Organizing Committee, a socialist organization.[citation needed ] In 1972 she traveled the country in support of the "Free Angela" campaign, demanding the release of activist and writer Angela Davis, who had been imprisoned on charges of kidnapping and murder in the Marin County Civic Center attacks.[citation needed ] Davis was eventually acquitted.

Baker also supported the Puerto Rican independence movement and spoke out against apartheid in South Africa. She allied with a number of women's groups, including the Third World Women's Alliance and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She remained an activist until her death on December 13, 1986, her 83rd birthday.

In the 1960s, the idea of " participatory democracy" became popular among political activists, including those in the Civil Rights Movement. It took the traditional appeal of democracy and added direct citizen participation.

The new movement had three primary emphases:

An appeal for grassroots involvement of people throughout society, while making their own decisions

The minimization of (bureaucratic) hierarchy and the associated emphasis on expertise and professionalism as a basis for leadership

A call for direct action as an answer to fear, isolation, and intellectual detachment

Baker said:

You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders.

According to Mumia Abu-Jamal, Baker advocated a more collectivist model of leadership over the "prevailing messianic style of the period". She was largely arguing against the structuring of the civil rights movement by the organization model of the black church. The black church then had largely female membership and male leadership. Baker questioned not only the gendered hierarchy of the civil rights movement but also that of the Black church.

Baker, King, and other SCLC members were reported to have differences in opinion and philosophy during the 1950s and 1960s. She was older than many of the young ministers she worked with, which added to their tensions. She once said the "movement made Martin, and not Martin the movement". When she gave a speech urging activists to take control of the movement themselves, rather than rely on a leader with "heavy feet of clay", it was widely interpreted as a denunciation of King.

Baker's philosophy was "power to the people". If members worked together, she believed that a group's force could make significant changes.

Representation in media

The 1981 documentary Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker, directed by Joanne Grant, explored Baker's important role in the civil rights movement.

Bernice Johnson Reagon wrote "Ella's Song", in Baker's honor, for Fundi.

Several biographies have been written of Baker, including Barbara Ransby's Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (2003), published by the University of North Carolina Press. Ransby is a historian and longtime activist.

Baker Montessori School

In 1984, Baker received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women.[64]

Her papers are held by the New York Public Library.[65]

In 1994, Baker was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.[66]

In 1996, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit strategy and action center based in Oakland, California, was founded and named for her.[67]

The Ella Baker School in the Julia Richman Education Complex in New York City was founded in 1996.

In 2003, The Ella Jo Baker Intentional Community Cooperative, a 15-unit co-housing community, began living together in a renovated house in Washington, DC.[68]

Ella J. Baker House, a community center which supports at-risk youth in Dorchester, Boston, was created at some point before 2005.[69]

In 2009, Baker was honored on a U.S. postage stamp.[70]

In 2014, the University of California at Santa Barbara established a visiting professorship to honor Baker.[71]

In 2021 the former Woodrow Wilson Montessori School in Houston was renamed the Baker Montessori School[72]

References

S. G. O'Malley, "Baker, Ella Josephine", American National Biography Online (2000).

G. J. Barker Benfield and Catherine Clinton, eds., Portraits of American Women (1991).

Ellen Cantarow and Susan O'Malley, Moving the Mountain: Women Working for Social Change (1980).

Joanne Grant, Ella Baker: Freedom Bound (John Wiley & Sons, 1998).

Barbara Ransby, Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), ISBN 0-8078-2778-9

Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, African American Lives(2004), ISBN 0-19-516024-X

Further reading

External links

SNCC Digital Gateway: Ella Baker, Documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee & grassroots organizing from the inside-out

Biography: Ella Baker, SNCC-People, iBiblio

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Ella J. Baker Biography, NC State University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Oral History Interviews with Ella Baker [1], [2] at Oral Histories of the American South, Documenting the American South

"Ella Baker - Freedom Bound" by Joanne Grant

Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker, a film by Joanne Grant

Video clip of Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker, Click! The Ongoing Feminist Revolution

"Ella Baker," One Person, One Vote Archived July 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, SNCC

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Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 - December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and the South, she worked alongside some of the most noted civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W.

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Cassius clay, or Muhummad Ali, was born on 1/17/42 and grew up in Louiseville, Kentucky.

he became a professional heavyweight boxer, called by some "the Greatest". he fought Sonny Liston, in that fight that would later be described as "one of the most controversial fights in sports history". Cassius clay died on June 3, 2016.

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The Revolutionary Aesthetics of the Black Panther Party & Its Impact on Fashion Today –

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How the Black Panther Party utilized revolutionary fashion & aesthetic to mesmerize a nation and manifest their politics in physical form.

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A Black Panther’s Journey in Breaking New Ground

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A Black Panther’s Journey in Breaking New Ground

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a short history of the eblack arts movement

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a short history of the eblack arts movement

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The story of her life

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Malcolm X was a crucial part of the Black rights movement and inspires history for years to come

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Malcolm X, (born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.-died February 21, 1965, New York, New York), African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black nationalism in the early 1960s. After his assassination, the widespread distribution of his life story-The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)-made him an ideological hero, especially among Black youth.

Early years and conversion to Islam

Born in Nebraska, while an infant Malcolm moved with his family to Lansing, Michigan. When Malcolm was six years old, his father, the Rev. Earl Little, a Baptist minister and former supporter of the early Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, died after being hit by a streetcar, quite possibly the victim of murder by whites. The surviving family was so poor that Malcolm's mother, Louise Little, resorted to cooking dandelion greens from the street to feed her children. After she was committed to an insane asylum in 1939, Malcolm and his siblings were sent to foster homes or to live with family members.

Malcolm excelled in school, but after one of his eighth-grade teachers told him that he should become a carpenter instead of a lawyer, he lost interest and soon ended his formal education. As a rebellious youngster, Malcolm moved from the Michigan State Detention Home, a juvenile home in Mason, Michigan, to the Roxbury section of Boston to live with an older half sister, Ella, from his father's first marriage. There he became involved in petty criminal activities in his teenage years. Known as "Detroit Red" for the reddish tinge in his hair, he developed into a street hustler, drug dealer, and leader of a gang of thieves in Roxbury and Harlem (in New York City).

While in prison for robbery from 1946 to 1952, he underwent a conversion that eventually led him to join the Nation of Islam, an African American movement that combined elements of Islam with Black nationalism. His decision to join the Nation also was influenced by discussions with his brother Reginald, who had become a member in Detroit and who was incarcerated with Malcolm in the Norfolk Prison Colony in Massachusetts in 1948. Malcolm quit smoking and gambling and refused to eat pork in keeping with the Nation's dietary restrictions. In order to educate himself, he spent long hours reading books in the prison library, even memorizing a dictionary. He also sharpened his forensic skills by participating in debate classes. Following Nation tradition, he replaced his surname, "Little," with an "X," a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to have originated with white slaveholders.

Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam

After his release from prison Malcolm helped to lead the Nation of Islam during the period of its greatest growth and influence. He met Elijah Muhammad in Chicago in 1952 and then began organizing temples for the Nation in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston and in cities in the South. He founded the Nation's newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, which he printed in the basement of his home, and initiated the practice of requiring every male member of the Nation to sell an assigned number of newspapers on the street as a recruiting and fund-raising technique. He also articulated the Nation's racial doctrines on the inherent evil of whites and the natural superiority of Blacks.

Malcolm rose rapidly to become the minister of Boston Temple No. 11, which he founded; he was later rewarded with the post of minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, the largest and most prestigious temple in the Nation after the Chicago headquarters. Recognizing his talent and ability, Elijah Muhammad, who had a special affection for Malcolm, named him the National Representative of the Nation of Islam, second in rank to Muhammad himself. Under Malcolm's lieutenancy, the Nation claimed a membership of 500,000. The actual number of members fluctuated, however, and the influence of the organization, refracted through the public persona of Malcolm X, always greatly exceeded its size.

An articulate public speaker, a charismatic personality, and an indefatigable organizer, Malcolm X expressed the pent-up anger, frustration, and bitterness of African Americans during the major phase of the civil rights movement from 1955 to 1965. He preached on the streets of Harlem and spoke at major universities such as Harvard University and the University of Oxford. His keen intellect, incisive wit, and ardent radicalism made him a formidable critic of American society. He also criticized the mainstream civil rights movement, challenging Martin Luther King, Jr.'s central notions of integration and nonviolence. Malcolm argued that more was at stake than the civil right to sit in a restaurant or even to vote-the most important issues were Black identity, integrity, and independence. In contrast to King's strategy of nonviolence, civil disobedience, and redemptive suffering, Malcolm urged his followers to defend themselves "by any means necessary." His biting critique of the "so-called Negro" provided the intellectual foundations for the Black Power and Black consciousness movements in the United States in the late 1960s and '70s ( see Black nationalism). Through the influence of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X helped to change the terms used to refer to African Americans from "Negro" and "coloured" to "Black" and "Afro-American."

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Malcolm X | Biography, Nation of Islam, Assassination, & Facts

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Malcolm X, a prominent civil rights activist and advocate for Black empowerment, challenged societal norms with his powerful speeches and played a crucial role in the fight against racial injustice.

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Years active

1965-1975 (approx.)[1]

Country

United States

Major figures

The Black Arts Movement ( BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from the incredible accomplishments of artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

Famously referred to by Larry Neal as the "aesthetic and spiritual sister of Black Power," BAM applied these same political ideas to art and literature. and artists found new inspiration in their African heritage as a way to present the black experience in America. Artists like Aaron Douglas, Hale Woodruff, and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller pioneered the movement with a distinctly modernist aesthetic. This style influenced the proliferation of African American art during the twentieth century.

The poet and playwright Amiri Baraka is widely recognized as the founder of BAM. In 1965, he established the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School (BART/S) in Harlem. Baraka's example inspired many others to create organizations across the United States. While many of these organizations were short-lived, their work has had a lasting influence. Some still exist, including the National Black Theatre, founded by Barabara Ann Teer in Harlem, NY.

African Americans had always made valuable artistic contributions to American culture. However, due to brutalities of slavery and the systemic racism of Jim Crow, these contributions often went unrecognised. Despite continued oppression, African-American artists continued to create literature and art that would reflect their experiences. A high-point for these artists was the Harlem Renaissance -a literary era that spotlighted black people.

There are many parallels that can be made between the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. The link is so strong, in fact, that some scholars refer to the Black Arts Movement era as the Second Renaissance. One sees this connection clearly when reading Langston Hughes's The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (1926). Hughes's seminal essay advocates that black writers resist external attempts to control their art, arguing instead that the "truly great" black artist will be the one who can fully embrace and freely express his blackness.

Yet, the Harlem Renaissance lacked many of the radical political stances that defined BAM. Inevitably, the Renaissance, and many of its ideas, failed to survive the Great Depression.

During the Civil Rights era, activists paid more and more attention to the political uses of art. The contemporary work of those like James Baldwin and Chester Himes would show the possibility of creating a new 'black aesthetic'. A number of art groups were established during this period, such as the Umbra Poets and the Spiral Arts Alliance, which can be seen as precursors to BAM.

Civil Rights activists were also interested in creating black-owned media outlets, establishing journals (such as Freedomways, Black Dialogue, The Liberator , The Black Scholar and Soul Book) and publishing houses (such as Dudley Randall's Broadside Press and Third World Press.) It was through these channels that BAM would eventually spread its art, literature, and political messages.

The beginnings of the Black Arts Movement may be traced to 1965, when Amiri Baraka, at that time still known as Leroi Jones, moved uptown to establish the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BARTS) following the assassination of Malcolm X. Rooted in the Nation of Islam, the Black Power movement and the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement grew out of a changing political and cultural climate in which Black artists attempted to create politically engaged work that explored the African American cultural and historical experience. Black artists and intellectuals such as Baraka made it their project to reject older political, cultural, and artistic traditions.

Although the success of sit-ins and public demonstrations of the Black student movement in the 1960s may have "inspired black intellectuals, artists, and political activists to form politicized cultural groups," many Black Arts activists rejected the non-militant integrational ideologies of the Civil Rights Movement and instead favored those of the Black Liberation Struggle, which emphasized "self-determination through self-reliance and Black control of significant businesses, organization, agencies, and institutions." According to the Academy of American Poets, "African American artists within the movement sought to create politically engaged work that explored the African American cultural and historical experience." The importance that the movement placed on Black autonomy is apparent through the creation of institutions such as the Black Arts Repertoire Theatre School (BARTS), created in the spring of 1964 by Baraka and other Black artists. The opening of BARTS in New York City often overshadow the growth of other radical Black Arts groups and institutions all over the United States. In fact, transgressional and international networks, those of various Left and nationalist (and Left nationalist) groups and their supports, existed far before the movement gained popularity. Although the creation of BARTS did indeed catalyze the spread of other Black Arts institutions and the Black Arts movement across the nation, it was not solely responsible for the growth of the movement.

Although the Black Arts Movement was a time filled with black success and artistic progress, the movement also faced social and racial ridicule. The leaders and artists involved called for Black Art to define itself and speak for itself from the security of its own institutions. For many of the contemporaries the idea that somehow black people could express themselves through institutions of their own creation and with ideas whose validity was confirmed by their own interests and measures was absurd.

While it is easy to assume that the movement began solely in the Northeast, it actually started out as "separate and distinct local initiatives across a wide geographic area," eventually coming together to form the broader national movement. New York City is often referred to as the "birthplace" of the Black Arts Movement, because it was home to many revolutionary Black artists and activists. However, the geographical diversity of the movement opposes the misconception that New York (and Harlem, especially) was the primary site of the movement.

In its beginning states, the movement came together largely through printed media. Journals such as Liberator, The Crusader, and Freedomways created "a national community in which ideology and aesthetics were debated and a wide range of approaches to African-American artistic style and subject displayed." These publications tied communities outside of large Black Arts centers to the movement and gave the general black public access to these sometimes exclusive circles.

As a literary movement, Black Arts had its roots in groups such as the Umbra Workshop. Umbra (1962) was a collective of young Black writers based in Manhattan's Lower East Side; major members were writers Steve Cannon, Tom Dent, Al Haynes, David Henderson, Calvin C. Hernton, Joe Johnson, Norman Pritchard, Lennox Raphael, Ishmael Reed, Lorenzo Thomas, James Thompson, Askia M. Touré (Roland Snellings; also a visual artist), Brenda Walcott, and musician-writer Archie Shepp. Touré, a major shaper of "cultural nationalism," directly influenced Jones. Along with Umbra writer Charles Patterson and Charles's brother, William Patterson, Touré joined Jones, Steve Young, and others at BARTS.

Umbra, which produced Umbra Magazine, was the first post-civil rights Black literary group to make an impact as radical in the sense of establishing their own voice distinct from, and sometimes at odds with, the prevailing white literary establishment. The attempt to merge a black-oriented activist thrust with a primarily artistic orientation produced a classic split in Umbra between those who wanted to be activists and those who thought of themselves as primarily writers, though to some extent all members shared both views. Black writers have always had to face the issue of whether their work was primarily political or aesthetic. Moreover, Umbra itself had evolved out of similar circumstances: in 1960 a Black nationalist literary organization, On Guard for Freedom, had been founded on the Lower East Side by Calvin Hicks. Its members included Nannie and Walter Bowe, Harold Cruse (who was then working on The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual, 1967), Tom Dent, Rosa Guy, Joe Johnson, LeRoi Jones, and Sarah E. Wright, and others. On Guard was active in a famous protest at the United Nations of the American-sponsored Bay of Pigs Cuban invasion and was active in support of the Congolese liberation leader Patrice Lumumba. From On Guard, Dent, Johnson, and Walcott along with Hernton, Henderson, and Touré established Umbra.

In 1967, the Visual Arts Workshop of the Organization of Black American Culture, composed of several artists such as Jeff Donaldson, William Walker, and more, painted the " Wall of Respect " which was a mural that represented the Black Arts Movement; what it stood for and who it was celebrating. The mural commemorated several important black figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, along with artists such as Aretha Franklin and Gwendolyn Brooks, etc. It was a renowned symbol of the movement, placed in Chicago, that represented black culture and creativity, and was met with a lot of attention, support, and respect from the black community. It was a symbolic and important representation of the Black Arts Movement, as it directly celebrated and acknowledged the iconic figures of the Black community through art, emphasizing the importance of art for the community. Furthermore, it left a legacy and served as a beacon for the Black community, promoting Black consciousness and helping many Black people to learn and recognize their worth. In the eight years following the installation of the mural, over 1,500 murals were painted in black neighborhoods across the country, and by 1975, over 200 were painted in Chicago. It brought the community together symbolically, and literally, as rival gangs even declared the location of the mural to be neutral ground, supporting the artists and the movement.

In 1968, renowned Black theorist Barbara Ann Teer founded the National Black Theatre, located in Harlem, NY. Teer was an American writer, producer, teacher, actress and social visionary. Teer was an important black female intellectual, artist, and activist who contributed to the Black Arts Movement. Her theater was one of the first revenue generating Black theaters in the US. Teer's art was politically and socially conscious and like many other contributors to the BAM, embraced African aesthetics, and rejected traditional theatrical notions of time and space. Teer's revolutionary and ritualistic dramas and plays blurred the lines between performers and audience, "encouraging all to use the performance event itself as an opportunity to bring about social change."

Another formation of black writers at that time was the Harlem Writers Guild, led by John O. Killens, which included Maya Angelou, Jean Carey Bond, Rosa Guy, and Sarah Wright among others. But the Harlem Writers Guild focused on prose, primarily fiction, which did not have the mass appeal of poetry performed in the dynamic vernacular of the time. Poems could be built around anthems, chants, and political slogans, and thereby used in organizing work, which was not generally the case with novels and short stories. Moreover, the poets could and did publish themselves, whereas greater resources were needed to publish fiction. That Umbra was primarily poetry- and performance-oriented established a significant and classic characteristic of the movement's aesthetics. When Umbra split up, some members, led by Askia Touré and Al Haynes, moved to Harlem in late 1964 and formed the nationalist-oriented Uptown Writers Movement, which included poets Yusef Rahman, Keorapetse "Willie" Kgositsile from South Africa, and Larry Neal. Accompanied by young "New Music" musicians, they performed poetry all over Harlem. Members of this group joined LeRoi Jones in founding BARTS.

Jones's move to Harlem was short-lived. In December 1965 he returned to his home, Newark (N.J.), and left BARTS in serious disarray. BARTS failed but the Black Arts center concept was irrepressible, mainly because the Black Arts movement was so closely aligned with the then-burgeoning Black Power movement. The mid-to-late 1960s was a period of intense revolutionary ferment. Beginning in 1964, rebellions in Harlem and Rochester, New York, initiated four years of long hot summers. Watts, Detroit, Newark, Cleveland, and many other cities went up in flames, culminating in nationwide explosions of resentment and anger following the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Nathan Hare, author of The Black Anglo-Saxons (1965), was the founder of 1960s Black Studies. Expelled from Howard University, Hare moved to San Francisco State University, where the battle to establish a Black Studies department was waged during a five-month strike during the 1968-69 school year. As with the establishment of Black Arts, which included a range of forces, there was broad activity in the Bay Area around Black Studies, including efforts led by poet and professor Sarah Webster Fabio at Merrit College.

The initial thrust of Black Arts ideological development came from the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), a national organization with a strong presence in New York City. Both Touré and Neal were members of RAM. After RAM, the major ideological force shaping the Black Arts movement was the US (as opposed to "them") organization led by Maulana Karenga. Also ideologically important was Elijah Muhammad's Chicago-based Nation of Islam. These three formations provided both style and conceptual direction for Black Arts artists, including those who were not members of these or any other political organization. Although the Black Arts Movement is often considered a New York-based movement, two of its three major forces were located outside New York City.

As the movement matured, the two major locations of Black Arts' ideological leadership, particularly for literary work, were California's Bay Area because of the Journal of Black Poetry and The Black Scholar, and the Chicago-Detroit axis because of Negro Digest/Black World and Third World Press in Chicago, and Broadside Press and Naomi Long Madgett's Lotus Press in Detroit. The only major Black Arts literary publications to come out of New York were the short-lived (six issues between 1969 and 1972) Black Theatre magazine, published by the New Lafayette Theatre, and Black Dialogue, which had actually started in San Francisco (1964-68) and relocated to New York (1969-72).

Although the journals and writing of the movement greatly characterized its success, the movement placed a great deal of importance on collective oral and performance art. Public collective performances drew a lot of attention to the movement, and it was often easier to get an immediate response from a collective poetry reading, short play, or street performance than it was from individual performances.

The people involved in the Black Arts Movement used the arts as a way to liberate themselves. The movement served as a catalyst for many different ideas and cultures to come alive. This was a chance for African Americans to express themselves in a way that most would not have expected.

In 1967 LeRoi Jones visited Karenga in Los Angeles and became an advocate of Karenga's philosophy of Kawaida. Kawaida, which produced the "Nguzo Saba" (seven principles), Kwanzaa, and an emphasis on African names, was a multifaceted, categorized activist philosophy. Jones also met Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver and worked with a number of the founding members of the Black Panthers. Additionally, Askia Touré was a visiting professor at San Francisco State and was to become a leading (and long-lasting) poet as well as, arguably, the most influential poet-professor in the Black Arts movement. Playwright Ed Bullins and poet Marvin X had established Black Arts West, and Dingane Joe Goncalves had founded the Journal of Black Poetry (1966). This grouping of Ed Bullins, Dingane Joe Goncalves, LeRoi Jones, Sonia Sanchez, Askia M. Touré, and Marvin X became a major nucleus of Black Arts leadership.

As the movement grew, ideological conflicts arose and eventually became too great for the movement to continue to exist as a large, coherent collective.

Although The Black Aesthetic was first coined by Larry Neal in 1968, across all the discourse, The Black Aesthetic has no overall real definition agreed by all Black Aesthetic theorists. It is loosely defined, without any real consensus besides that the theorists of The Black Aesthetic agree that "art should be used to galvanize the black masses to revolt against their white capitalist oppressors". Pollard also argues in her critique of the Black Arts Movement that The Black Aesthetic "celebrated the African origins of the Black community, championed black urban culture, critiqued Western aesthetics, and encouraged the production and reception of black arts by black people". In The Black Arts Movement by Larry Neal, where the Black Arts Movement is discussed as "aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept," The Black Aesthetic is described by Neal as being the merge of the ideologies of Black Power with the artistic values of African expression. Larry Neal attests:

"When we speak of a 'Black aesthetic' several things are meant. First, we assume that there is already in existence the basis for such an aesthetic. Essentially, it consists of an African-American cultural tradition. But this aesthetic is finally, by implication, broader than that tradition. It encompasses most of the usable elements of the Third World culture. The motive behind the Black aesthetic is the destruction of the white thing, the destruction of white ideas, and white ways of looking at the world."

The Black Aesthetic also refers to ideologies and perspectives of art that center on Black culture and life. This Black Aesthetic encouraged the idea of Black separatism, and in trying to facilitate this, hoped to further strengthen black ideals, solidarity, and creativity.

In The Black Aesthetic (1971), Addison Gayle argues that Black artists should work exclusively on uplifting their identity while refusing to appease white folks. The Black Aesthetic work as a "corrective," where black people are not supposed to desire the "ranks of Norman Mailer or a William Styron". Black people are encouraged by Black artists that take their own Black identity, reshaping and redefining themselves for themselves by themselves via art as a medium. Hoyt Fuller defines The Black Aesthetic "in terms of the cultural experiences and tendencies expressed in artist' work" while another meaning of The Black Aesthetic comes from Ron Karenga, who argues for three main characteristics to The Black Aesthetic and Black art itself: functional, collective, and committing. Karenga says, "Black Art must expose the enemy, praise the people, and support the revolution". The notion "art for art's sake" is killed in the process, binding the Black Aesthetic to the revolutionary struggle, a struggle that is the reasoning behind reclaiming Black art in order to return to African culture and tradition for Black people. Under Karenga's definition of The Black Aesthetic, art that doesn't fight for the Black Revolution isn't considered as art at all, needed the vital context of social issues as well as an artistic value.

Among these definitions, the central theme that is the underlying connection of the Black Arts, Black Aesthetic, and Black Power movements is then this: the idea of group identity, which is defined by Black artists of organizations as well as their objectives.

The narrowed view of The Black Aesthetic, often described as Marxist by critics, brought upon conflicts of the Black Aesthetic and Black Arts Movement as a whole in areas that drove the focus of African culture; In The Black Arts Movement and Its Critics, David Lionel Smith argues in saying "The Black Aesthetic," one suggests a single principle, closed and prescriptive in which just really sustains the oppressiveness of defining race in one single identity. The search of finding the true "blackness" of Black people through art by the term creates obstacles in achieving a refocus and return to African culture. Smith compares the statement "The Black Aesthetic" to "Black Aesthetics", the latter leaving multiple, open, descriptive possibilities. The Black Aesthetic, particularly Karenga's definition, has also received additional critiques; Ishmael Reed, author of Neo-HooDoo Manifesto, argues for artistic freedom, ultimately against Karenga's idea of the Black Aesthetic, which Reed finds limiting and something he can't ever sympathize to. The example Reed brings up is if a Black artist wants to paint black guerrillas, that is okay, but if the Black artist "does so only deference to Ron Karenga, something's wrong". The focus of blackness in context of maleness was another critique raised with the Black Aesthetic. Pollard argues that the art made with the artistic and social values of the Black Aesthetic emphasizes on the male talent of blackness, and it's uncertain whether the movement only includes women as an afterthought.

As there begins a change in the Black population, Trey Ellis points out other flaws in his essay The New Black Aesthetic. Blackness in terms of cultural background can no longer be denied in order to appease or please white or black people. From mulattos to a "post-bourgeois movement driven by a second generation of middle class," blackness isn't a singular identity as the phrase "The Black Aesthetic" forces it to be but rather multifaceted and vast.

BAM also turned to the religious tradition of voodoo in defining black aesthetics. James Baldwin was critical of both the black church and Nation of Islam. He argued that Christianity had only been forced on black people to rationalize and justify slavery and colonization. Nation of Islam failed in its strong mission to separate itself and black people from white people, said Baldwin, especially looking at their culture of expensive suits and cars all the while demonizing white people. Voodoo then became an alternative to Christianity and Islam for BAM. The historical tradition of voodoo among enslaved Africans had been forgotten in favor of assimilation to the white, Christian identity. The turn to voodoo is therefore regardes as a pan-African reclaiming of the roots. The approximation to voodoo is maybe most clear in the poetry collection "Hoodoo Hollerin Bebop Ghosts" by Larry Neal and the novels "Neo-Hoo-Doo Manifesto" and " Mumbo Jumbo" by Ishmael Reed.

Amiri Baraka's poem " Black Art" serves as one of his more controversial, poetically profound supplements to the Black Arts Movement. In this piece, Baraka merges politics with art, criticizing poems that are not useful to or adequately representative of the Black struggle. First published in 1966, a period particularly known for the Civil Rights Movement, the political aspect of this piece underscores the need for a concrete and artistic approach to the realistic nature involving racism and injustice. Serving as the recognized artistic component to and having roots in the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement aims to grant a political voice to black artists (including poets, dramatists, writers, musicians, etc.). Playing a vital role in this movement, Baraka calls out what he considers to be unproductive and assimilatory actions shown by political leaders during the Civil Rights Movement. He describes prominent Black leaders as being "on the steps of the white house...kneeling between the sheriff's thighs negotiating coolly for his people." Baraka also presents issues of euro-centric mentality, by referring to Elizabeth Taylor as a prototypical model in a society that influences perceptions of beauty, emphasizing its influence on individuals of white and black ancestry. Baraka aims his message toward the Black community, with the purpose of coalescing African Americans into a unified movement, devoid of white influences. "Black Art" serves as a medium for expression meant to strengthen that solidarity and creativity, in terms of the Black Aesthetic. Baraka believes poems should "shoot...come at you, love what you are" and not succumb to mainstream desires.

He ties this approach into the emergence of hip-hop, which he paints as a movement that presents "live words...and live flesh and coursing blood." Baraka's cathartic structure and aggressive tone are comparable to the beginnings of hip-hop music, which created controversy in the realm of mainstream acceptance, because of its "authentic, un-distilled, unmediated forms of contemporary black urban music." Baraka believes that integration inherently takes away from the legitimacy of having a Black identity and Aesthetic in an anti-Black world. Through pure and unapologetic blackness, and with the absence of white influences, Baraka believes a black world can be achieved. Though hip-hop has been serving as a recognized salient musical form of the Black Aesthetic, a history of unproductive integration is seen across the spectrum of music, beginning with the emergence of a newly formed narrative in mainstream appeal in the 1950s. Much of Baraka's cynical disillusionment with unproductive integration can be drawn from the 1950s, a period of rock and roll, in which "record labels actively sought to have white artists "cover" songs that were popular on the rhythm-and-blues charts" originally performed by African-American artists. The problematic nature of unproductive integration is also exemplified by Run-DMC, an American hip-hop group founded in 1981, who became widely accepted after a calculated collaboration with the rock group Aerosmith on a remake of the latter's " Walk This Way" took place in 1986, evidently appealing to young white audiences. Hip-hop emerged as an evolving genre of music that continuously challenged mainstream acceptance, most notably with the development of rap in the 1990s. A significant and modern example of this is Ice Cube, a well-known American rapper, songwriter, and actor, who introduced subgenre of hip-hop known as " gangsta rap," merged social consciousness and political expression with music. With the 1960s serving as a more blatantly racist period of time, Baraka notes the revolutionary nature of hip-hop, grounded in the unmodified expression through art. This method of expression in music parallels significantly with Baraka's ideals presented in "Black Art," focusing on poetry that is also productively and politically driven.

The Revolutionary Theatre

"The Revolutionary Theatre" is a 1965 essay by Baraka that was an important contribution to the Black Arts Movement, discussing the need for change through literature and theater arts. He says: "We will scream and cry, murder, run through the streets in agony, if it means some soul will be moved, moved to actual life understanding of what the world is, and what it ought to be." Baraka wrote his poetry, drama, fiction and essays in a way that would shock and awaken audiences to the political concerns of black Americans, which says much about what he was doing with this essay. It also did not seem coincidental to him that Malcolm X and John F. Kennedy had been assassinated within a few years because Baraka believed that every voice of change in America had been murdered, which led to the writing that would come out of the Black Arts Movement.

In his essay, Baraka says: "The Revolutionary Theatre is shaped by the world, and moves to reshape the world, using as its force the natural force and perpetual vibrations of the mind in the world. We are history and desire, what we are, and what any experience can make us."

With his thought-provoking ideals and references to a euro-centric society, he imposes the notion that black Americans should stray from a white aesthetic in order to find a black identity. In his essay, he says: "The popular white man's theatre like the popular white man's novel shows tired white lives, and the problems of eating white sugar, or else it herds bigcaboosed blondes onto huge stages in rhinestones and makes believe they are dancing or singing." This, having much to do with a white aesthetic, further proves what was popular in society and even what society had as an example of what everyone should aspire to be, like the "bigcaboosed blondes" that went "onto huge stages in rhinestones". Furthermore, these blondes made believe they were "dancing and singing" which Baraka seems to be implying that white people dancing is not what dancing is supposed to be at all. These allusions bring forth the question of where black Americans fit in the public eye. Baraka says: "We are preaching virtue and feeling, and a natural sense of the self in the world. All men live in the world, and the world ought to be a place for them to live." Baraka's essay challenges the idea that there is no space in politics or in society for black Americans to make a difference through different art forms that consist of, but are not limited to, poetry, song, dance, and art.

According to the Academy of American Poets, "many writers--Native Americans, Latinos/as, gays and lesbians, and younger generations of African Americans have acknowledged their debt to the Black Arts Movement." The movement lasted for about a decade, through the mid-1960s and into the 1970s. This was a period of controversy and change in the world of literature. One major change came through in the portrayal of new ethnic voices in the United States. English-language literature, prior to the Black Arts Movement, was dominated by white authors.

African Americans became a greater presence not only in the field of literature but in all areas of the arts. Theater groups, poetry performances, music and dance were central to the movement. Through different forms of media, African Americans were able to educate others about the expression of cultural differences and viewpoints. In particular, black poetry readings allowed African Americans to use vernacular dialogues. This was shown in the Harlem Writers Guild, which included black writers such as Maya Angelou and Rosa Guy. These performances were used to express political slogans and as a tool for organization. Theater performances also were used to convey community issues and organizations. The theaters, as well as cultural centers, were based throughout America and were used for community meetings, study groups and film screenings. Newspapers were a major tool in spreading the Black Arts Movement. In 1964, Black Dialogue was published, making it the first major Arts movement publication.

The Black Arts Movement, although short, is essential to the history of the United States. It spurred political activism and use of speech throughout every African-American community. It allowed African Americans the chance to express their voices in the mass media as well as become involved in communities.

It can be argued that "the Black Arts movement produced some of the most exciting poetry, drama, dance, music, visual art, and fiction of the post-World War II United States" and that many important "post-Black artists" such as Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, and August Wilson were shaped by the movement.

The Black Arts Movement also provided incentives for public funding of the arts and increased public support of various arts initiatives.

The movement has been seen as one of the most important times in African-American literature. It inspired black people to establish their own publishing houses, magazines, journals and art institutions. It led to the creation of African-American Studies programs within universities. The movement was triggered by the assassination of Malcolm X. Among the well-known writers who were involved with the movement are Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou, Hoyt W. Fuller, and Rosa Guy. Although not strictly part of the Movement, other notable African-American writers such as novelists Toni Morrison and Ishmael Reed share some of its artistic and thematic concerns. Although Reed is neither a movement apologist nor advocate, he said:

I think what Black Arts did was inspire a whole lot of Black people to write. Moreover, there would be no multiculturalism movement without Black Arts. Latinos, Asian Americans, and others all say they began writing as a result of the example of the 1960s. Blacks gave the example that you don't have to assimilate. You could do your own thing, get into your own background, your own history, your own tradition and your own culture. I think the challenge is for cultural sovereignty and Black Arts struck a blow for that.

BAM influenced the world of literature with the portrayal of different ethnic voices. Before the movement, the literary canon lacked diversity, and the ability to express ideas from the point of view of racial and ethnic minorities, which was not valued by the mainstream at the time.

Theater groups, poetry performances, music and dance were centered on this movement, and therefore African Americans gained social and historical recognition in the area of literature and arts. Due to the agency and credibility given, African Americans were also able to educate others through different types of expressions and media outlets about cultural differences. The most common form of teaching was through poetry reading. African-American performances were used for their own political advertisement, organization, and community issues. The Black Arts Movement was spread by the use of newspaper advertisements. The first major arts movement publication was in 1964.

"No one was more competent in [the] combination of the experimental and the vernacular than Amiri Baraka, whose volume Black Magic Poetry 1961-1967 (1969) is one of the finest products of the African-American creative energies of the 1960s."

1. ^ Finkelman, Paul, ed. (2009). Encyclopedia of African American History. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 187. ISBN 9780195167795.

2. ^ Iton, Richard. In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post Civil Rights Era.

3. ^ Rae, Brianna (19 February 2016). "From the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement, Writers Who Changed the World". The Madison Times.

4. ^ Smethurst, James E. The Black Arts Movement: Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture), NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005.[page needed ]

5. Salaam, Kalamu ya. "Historical Background of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) - Part II". The Black Collegian. Archived from the original on April 20, 2000.

6. ^ "A Brief Guide to the Black Arts Movement". poets.org. February 19, 2014.

7. Douglas, Robert L. ^ Resistance, Insurgence, and Identity: The Art of Mari Evans, Nelson Stevens, and the Black Arts Movement. NJ: Africa World Press, 2008.[page needed ]

8. ^ Bracey, John H. (2014). SOS- Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-62534-031-3.

9. ^ "A Gathering of the Tribes" Archived 2016-04-15 at the Wayback Machine (Place Matters, January 2012) includes biography of Steve Cannon.

10. ^ Morgan, Jo-Ann (December 17, 2018). The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780429467851.

11. ^ Tribune, Chicago (July 29, 2017). "Chicago's 'Wall of Respect' inspired neighborhood murals across U.S." Tribune Publishing.

12. ^ "Historical Overview of the Black Arts Movement". Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

13. ^ Smith, David Lionel (1991). "The Black Arts Movement and Its Critics". American Literary History. 3 (1): 93-110. doi:10.1093/alh/3.1.93.

14. Neal, Larry. "The Black Arts Movement", Floyd W. Hayes III (ed.), ^ A Turbulent Voyage: Readings in African American Studies, San Diego, California: Collegiate Press, 2000 (3rd edition), pp. 236-246.

15. ^ Duncan, John; Gayle, Addison (1972). "Review of The Black Aesthetic, Addison Gayle, Jr". Journal of Research in Music Education. 20 (1): 195-197. doi:10.2307/3344341. JSTOR 3344341. S2CID 220628543.

16. MacKey, Nathaniel (1978). "Ishmael Reed and the Black Aesthetic". CLA Journal. 21 (3): 355-366. JSTOR 44329383.

17. ^ Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement by Verner D. Mitchell & Cynthia Davis 2019]

18. ^ Rojas, Fabio (2006). "Social Movement Tactics, Organizational Change and the Spread of African-American Studies". Social Forces. 84 (4): 2147-2166. doi:10.1353/sof.2006.0107. JSTOR 3844493. S2CID 145777569. Project MUSE 200998.

19. Cheryl Higashida, ^ Black Internationalist Feminism: Women Writers of the Black Left, 1945-1995, University of Illinois Press, 2011, pp. 52-53.

20. Nelson, Emmanuel S., ^ The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature: A - C, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005, p. 387.

21. ^ "The Black Arts Movement (1965-1975)." The Black Arts Movement (1965-1975) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed, www.blackpast.org/aah/black-arts-movement-1965-1975.

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Years active 1965-1975 (approx.)[1] Country United States Major figures The Black Arts Movement ( BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride.

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This is an article from National Archives on the life and achievements of Elaine Brown

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Elaine Brown was born in North Philadelphia and raised by her mother. Although she grew up in a single-parent home and experienced economic hardship, Elaine had the opportunity to attend a private school where she participated in extracurricular activities such as classical piano and ballet. She was noted to have had many white friends because of this. After high school, Brown briefly attended Temple University before withdrawing to pursue a music career in Los Angeles. While there, she enrolled in University of California, Los Angeles.

Search the Catalog for Records on Elaine Brown Social Networks and Archival Context - Elaine Brown

Selected Records Relating to Elaine Brown

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Elaine Brown was born in North Philadelphia and raised by her mother. Although she grew up in a single-parent home and experienced economic hardship, Elaine had the opportunity to attend a private school where she participated in extracurricular activities such as classical piano and ballet.

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Kathleen Cleaver was a part of a small group including Elaine Brown and Erika Huggins. Due to her self made position, she was the first woman in the party to make full body decisions because of her role as a communication secretary.

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April 4th, 1968 MLK was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee.

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April 4 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. From Lincoln to King, assassinations of political figures have been part of our country's history.

The assassinations of civil rights activists Medgar Evers (1963), Malcolm X (1965) and Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) were a stark reminder to black people that the pursuit of freedom and liberation often came at the ultimate cost. The assassination of King was arguably the most consequential for the course of American history and permanently changed the psychology of black people and challenged America's ideals. =

Because he was one of the most prominent leaders of the civil rights movement, King's assassination was especially devastating. His optimism offered a stark contrast to Malcolm X's pessimistic and fatalistic view of white America.

Guided by a Christian ethic and the philosophies of integrationism, nonviolence and civil disobedience, King was the moral conscience of a country that had failed to live up to its lofty ideals of the American Dream for black people.

In his book "Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare," James H. Cone noted that Malcolm X and King were both killed by forces they sought to change. However, whereas Malcolm X was killed "by the blacks he loved and was seeking to liberate from self-hate," King was "killed by the whites he loved and was seeking to set free of racism."

Unlike Malcolm X, who viewed whites as having no moral conscience and America as a nightmare that was doomed for its crimes of slavery and segregation, King possessed a redemptive faith in the goodness of white people. He insisted on loving white people in spite of their treatment of blacks, and he spoke of having a dream that Americans of all racial backgrounds could live in peace and good will.

Whether people agreed with him or not, it was King's appeal to white people's moral conscience and his philosophy of nonviolence that provided him the platform to wield tremendous influence to cause social and political change. Thus, it was incomprehensible that this "drum major for justice" who followed the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent resistance would be assassinated in cold blood.

What kind of country was America that it could produce the type of hatred that would kill a messenger of love and peace? If Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat was the spark that invigorated the civil rights movement, King's assassination was the psychological accelerant that threatened to permanently derail it.

The black psychologist William Cross created a black liberation identity model that referenced the psychological impact of King's assassination. In the Pre-Encounter stage, Cross characterized black people as being politically naïve and dependent on white leadership and a belief in assimilation-integration. These individuals were not actively involved in the civil rights movement.

In the Encounter stage, Cross described an experience or event that shattered the individual's feeling about himself/herself and his/her interpretation of the condition of blacks in America. King's assassination was an example of a shattering experience that propelled black people into becoming more politically active and into searching for a deeper understanding of the black power movement.

For many blacks, the reality that someone as prominent and righteous as King could get assassinated was a life-altering experience. Black people realized that being patient and trusting the country to eventually do right by black folks was a dream at risk of being permanently deferred. Blacks did not have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines in the pursuit of civil rights. For many, King's assassination aroused what had been a sometimes muted yet simmering anger fueled by injustice toward black Americans.

Upon hearing about King's assassination, civil rights activist and Black Power proponent Stokely Carmichael exclaimed: "When white America killed Dr. King last night, she declared war on us. It would have been better if she had killed Rap Brown ... or Stokely Carmichael. But when she killed Dr. King, she lost it ... He was the one man in our race who was trying to teach our people to have love, compassion and mercy for white people."

News of King's assassination reverberated across the entire world, with condolences coming from heads of state and world leaders. The nation had not been so deeply impacted since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Black people, now angered and emboldened by such a heinous act of violence, engaged in weeks of rioting and urban rebellion that disrupted the country.

The psychological impact of King's assassination endures 50 years later. King taught us that in the ongoing black freedom struggle, he was willing to die for a cause he knew was bigger than himself. He died for black freedom and ultimately trying to save the soul of this country. In many ways his death can be seen as the inheritance of thousands of people and recent social movements.

The Movement for Black Lives is the most direct continuation of King's work, as Black Lives Matter activists have continued the fight for the civil rights of black people. Most recently in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the March For Our Lives took place in Washington, D.C. This student-led social movement seeks to pass legislation that effectively addresses gun violence. Interestingly, death by a gun is the common denominator behind these social movements.

As we remember King on this 50th anniversary of his death, let us reflect on one of his final prophetic statements the night before he was killed: "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will ... I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."

In the current political climate, that promised land seems farther away than ever before. However, the level of political engagement by today's youths is reason to be optimistic, as they are the embodiment of the meaning of King's life and death.
Kevin Cokley is the Oscar and Ann Mauzy Regents Professor for Educational Research and Development, the director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, and a fellow of the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers at The University of Texas at Austin.
A version of this op-ed appeared in the Dallas Morning News.

To view more op-eds from Texas Perspectives, click here.

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How MLK's Death Changed Black People and Challenged America's Ideals - UT News

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April 4 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. From Lincoln to King, assassinations of political figures have been part of our country's history. The assassinations of civil rights activists Medgar Evers (1963), Malcolm X (1965) and Martin Luther King Jr.

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Born on October 6, 1917, the youngest of 20 children, legendary community organizer and civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer (née Townsend) grew up in the racial oppression and terror of post-Reconstruction Mississippi. Her parents were sharecroppers who picked cotton for a white plantation owner, an exploitative arrangement that kept the family in extreme poverty.

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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 - June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed " the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970. He was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978 and the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He converted to Islam after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship, defeating Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. During that year, he denounced his birth name as a " slave name" and formally changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War, and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. He did not fight for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture of the 1960s generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam.

He fought in several historic boxing matches, including his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was famous for trash-talking, often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, and has been recognized as a pioneer in hip hop. He often predicted in which round he would knock out his opponent. As a boxer, Ali was known for his unorthodox movement, fancy footwork, head movement, and rope-a-dope technique, among others.

Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy, and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family.

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with Irish and English family heritage. His maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Clay was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom.

His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahaman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life.

He grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. He once told his daughter Hana, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."

Amateur career

Clay defeated veteran Pole Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to win gold in the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.

Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. In his 1975 autobiography he recalled that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of his friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, " Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at the Georgia Dome during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the Games.

Professional career

Early career

Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19-0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones, and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.

These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted fifth round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963, was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he (Liston) might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.

In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me". Ali's trash talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. In a 1969 interview he stated that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Clay transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".

In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.

World heavyweight champion

Fights against Liston

By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was an 8:1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", claiming "Liston even smells like a bear" and "I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.

The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".

At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"

In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20. The feat also made Clay the fastest boxer to the win championship (non-vacant) in the modern era, doing so in 20 bouts.

Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.

It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.

Fight against Patterson

Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an " Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.

Ali watches replay of his March 1966 title fight against Henry Cooper.[44]

Ali and then- WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger.", although the second part is probably apocryphal. Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.

Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London, and Karl Mildenberger.

Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams at the Astrodome in Houston on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and 3.0 metres (10 ft) of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.

Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights". Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.

Draft resistance

My enemy is the white people, not Viet Cong or Chinese or Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. You won't even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs-and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won't even stand up for me here at home?

-Muhammad Ali to a crowd of college students during his exile from boxing
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.

When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said, "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.

On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and the World Boxing Association stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes including Jim Brown, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as one political leader, Carl Stokes, assembled with Ali at the Negro Industrial Economic Union in Cleveland for what became known as the " Cleveland Summit" or the "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.

At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.

On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8-0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.

In a 1974 interview, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that [the Vietnam War] wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."

Impact of Ali's draft refusal

Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"

Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."

Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:

For the heavyweight champion of the world, who had achieved the highest level of athletic celebrity, to put all of that on the line-the money, the ability to get endorsements-to sacrifice all of that for a cause, gave a whole sense of legitimacy to the movement and the causes with young people that nothing else could have done. Even those who were assassinated, certainly lost their lives, but they didn't voluntarily do that. He knew he was going to jail and did it anyway. That's another level of leadership and sacrifice.

In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years." Ali's promoter Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time, but in 2016 Arum stated: "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world. ... He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."

Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.

NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications

In a secret operation code-named " Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal".

In 1971, Ali's Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.

Exile and comeback

Protesting while exiled

At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.

While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.

Muhammad Ali c. 1975, photo by Bernard Gotfryd

On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali's comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.

A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.

Fight against Joe Frazier

Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment". "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?'"

Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.

The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career up until that point. On several occasions in the early rounds, he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds-in what was the first appearance of the " rope-a-dope strategy"-Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counterattack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.

Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight

In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch-tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali-weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further-Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him. Ali won the bout through a technical knockout when the referee stopped the fight in the twelfth round.

After his loss

Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster, Bugner and Norton

After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. During two bouts he had in 1973 with Joe Bugner and Ken Norton, he wore a "People's Choice" robe which was given to him by Elvis Presley. In 1973 before his fight with Norton, Tom Cushman said Ali was "gloriously overconfident. He didn't consider this guy a threat at all." But during the fight, either in the 2nd round according to most press reports, or the final round according to Norton, Norton ultimately broke Ali's jaw, while giving Ali the second loss of his career via decision. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.

Second fight against Joe Frazier

Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.

World heavyweight champion (second reign)

The Rumble in the Jungle

The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974-a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old and had lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.

Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counterpunching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the " Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom-letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will-that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."

It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 4-1 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.

Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner

Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, .

Third fight against Joe Frazier

Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the " Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching 100 °F (38 °C). In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counterpunching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, spent.

An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me".

After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, "I'm sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I'm so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."

Later career

Ali being interviewed by WBAL-TV's Curt Anderson in Baltimore, 1978

On February 2, 1976, Ali defeated Jean-Pierre Coopman by 5th round knockout. The WBC Heavyweight title was not on the line for this fight. On April 30, 1976, Ali would fight Jimmy Young and win a controversial unanimous decision. Howard Cosell would remark that he had "never seen Ali so off in his timing" and when asked on his performance against Young in the post-fight interview, Ali stated that he was "getting old" and that he was "preserving his energy" for Ken Norton. On May 24, 1976, Ali defeated Richard Dunn, winning by 5th round technical knockout. The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock an opponent out in his boxing career.

In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.

Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."

It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.

Fight stoppage vs. Larry Holmes

On October 2, 1980, Ali returned to the ring to fight Holmes at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Holmes, who fought under the nickname "The Easton Assassin", easily dominated Ali. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee stepped into the ring and instructed the referee to stop the fight. It was the only time Ali ever lost by stoppage.

Immediately after the fight, Ali was given painkillers and antidepressants, in violation of World Boxing Council rules prohibiting the administration of any drug before the postfight urinalysis.

Giachetti called the fight "awful...the worst sports event I ever had to cover". Actor Sylvester Stallone was ringside for the fight and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.

Exhibition bouts

Ali vs Inoki

On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. Because of this, the fight has been criticized for causing Ali trouble healthwise, mostly in terms of movement, later down the line; Ferdie Pacheco stated "Ali was still feeling the effects of his leg injury, and his mobility was not what it had been". The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce". Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA years later". Ali and Inoki began a friendship after the fight.

Ali vs Alzado

Ali vs Semenko

Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad, who was to become Ali's long-time manager, and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahaman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.

On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. In an interview with NBC 6, Boyd recounted meeting Ali when she was 10 years old at her hometown mosque. "He said, 'Listen here little girl. This is my name. Imma be famous. You need to keep that 'cause it's gone be worth a lot of money,'" Boyd said, mimicking Ali. "You'll never be famous with that name. And, I walked away," Boyd said. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970); and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda married Robert Walsh and has two sons: Biaggio Ali (born 1998), who is an amateur MMA fighter, and Nico Ali (born 2000), who is a professional boxer.

Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in suburban Philadelphia in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born June 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha a year later in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.

By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977, and went on to become a professional boxer. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him. It didn't mean anything. He didn't have affairs - he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."

On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.

Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.

Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He'd see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He'd buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali.

Paternity claims

Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.

In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali when she was 17. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali's biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".

Religion and beliefs

Affiliation with the Nation of Islam

Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959 and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.

In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.

Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a " slave name" and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name". The person he was formerly named after was a white slave owner turned abolitionist. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "he may have gotten rid of his slaves, but (he) held on to white supremacy." Ali concluded: "Why should I keep my white slavemaster's name visible and my black ancestors invisible, unknown, unhonored?"

Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.

Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all."

Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam

In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali stated that he was not a Christian as he thought the idea of God having a son sounded wrong and did not make sense to him, stating, "God don't beget; man begets". However, he still believed that even good Christians or good Jews could receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".

In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people did not like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it, and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.

Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."

He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.

Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Al Marhum Al Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.

During his amateur career, Ali refrained from smoking, drugs, and drinking alcohol and soda pop, and adopted an idiosyncratic diet. Upon his acceptance of the dietary restrictions of Islam, the Nation of Islam recruited cooks to prepare his meals.

Entertainment career

Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.

His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.

The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.

Spoken word poetry and rap music

I've wrestled with alligators, I've tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail.
You know I'm bad.
Just last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick.
I'm so mean, I make medicine sick.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
Now you see me, now you don't.
George thinks he will, but I know he won't.

Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper".

In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song " Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 6th Annual Grammy Awards in 1964. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.

Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash talk", and "endless quotables". According to Rolling Stone, his " freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.

He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message", The Sugarhill Gang's " Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' " Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's " Gettin' Jiggy wit It".

Professional wrestling

Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.

On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.

Ali (right) as a special guest referee along with Pat Patterson (middle) at WrestleMania I, with Liberace (left) as timekeeper

Ali was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by The Undertaker at the 2024 ceremony.

Television appearances

Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 1-2 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.

Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of "Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet". In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to US$1 Million.

By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.

In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.

Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics

Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams) and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.

Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland". During that visit Ali also declared that the "United States is the stronghold of Zionism and imperialism." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.

In early 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Having arrived in Tanzania, Ali told cameras, " Russia is invading a Muslim country, Asiatic country," and that its probable intention to head to oil-rich Persia to take wells and ports "could lead to nuclear war. My purpose in coming here was to try to stop that." However, according to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London". Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest of Apartheid in South Africa), although neither did the Soviet Union, and was unaware of the sentiment that the Soviet Union had backed some popular revolutions on the continent, although none of the countries on the itinerary were Soviet allies. The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow Games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Soviet Olympics.

President Ronald Reagan with Ali in the Oval Office in 1983

In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.

Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to , Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.

In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War and met with president Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages' release, he received criticism from president George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.

In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.

After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to friend and biographer Thomas Hauser, "They look like they're happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."

On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.

By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted $379 million), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $338million).

In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated $3.5 million (inflation-adjusted $16million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.

In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.

Declining health

I'm blessed and thankful to God that I understand he's trying me. This is a trial from God. He gave me this illness to remind me that I am not number one; He is.

-Muhammad Ali reflecting on having Parkinson's disease
Ali's Parkinson's syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early 2000s, promoting his own biopic, , in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.

In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.

In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahaman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.

Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.

News coverage and tributes

Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.

He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him". Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Then-Louisville mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."

The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.

Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. The Janazah prayer was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. Billy Crystal, his wife Lonnie Ali, sports journalist Bryant Gumbel and former President Bill Clinton all gave the eulogies. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.

If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest. In every way he was the bravest, the kindest and the most excellent of men.

Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named " Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. He was also named BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year three times.

Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.

In Ali's hometown

In 1978, shortly after becoming heavyweight champion of the world for the third time, and three years before his permanent retirement, Ali received a round of accolades in his hometown of Louisville. In September, at a tribute ceremony held at Fairgrounds Stadium, then-Governor of Kentucky Julian Carroll proclaimed 1978 the "Year of Ali" and presented to Ali the Governor's Distinguished Service Award. Carroll said he signed the proclamation because "no single day or week - or even month - ever could contain the deeds of this man." In November, the Louisville Board of Aldermen voted 6-5 to rename downtown thoroughfare Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard, via an ordinance shortly signed into law by then-Mayor William B. Stansbury. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen.

As the street renaming was under consideration, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor. Despite an initial endorsement by then- Jefferson County Judge/Executive and current U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and an affirmative vote by the Jefferson County Fiscal Court, the committee decided not to proceed, citing long-time school tradition and alumni disagreement, even though they urged other ways to honor Ali in the community. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard-and Ali himself-came to be well accepted in his hometown.

In November 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $54million, 93,000ft ², non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth.

Muhammad Ali belonged to the world, but he only had one hometown, and fortunately, that is our great city of Louisville. Muhammad became one of the most well-known people to ever walk the Earth and has left a legacy of humanitarianism and athleticism that has inspired billions of people. It [is] important that we, as a city, further champion The Champ's legacy, and the airport renaming is a wonderful next step.

On June 6, 2019, the airport unveiled its new logo, featuring "Ali's silhouette, arms up and victorious, against the background of a butterfly."

Around the US and world

Opened in 1976, Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after Ali. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after his victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. Ali attended its opening. The Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight the same year played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.

President George W. Bush embraces Ali after presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, during ceremonies at the White House.

Ali was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award. He was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton in January 2001 and with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in November 2005. For his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, he received the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold from the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin in December 2005.

The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.

In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world". Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.

20th-century superlatives

By the end of the 20th century, Ali had made it onto several superlatives lists or otherwise was mentioned in superlative terms covering the century or a large portion thereof.

Ali was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the 20th century's greatest boxers. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. He was named Athlete of the Century by , and ranked as the third greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.

Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990. In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. In 1999, he was one of three athletes, alongside Pelé and Jackie Robinson, named in magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.

In media and popular culture

As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 1-2 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.

Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 50. He also appeared on the cover of magazine 5 times. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.

On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.

Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.

He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others. Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was released in 1991.

When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."

In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad-a name he shares with the Islamic prophet -not be walked upon.

His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of the 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali. A decade later, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan in August 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.

Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019. Then in September 2021, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns released the four-part docuseries Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's life. The series, which Burns began developing in early 2016, was broadcast on PBS. Dave Zirin, who watched an 8-hour rough cut of this documentary, called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".

In fall 2024, the musical , based on Ali's life, is expected to debut at The Kentucky Center in Louisville before moving on to Broadway in 2025. The musical is being directed and written by Clint Dyer, deputy artistic director of London's National Theatre and scored by Louisville Orchestra's music director and conductor Teddy Abrams. Rapper and producer Q-Tip is joining as music director and co-lyricist.

Professional boxing record

Discography

References

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40. ^ Hauser, Thomas (2012). Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. Open Road Integrated Media. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-4532-4119-6.

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46. ^ (subscription required)

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 - June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed " the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

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Cassius Clay was born on January 17 1942, and died June 3, 2016. He was one of the best light weight heavyweight boxers in the world.

-Clara Lapsa

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gabriel eberle

Cassius clay was one of the greatest boxers of all time. he was born january 17 1942 and died on june 3 2016. he changed his to Muhhamad Ali later in his life

Clay said 'Something We Had Never Heard Before, In Any ...

www.youtube.com › watch

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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 - June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed " the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He held the magazine heavyweight title from 1964 to 1970. He was the undisputed champion from 1974 to 1978 and the WBA and Ring heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1979. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He converted to Islam after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship, defeating Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. During that year, he denounced his birth name as a " slave name" and formally changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military, owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War, and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. He did not fight for nearly four years and lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture of the 1960s generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam.

He fought in several historic boxing matches, including his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was famous for trash-talking, often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, and has been recognized as a pioneer in hip hop. He often predicted in which round he would knock out his opponent. As a boxer, Ali was known for his unorthodox movement, fancy footwork, head movement, and rope-a-dope technique, among others.

Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy, and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family.

Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with Irish and English family heritage. His maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Clay was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom.

His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahaman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life.

He grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. He once told his daughter Hana, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."

Amateur career

Clay defeated veteran Pole Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to win gold in the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.

Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. In his 1975 autobiography he recalled that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of his friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, " Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at the Georgia Dome during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the Games.

Professional career

Early career

Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19-0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones, and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.

These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted fifth round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963, was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he (Liston) might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.

In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me". Ali's trash talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. In a 1969 interview he stated that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Clay transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".

In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.

World heavyweight champion

Fights against Liston

By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was an 8:1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", claiming "Liston even smells like a bear" and "I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.

The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".

At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"

In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20. The feat also made Clay the fastest boxer to the win championship (non-vacant) in the modern era, doing so in 20 bouts.

Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.

It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.

Fight against Patterson

Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an " Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.

Ali watches replay of his March 1966 title fight against Henry Cooper.[44]

Ali and then- WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger.", although the second part is probably apocryphal. Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.

Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London, and Karl Mildenberger.

Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams at the Astrodome in Houston on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and 3.0 metres (10 ft) of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.

Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights". Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.

Draft resistance

My enemy is the white people, not Viet Cong or Chinese or Japanese. You my opposer when I want freedom. You my opposer when I want justice. You my opposer when I want equality. You won't even stand up for me in America for my religious beliefs-and you want me to go somewhere and fight, but you won't even stand up for me here at home?

-Muhammad Ali to a crowd of college students during his exile from boxing
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.

When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger. We don't take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said, "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.

On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and the World Boxing Association stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes including Jim Brown, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as one political leader, Carl Stokes, assembled with Ali at the Negro Industrial Economic Union in Cleveland for what became known as the " Cleveland Summit" or the "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.

At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.

On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8-0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.

In a 1974 interview, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that [the Vietnam War] wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."

Impact of Ali's draft refusal

Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"

Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."

Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:

For the heavyweight champion of the world, who had achieved the highest level of athletic celebrity, to put all of that on the line-the money, the ability to get endorsements-to sacrifice all of that for a cause, gave a whole sense of legitimacy to the movement and the causes with young people that nothing else could have done. Even those who were assassinated, certainly lost their lives, but they didn't voluntarily do that. He knew he was going to jail and did it anyway. That's another level of leadership and sacrifice.

In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years." Ali's promoter Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time, but in 2016 Arum stated: "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world. ... He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."

Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.

NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications

In a secret operation code-named " Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal".

In 1971, Ali's Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.

Exile and comeback

Protesting while exiled

At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.

While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.

Muhammad Ali c. 1975, photo by Bernard Gotfryd

On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali's comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.

A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.

Fight against Joe Frazier

Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment". "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?'"

Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.

The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career up until that point. On several occasions in the early rounds, he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds-in what was the first appearance of the " rope-a-dope strategy"-Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counterattack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.

Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight

In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch-tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali-weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further-Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him. Ali won the bout through a technical knockout when the referee stopped the fight in the twelfth round.

After his loss

Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster, Bugner and Norton

After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. During two bouts he had in 1973 with Joe Bugner and Ken Norton, he wore a "People's Choice" robe which was given to him by Elvis Presley. In 1973 before his fight with Norton, Tom Cushman said Ali was "gloriously overconfident. He didn't consider this guy a threat at all." But during the fight, either in the 2nd round according to most press reports, or the final round according to Norton, Norton ultimately broke Ali's jaw, while giving Ali the second loss of his career via decision. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.

Second fight against Joe Frazier

Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.

World heavyweight champion (second reign)

The Rumble in the Jungle

The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974-a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old and had lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.

Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counterpunching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the " Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom-letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will-that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."

It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 4-1 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.

Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner

Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, .

Third fight against Joe Frazier

Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the " Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching 100 °F (38 °C). In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counterpunching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, spent.

An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me".

After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, "I'm sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I'm so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."

Later career

Ali being interviewed by WBAL-TV's Curt Anderson in Baltimore, 1978

On February 2, 1976, Ali defeated Jean-Pierre Coopman by 5th round knockout. The WBC Heavyweight title was not on the line for this fight. On April 30, 1976, Ali would fight Jimmy Young and win a controversial unanimous decision. Howard Cosell would remark that he had "never seen Ali so off in his timing" and when asked on his performance against Young in the post-fight interview, Ali stated that he was "getting old" and that he was "preserving his energy" for Ken Norton. On May 24, 1976, Ali defeated Richard Dunn, winning by 5th round technical knockout. The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock an opponent out in his boxing career.

In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.

Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."

It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.

Fight stoppage vs. Larry Holmes

On October 2, 1980, Ali returned to the ring to fight Holmes at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Holmes, who fought under the nickname "The Easton Assassin", easily dominated Ali. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee stepped into the ring and instructed the referee to stop the fight. It was the only time Ali ever lost by stoppage.

Immediately after the fight, Ali was given painkillers and antidepressants, in violation of World Boxing Council rules prohibiting the administration of any drug before the postfight urinalysis.

Giachetti called the fight "awful...the worst sports event I ever had to cover". Actor Sylvester Stallone was ringside for the fight and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.

Exhibition bouts

Ali vs Inoki

On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. Because of this, the fight has been criticized for causing Ali trouble healthwise, mostly in terms of movement, later down the line; Ferdie Pacheco stated "Ali was still feeling the effects of his leg injury, and his mobility was not what it had been". The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce". Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA years later". Ali and Inoki began a friendship after the fight.

Ali vs Alzado

Ali vs Semenko

Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad, who was to become Ali's long-time manager, and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahaman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.

On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. In an interview with NBC 6, Boyd recounted meeting Ali when she was 10 years old at her hometown mosque. "He said, 'Listen here little girl. This is my name. Imma be famous. You need to keep that 'cause it's gone be worth a lot of money,'" Boyd said, mimicking Ali. "You'll never be famous with that name. And, I walked away," Boyd said. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970); and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda married Robert Walsh and has two sons: Biaggio Ali (born 1998), who is an amateur MMA fighter, and Nico Ali (born 2000), who is a professional boxer.

Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in suburban Philadelphia in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born June 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha a year later in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.

By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977, and went on to become a professional boxer. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him. It didn't mean anything. He didn't have affairs - he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."

On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.

Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.

Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He'd see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He'd buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali.

Paternity claims

Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.

In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali when she was 17. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali's biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".

Religion and beliefs

Affiliation with the Nation of Islam

Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959 and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.

In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.

Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a " slave name" and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name". The person he was formerly named after was a white slave owner turned abolitionist. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "he may have gotten rid of his slaves, but (he) held on to white supremacy." Ali concluded: "Why should I keep my white slavemaster's name visible and my black ancestors invisible, unknown, unhonored?"

Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.

Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all."

Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam

In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali stated that he was not a Christian as he thought the idea of God having a son sounded wrong and did not make sense to him, stating, "God don't beget; man begets". However, he still believed that even good Christians or good Jews could receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".

In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people did not like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it, and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.

Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."

He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.

Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Al Marhum Al Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.

During his amateur career, Ali refrained from smoking, drugs, and drinking alcohol and soda pop, and adopted an idiosyncratic diet. Upon his acceptance of the dietary restrictions of Islam, the Nation of Islam recruited cooks to prepare his meals.

Entertainment career

Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.

His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.

The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.

Spoken word poetry and rap music

I've wrestled with alligators, I've tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail.
You know I'm bad.
Just last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick.
I'm so mean, I make medicine sick.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
Now you see me, now you don't.
George thinks he will, but I know he won't.

Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper".

In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song " Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album at the 6th Annual Grammy Awards in 1964. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.

Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash talk", and "endless quotables". According to Rolling Stone, his " freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.

He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message", The Sugarhill Gang's " Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' " Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's " Gettin' Jiggy wit It".

Professional wrestling

Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.

On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.

Ali (right) as a special guest referee along with Pat Patterson (middle) at WrestleMania I, with Liberace (left) as timekeeper

Ali was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by The Undertaker at the 2024 ceremony.

Television appearances

Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 1-2 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.

Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of "Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet". In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to US$1 Million.

By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.

In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.

Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics

Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams) and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.

Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland". During that visit Ali also declared that the "United States is the stronghold of Zionism and imperialism." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.

In early 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Having arrived in Tanzania, Ali told cameras, " Russia is invading a Muslim country, Asiatic country," and that its probable intention to head to oil-rich Persia to take wells and ports "could lead to nuclear war. My purpose in coming here was to try to stop that." However, according to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London". Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest of Apartheid in South Africa), although neither did the Soviet Union, and was unaware of the sentiment that the Soviet Union had backed some popular revolutions on the continent, although none of the countries on the itinerary were Soviet allies. The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow Games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Soviet Olympics.

President Ronald Reagan with Ali in the Oval Office in 1983

In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.

Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to , Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.

In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War and met with president Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages' release, he received criticism from president George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.

In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.

After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to friend and biographer Thomas Hauser, "They look like they're happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."

On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.

By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted $379 million), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $338million).

In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated $3.5 million (inflation-adjusted $16million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.

In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.

Declining health

I'm blessed and thankful to God that I understand he's trying me. This is a trial from God. He gave me this illness to remind me that I am not number one; He is.

-Muhammad Ali reflecting on having Parkinson's disease
Ali's Parkinson's syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early 2000s, promoting his own biopic, , in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.

In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.

In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahaman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.

Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.

News coverage and tributes

Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.

He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him". Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Then-Louisville mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."

The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.

Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. The Janazah prayer was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. Billy Crystal, his wife Lonnie Ali, sports journalist Bryant Gumbel and former President Bill Clinton all gave the eulogies. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.

If the measure of greatness is to gladden the heart of every human being on the face of the earth, then he truly was the greatest. In every way he was the bravest, the kindest and the most excellent of men.

Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named " Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. He was also named BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year three times.

Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.

In Ali's hometown

In 1978, shortly after becoming heavyweight champion of the world for the third time, and three years before his permanent retirement, Ali received a round of accolades in his hometown of Louisville. In September, at a tribute ceremony held at Fairgrounds Stadium, then-Governor of Kentucky Julian Carroll proclaimed 1978 the "Year of Ali" and presented to Ali the Governor's Distinguished Service Award. Carroll said he signed the proclamation because "no single day or week - or even month - ever could contain the deeds of this man." In November, the Louisville Board of Aldermen voted 6-5 to rename downtown thoroughfare Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard, via an ordinance shortly signed into law by then-Mayor William B. Stansbury. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen.

As the street renaming was under consideration, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor. Despite an initial endorsement by then- Jefferson County Judge/Executive and current U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and an affirmative vote by the Jefferson County Fiscal Court, the committee decided not to proceed, citing long-time school tradition and alumni disagreement, even though they urged other ways to honor Ali in the community. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard-and Ali himself-came to be well accepted in his hometown.

In November 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $54million, 93,000ft ², non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth.

Muhammad Ali belonged to the world, but he only had one hometown, and fortunately, that is our great city of Louisville. Muhammad became one of the most well-known people to ever walk the Earth and has left a legacy of humanitarianism and athleticism that has inspired billions of people. It [is] important that we, as a city, further champion The Champ's legacy, and the airport renaming is a wonderful next step.

On June 6, 2019, the airport unveiled its new logo, featuring "Ali's silhouette, arms up and victorious, against the background of a butterfly."

Around the US and world

Opened in 1976, Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after Ali. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after his victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. Ali attended its opening. The Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight the same year played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.

President George W. Bush embraces Ali after presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, during ceremonies at the White House.

Ali was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award. He was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton in January 2001 and with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in November 2005. For his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, he received the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold from the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin in December 2005.

The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.

In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrated's Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world". Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.

20th-century superlatives

By the end of the 20th century, Ali had made it onto several superlatives lists or otherwise was mentioned in superlative terms covering the century or a large portion thereof.

Ali was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the 20th century's greatest boxers. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. He was named Athlete of the Century by , and ranked as the third greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.

Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990. In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. In 1999, he was one of three athletes, alongside Pelé and Jackie Robinson, named in magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.

In media and popular culture

As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 1-2 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.

Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 50. He also appeared on the cover of magazine 5 times. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.

On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.

Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.

He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others. Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was released in 1991.

When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."

In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad-a name he shares with the Islamic prophet -not be walked upon.

His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of the 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali. A decade later, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan in August 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.

Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019. Then in September 2021, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns released the four-part docuseries Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's life. The series, which Burns began developing in early 2016, was broadcast on PBS. Dave Zirin, who watched an 8-hour rough cut of this documentary, called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".

In fall 2024, the musical , based on Ali's life, is expected to debut at The Kentucky Center in Louisville before moving on to Broadway in 2025. The musical is being directed and written by Clint Dyer, deputy artistic director of London's National Theatre and scored by Louisville Orchestra's music director and conductor Teddy Abrams. Rapper and producer Q-Tip is joining as music director and co-lyricist.

Professional boxing record

Discography

References

1. Boxing record for Muhammad Ali from BoxRec (registration required). Retrieved June 5, 2016.

2. ^ Wells, John C. (2008). "Ali". Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0. the former boxer Muhammad Ali pronounces ɑːˈliː

3. ^

4. ^ Egerton, John (1991). Shades of Gray: Dispatches from the Modern South. LSU Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-8071-1705-7.

5. ^ Hauser 2004, p. 14

6. ^ Hampton, Henry; Fayer, Steve; Flynn, Sarah (1990). Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s. Bantam Books. p. 321. ISBN 978-0-553-05734-8.

7. ^ Gorn, Elliott (1998). Muhammad Ali: The People's Champ. University of Illinois Press. pp. 76-77. ISBN 978-0-252-06721-1.

8. ^ The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey. Simon and Schuster. 2013. p. 18.

9. ^ Ward, Nathan (October 2006). "A Total Eclipse of the Sonny". American Heritage. Archived from the original on January 11, 2007.

10. ^ Hauser 2004

11. ^ Krantz, Les (2008). Ali in Action: The Man, the Moves, the Mouth. Globe Pequot. ISBN 978-1-59921-302-6 - via Google Books.

12. Bob Mee, ^ Ali and Liston: The Boy Who Would Be King and the Ugly Bear, 2011.

13. ^ Haygood, Wil (2011). Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson. Chicago Review Press. p. 378. ISBN 978-1-56976-864-8. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023.

14. McLeod, Kembrew, ^ Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World, pp. 223-224.

15. ^ Cassius Clay versus Sonny Liston. Theatre Network Television. ESPN Classic. February 25, 1964. Archived from the original on December 3, 2018 - via kumite27 (YouTube).

16. ^ Cuddy, Jack (November 14, 1964). "Clay Undergoes Surgery; Fight Is Off Indefinitely". The Bridgeport Telegram. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017 - via Newspapers.com.

17. ^ Vachss, Andrew (2003). Only Child. Vintage. p. 89. Archived from the original on May 27, 2016. Vachss further explains the way such a fix would have been engineered in

18. ^

19. ^ Dundee, Angelo; Maule, Tex (August 28, 1967). "He Could Go To Jail And Still Be Champ". Sports Illustrated.

20. ^ Maule, Tex (February 13, 1967). "Cruel Ali With All The Skills". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on March 9, 2013.

21. Roberts, Randy (1991). Winning is the Only Thing: Sports in America Since 1945. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 171-172.

22. ^ Remnick, David (2014). King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 287. ISBN 9780804173629.

23. ^ Kellum, B. F. (April 29, 1967). "Appeals Could Take 18 Months". The Asheville Citizen. AP. p. 11. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023 - via Newspapers.com.

24. ^ "Remembering Cleveland's Muhammad Ali Summit, 45 years later" Archived July 22, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, Branson Wright for The Plain Dealer via Cleveland.com, June 3, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2020.

25. ^ ""The Greatest" Is Gone". Time. February 27, 1978. p. 5. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.

26. ^ "Muhammad Ali refuses Army induction". History. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020.

27. ^ Bingham, Howard; Wallace, Max (2000). Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America. M. Evans. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-87131-900-5.

28. ^ "Clay granted New York ring license". The Palm Beach Post. Associated Press. September 15, 1970. p. B4. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016.

29. ^ Kang, Jay Caspian (April 4, 2013). "The End and Don King". Grantland. ESPN. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013.

30. ^ McDougall, Christopher (2014). The Best American Sports Writing 2014. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-544-14700-3. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023.

31. ^ Foreman, George (January 2012). "George Foreman on why Muhammad Ali was so much more than a 'boxer'". ShortList. Archived from the original on June 11, 2016.

32. ^ Lee, Bill (November 18, 1974). "Zaire's fight promotion opens new gold mines". The Morning Herald. p. 30. Archived from the original on January 15, 2024 - via Newspapers.com.

33. ^ Read Peter Finney's column on Ali vs. Spinks 2 at the Superdome in 1978 Archived April 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com (New Orleans, LA.), re-posted on June 4, 2016.

34. ^ Muhammad Ali, The Glory Years, Felix Dennis and Don Atyeo, p. 258.

35. ^ The Last Flight of the Butterfly: Remembering Ali vs Spinks II Archived April 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, RingsideReport.com, Kevin "The Voice" Kincade, September 22, 2016.

36. ^ AP Archived November 12, 2020, at the Wayback Machine "Muhammad Ali's doctor doubts boxing led to Parkinson's", Associated Press via CBC, June 6. 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2018.

37. ^ Nack, William (December 21, 1981). "Not with a bang but a whisper". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016.

38. ^ Micklos, John Jr. (2010). Muhammad Ali: "I Am the Greatest". Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-7660-3381-8.

39. ^ Hauser, Thomas (2012). Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. Open Road Integrated Media. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-4532-4119-6.

40. ^ Hauser, Thomas (2012). Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. Open Road Integrated Media. p. 288. ISBN 978-1-4532-4119-6.

41. Allen, Nick (June 5, 2016), ^ "Could Muhammad Ali's $80m fortune become subject of bitter legal battle?" Archived June 20, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, The Daily Telegraph.

42. ^ Bucktin, Christopher (September 13, 2014). "Muhammad Ali's secret daughter begs to see boxing legend one more time 'before he dies'". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on June 5, 2016.

43. ^ Foster, Peter; Allen, Nick (June 4, 2016). "Muhammad Ali's tangled love life leaves troubled legacy". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022.

44. ^ "Temica Williams a/k/a Rebecca Jean Holloway, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Muhammad Ali, Defendant-Appellee". All Court Data. Archived from the original on October 19, 2016.

45. ^ Eig, Jonathan (2017). Ali: A Life. London: Simon & Schuster. p. 416. ISBN 978-1-4711-5593-2. OCLC 968294310.

46. ^ (subscription required)

47. ^

48. ^ Bercaw, Nancy; Ownby, Ted (eds.). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 13: Gender. p. 291.

49. ^ Ali, Muhammad; Ali, Hana Yasmeen (2013). The Soul of a Butterfly. Simon & Schuster. p. 85.

50. ^ "Muhammed Ali's Pilgrimage to Makkah (sic)". Emel. No. 17. February 2006. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016.

51. ^ "Muhammad Ali: The face of 'real Islam'". Al Jazeera. June 6, 2016. Archived from the original on February 17, 2020.

52. ^ "Family, faith and magic tricks: My 40-year friendship with Muhammad Ali". The Telegraph. March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022.

53. Archived at ^ Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Muhammad Ali Famous Interview After Defeating Foreman". YouTube. January 6, 2010.

54. ^

55. ^ Burkett, Harry, ed. (2007). "Historical Cards: WrestleMania I (03-31-1985)". PWI 2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of facts. Blue Bell, Pennsylvania: London Publishing. p. 84. ISBN 978-25274-00389.

56. ^

57. ^ "Academy Awards Show Ratings". TV by the Numbers. February 18, 2009. Archived from the original on October 8, 2016.

58. ^

59. "Annual Report 2016" (PDF). Muhammad Ali Center. January 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2020.

60. ^ Friedman, J. H. (1989). "Progressive parkinsonism in boxers". Southern Medical Journal. 82 (5): 543-546. doi:10.1097/00007611-198905000-00002. PMID 2655100.

61. ^

62. ^ Schilling, Vincent (June 4, 2016). "'The Greatest' Muhammad Ali Walks On". Indian Country Today Media Network. Archived from the original on August 21, 2016.

63. ^ Fuqua, Antoine (director) (2019). What's My Name: Muhammad Ali: Part II (Motion picture). HBO.

64. ^ Hauser 2004, p. 397

65. ^

66. ^ Hauser, Thomas (June 17, 2016).

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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 - June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed " the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.

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Fannie Lou Hammer's quote is on the wall of the community center in One Crazy Summer.

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Fannie Lou Hammer's quote is on the wall of the community center in One Crazy Summer.

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Archives of Women's Political Communication

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Hamer delivered this speech with Malcolm X at a rally at the Williams Institutional CME Church, Harlem, New York, that was organized to support the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's Congressional Challenge.
My name is Fannie Lou Hamer and I exist at 626 East Lafayette Street in Ruleville, Mississippi. The reason I say "exist" [is] because we're excluded from everything in Mississippi but the tombs and the graves. That's why it is called that instead of the "land of the free and the home of the brave." it's called in Mississippi "the land of the tree and the home of the grave."

It was the 31st of August of 1962, that eighteen of us traveled 26 miles to the county courthouse in Indianola, Mississippi, to try to register to become first-class citizens. It was the 31st of August in 1962, that I was fired for trying to become a first-class citizen.

When we got to Indianola on the 31st of August in 1962, we was met there by the state highway patrolmen, the city policemen and anybody - as some of you know that have worked in Mississippi, any white man that is able to wear a khaki pair of pants without them falling off him and holding two guns can make a good law officer - so we was met by them there.

After taking this literacy test, some of you have seen it, we have 21 questions and some is not questions. It began with: "Write the date of this application. What is your full name. By whom are you employed" - so we can be fired by the time we get back home - "Are you a citizen of the United States and an inhabitant of Mississippi. Have you ever been convicted of any of the following crimes." - when, if the people would be convicted of the following crimes, the registrar wouldn't be there. But after we go through this process of filling out this literacy form, we are asked to copy a section of the constitution of Mississippi and after we've copied this section of the constitution of Mississippi we are asked to give a reasonable interpretation to tell what it meant, what we just copied that we just seen for the first time.

After finishing this form, we started on this trip back to Ruleville, Mississippi, and we was stopped by the same city policeman that I had seen in IndianoIa and a state highway patrolman. We was ordered to get off the bus. After we got off the bus, we was ordered to get back on the bus and told to go back to Indianola. When we got back to Indianola the bus driver was charged with driving a bus the wrong color. That's very true. This same bus had been used year after year to haul people to the cotton fields to pick cotton and to chop cotton. But, this day, for the first time that this bus had been used for voter registration it had the wrong color. They first charged this man one hundred dollars. And from a hundred dollars they cut down to fifty. And from fifty to thirty, and after they got down to thirty dollars the eighteen of us had enough among ourselves to pay his fine.

[See Charlie Cobb Interview: Ruleville for additional information on the above incident.]

Then we continued this journey back to Ruleville. When we got to Ruleville, Reverend Jeff Sunny drove me out to this rural area where I had been existing for the past eighteen years as a timekeeper and a sharecropper. I was met there by my daughter and my husband's cousin that told me this man was raising a lot of Cain because I had went to Indianola. My oldest girl said that she believed I would have to leave there. Then my husband came and during the time he was talking this white man walked up and asked him had I made it back: And he told him I had. And he said, "Well, did you tell her what I said!" My husband told him he did and I walked out. He said, "Fannie Lou," he say, "did Pap tell you what I said!" And I told him he did. He said, "I mean that. You will have to go down and withdraw or you will have to leave."

I said, "Mr. Marlow," I said, "I wasn't trying to register for you today. I was trying to register for myself." And this was it. I had to leave that same night.

On the tenth of September in 1962, sixteen bullets were fired into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tucker, where I'd been living after I was fired from this plantation. That same night, two girls was shot in Ruleville. They also shot in Mr. Joe McDonald's home that same night. And until this day the place was swamped with FBI, until this day - it's a very small town where everybody knows everybody - it hadn't been one arrest made.

That's why about four months ago when the FBI came to talk to me about my life being threatened - they wanted to know what could I tell them about it - I told them until they straightened out some of the things that we had done happened, don't come asking about the things that just happened. Do something about the problems that we'd already had. And I made it plain. I said, "If there is a God and a heaven." I said, "if I was going to see you two up there, I would tell them to send me back to Mississippi because I know He wouldn't be just to let you up there." This probably don't sound too good to everybody, but if I can't tell the truth - just tell me to sit down - because I have to tell it like it is.

The 3rd day of June, we went to a voter educational workshop and was returning back to Mississippi. We arrived in Winona, Mississippi, between ten-thirty and eleven o'clock on the 9th of June. Some of the people got off the bus to go in the restaurant and two of the people got off the bus to use the washroom. I was still on the Continental Trailways bus and looking through the window, I saw the people rush out of the restaurant and then the two people rush out had got off to use the washroom. One of the people that had got off to use the washroom got on the bus and I got off the bus. I went straight to Miss [Annell] Ponder, it was five of them had got off the bus, six in all but one had got back on the bus, so that was five. I went to talk to Miss Ponder to ask of her what had happened. And she said that it was state highway patrolmen and a city chief of police had tapped them all on the shoulder with billy clubs and ordered them out. And I said, "Well, this is Mississippi."

I went back and got on the bus. When I looked back through the window they was putting those people in the patrolmen's car. I got off of the bus, holding the eyes of Miss Ponder and she screamed to tell me to get back on the bus when somebody screamed from her car and said, "Get that one, too." And a man jumped out of his car and said, "You are under arrest." As he went to open the door, he opened the door and told me to get in. And as I started to get in, he kicked me and I was carried to the county jailhouse by this county deputy and a plainclothesman. They would call me all kinds of names. They would ask me questions and when I would attempt to answer the questions, they would curse and tell me to hush.

I was carried to the county jail and when I got inside of the jail, they had the other five already in the booking room. When I walked in the booking room, one of the city policemen just walked over, a very tall man, walked over and jumped on one of the young men's feet, James West from Itta Bena, Mississippi. Then they began to place us in cells. They left some of the people out of the cell and I was placed in a cell with Miss Euvester Simpson from Itta Bena.

After they left the people in the booking room I began to hear the sounds of licks and I began to hear screams. I couldn't see the people, but I could hear them. And I would hear somebody when they would say, "Can't you say 'yes, sir: nigger? Can't you say 'yes, sir'?" And they would call Annell Ponder awful names.

And she would say, "Yes, I can say 'yes, sir."

And they would tell her, "Well, say it."

She said, "I don't know you well enough."

And I would hear when she would hit the floor again. I don't know how long this happened until after awhile I saw Miss Ponder pass my cell. And her clothes had been ripped off from the shoulder down to the waist. Her hair was standing up on her head. Her mouth was swollen and bleeding. And one of her eyes looked like blood. And they put her in a cell where I couldn't see her.

And then three men came to my cell. The state highway patrolman asked me where I was from. And I told him I was from Ruleville. He said, "We're going to check that." And they left the cell and after awhile they came back. And he told me, said, "You were right." he said. "You's from Ruleville all right and we going to make you wish you was dead." I was led out of that cell and into another cell where they had two Negro prisoners. The state highway patrolman gave the first Negro prisoner the blackjack. It was a long heavy leather something made with something you could hold it, and it was loaded with either rocks or something metal. And they ordered me to lie down on the bed on my face. And I was beat by that first Negro until he was exhausted. I was beat until he was ordered by the state highway patrolman to stop.

After he told the first Negro to stop, he gave the blackjack to the second Negro. When the second Negro began to beat, it seemed like it was more than I could bear. I began to work my feet, and the state highway patrolman ordered the first Negro that had beat me to set on my feet where I was kicking them. My dress worked up real high and I smoothed my clothes down. And one of the city policemens walked over and pulled my dress as high as he could. I was trying to shield as many licks from my left side as I could because I had polio when I was six or eight years old. But when they had finished beating me, they were, while they was beating, I was screaming. One of the white men got up and began to beat me in my head.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I went to a doctor in Washington, D.C, a specialist, and he said one of the arteries behind this left eye had a blood clot. After this happened in jail, we was in jail from Monday until Wednesday without seeing a doctor. They had our trial on Tuesday and we was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. I was in jail when Medgar Evers was killed.

What I'm trying to point out now is when you take a very close look at this American society, it's time to question these things. We have made an appeal for the president of the United States and the attorney general to please protect us in Mississippi. And I can't understand how it's out of their power to protect people in Mississippi. They can't do that, but when a white man is killed in the Congo, they send people there.

And you can always hear this long sob story: "You know it takes time." For three hundred years, we've given them time. And I've been tired so long, now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we want a change. We want a change in this society in America because, you see, we can no longer ignore the facts and getting our children to sing, "Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed." What do we have to hail here? The truth is the only thing going to free us. And you know this whole society is sick. And to prove just how sick it was when we was in Atlantic City challenging the National Convention, when I was testifying before the Credentials Committee, I was cut off because they hate to see what they been knowing all the time and that's the truth.

Yes, a lot of people will roll their eyes at me today but I'm going to tell you just like it is, you see, it's time - you see, this is what got all this like this, there's so much hypocrisy in this society and if we want America to be a free society we have to stop telling lies, that's all. Because we're not free and you know we're not free. You're not free here in Harlem. I've gone to a lot of big cities and I've got my first city to go to where this man wasn't standing with his feet on this black man's neck.

And it's time for you to wake up because, you see, a lot of people say, "Oh, they is afraid of integration." But the white man is not afraid of integration, not with his kids. He's afraid of his wife's kids because he's got them all over the place. Because some of his kids just might be my second cousin.

And the reason we're here today, we're asking for support if this Constitution is really going to be of any help in this American society, the 4th day of January is when we'll find it out. This challenge that we're challenging the five representatives from Mississippi; now how can a man be in Washington, elected by the people, when 95 percent of the people cannot vote in Mississippi? Just taking a chance on trying to register to vote, you can be fired. Not only fired, you can be killed. You know it's true because you know what happened to Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney. And any person that's working down there to change the system can be counted just as another nigger.

But some of the things I've got to say today may be a little sickening. People have said year after year, "Those people in Mississippi can't think." But after we would work ten and eleven hours a day for three lousy dollars and couldn't sleep we couldn't do anything else but think. And we have been thinking a long time. And we are tired of what's going on. And we want to see now, what this here will turn out for the 4th of January. We want to see is democracy real?

We want to see this because the challenge is based upon the violation of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which hadn't done anything for us yet. And the U.S. courts tied it to Section 201 and 226. Those people were illegally elected and they have been there - the man that I challenged, Jamie L. Whitten, has been in Washington thirteen years and he is not representing the people of Mississippi because not only do they discriminate against the poor Negroes, they discriminated up until the 3rd of November against the poor whites, but they let them vote because they wanted their votes. But it will run until the 1st of July and we need your support - morally, politically, and financially, too. We need your help.

And, people, you don't know in Harlem the power that you got. But you just don't try to use it. People never would have thought - the folks they said was just ignorant, common people out of Mississippi that would have tried to challenge the representatives from Mississippi. But you see the point is: we have been dying in Mississippi year after year for nothing. And I don't know, I may be bumped off as soon as I go back to Mississippi but what we should realize, people have been bumped off for nothing.

It is my goal for the cause of giving those Negro children a decent education in the state of Mississippi and giving them something that they have never had. Then I know my life won't be in vain. Because, not only do we need a change in the state of Mississippi, but we need a change here in Harlem. And it's time for every American citizen to wake up because now the whole world is looking at this American society. I remember, during the time I was in West Africa - some of you may be here today because I don't know what it's all about, but I know I can tell you the truth, too - it was a lot of people there that was called the PIAA. "What are you doing over here? Who are you trying to please?"

I said, "All you criticize us when you at home and you're worried to death when we try to find out about our own people." I said, "If we had been treated as human beings in America, you wouldn't be trailing us now to find out what we is trying to do over here."

But this is something we going to have to learn to do and quit saying that we are free in America when I know we are not free. You are not free in Harlem. The people are not free in Chicago, because I've been there, too. They are not free in Philadelphia, because I've been there, too. And when you get it over with all the way around, some of the places is a Mississippi in disguise. And we want a change. And we hope you support us in this challenge that we'll begin on the 4th of January. And give us what support that you can.

Thank you.

Copyright © Fannie Lou Hamer. 1964.

As published in "Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer, To Tell It Like It Is."

Retrieved on July 17, 2019 from https://www.crmvet.org/docs/flh64.htm.

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I'm Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired - Dec. 20, 1964

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December 20, 2019 | Harlem, New York] Hamer delivered this speech with Malcolm X at a rally at the Williams Institutional CME Church, Harlem, New York, that was organized to support the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party's Congressional Challenge.

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Brenda & the Tabulations - Dry Your Eyes

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Silence is golden but my eyes will still see- Vonetta hums this at dinner when Cecile tells her to be quiet. 

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Silence is golden but my eyes will still see- Vonetta hums this at dinner when Cecile tells her to be quiet. 

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One page explaining the ideology of the Black Power era

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One page explaining the ideology of the Black Power era

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Radical Solutions

Huey Pierce Newton was the child of Black migrants who had left the Jim Crow South in the early 1950s in search of a better life in California.

He grew up in Oakland, in a hardworking, disciplined, religious household, in which education and dignity were stressed. While attending Oakland City College in the early 1960s, Newton, like so many Black Americans, had become disillusioned by the nonviolent Civil Rights Movement, frustrated by its limitations and failures, and determined to find new solutions to the problems of day-to-day racism.

Instead of studying the Christian philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., he chose to read the works of more radical, nationalist leaders such as Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, and Malcolm X.

While in college, Newton struck up a friendship with another student, Bobby Seale.

Seale attended Oakland's Merritt College where he studied engineering and politics. Like Newton, he had become especially interested in Black liberation struggles in Africa, and espoused the Black Power philosophy of Malcolm X.

After hearing the militant Black leader speak, he decided he would become a soldier in the struggle against inequality.

The Ten Point Program

Together in 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale conceived of a new civil rights organization, one quite different from those led by nonviolent leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis.

As a response to police brutality and economic oppression in their communities, they created the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, a "revolutionary" group that would demand more political and economic power for their people. In their "Ten-Point Program," they detailed the goals of the Party:

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
2. We want full employment for our people.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black Community.
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people.
8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county, and city prisons and jails.
9. We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.

Guns and Pigs

Newton and Seale were especially concerned about racism rampant in law enforcement. They sought to "neutralize the police force," which they viewed as the worst perpetrator of crimes against Black people.

Utilizing California law, which in 1966 protected a citizen's right to carry an unconcealed loaded weapon, Black Panthers took up arms, followed police officers, and monitored their activity. By proving to the Oakland community that police were vulnerable to intimidation, the Panthers hoped to help demystify white society and empower Black people to challenge the racial injustices inherent in it.

Newton, the self-appointed Party Chairman, believed, too, that the organization should lead Black communities by example. Each member was to participate in outreach programs, including providing free breakfast for school children, tutoring adults in English and math, and offering assistance to the elderly and the disabled.

In addition, Panthers were to talk with citizens about solutions to illiteracy, unemployment, homelessness, and fear.

Much like Bob Moses and the Freedom Summer volunteers, the Black Panthers sought to instill courage in people living under economic and social oppression and to motivate them to seek equality. But unlike earlier nonviolent movements, the Panthers encouraged people to use any means necessary to fight racial discrimination, including a call to "Off the Pigs!" "Pig" was the Panthers' derogatory term for the police.

The Risks and Rewards of Rhetoric

These strategies led J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, to declare the Black Panther Party the number one threat to the security of the United States. Federal and state authorities under the supervision of Hoover advised police officers to "beware of the Panthers" who were "armed, aggressive, and extremely violent."

By committing themselves to violent confrontation, Panther men risked their safety, security, and freedom. Women, too, put their lives on the line, and pregnant Panthers, like Deborah Johnson, Elaine Brown, and Assata Shakur who managed to pair motherhood with revolution, were doubly vulnerable.

With media coverage of shootouts, murders, and court trials involving the Black Panther Party, the nation learned of the organization. For a growing number of people, Black and white, the panther became the most recognized symbol of "Black Power," and Huey Newton the most recognized face of armed civil rights struggles.

Some were frightened by the image of young, African Americans dressed in dark clothing, toting shotguns and rifles, and declaring that, "The revolution has come!"

Others were inspired. "The Panthers were 'baaaaaad,'" Assata Shakur remembers. "The sheer audacity of walking onto the California Senate floor with rifles, demanding that black people have the right to bear arms and the right to self-defense, made me sit back and take a long look at them."

By the mid 1970s, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense had grown immensely popular-particularly among Black inner-city youths-and had spread across the nation, establishing chapters in several major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, and Boston.

The Decline of the Party

This rapid expansion, however, contributed to the downfall of the organization.

According to Huey Newton, new members, many young, energetic, and angry, sought to emulate the image of the Panther-wield a gun and raise a fist-before understanding the deeper, long-term goals of the Party.

New recruits failed to become involved in community programs, showed little interest in registering voters or distributing the Party newspaper, and failed to attend required classes on economics and political strategies.

Leaders lost control, and without the kind of solid structure that maintained organizations like the NAACP and SNCC, the Black Panther Party become wholly vulnerable to infighting, corruption, and efforts by the FBI to destroy the organization. By the mid-1970s, the Party had collapsed.

Despite its many troubles, the group left behind a legacy of direct action and Black pride, which would influence a new generation of urban youths.

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civil rights movement: "black power" era

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Ideology in Civil Rights Movement: “Black Power” Era

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Historical analysis of Ideology in Civil Rights Movement: “Black Power” Era. Civil Rights Movement: “Black Power” Era through the lens of Ideology

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Say it Loud | PBS Digital Studios | Brand Logo

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Are You “Black” or “African American?” | Say It Loud | PBS LearningMedia

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Throughout American history people of the African Diaspora have been called so many things...all the things...but what does it truly mean, and how does it impact or affect the way we see ourselves?

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John Lewis | Civil Rights Movement | PBS LearningMedia

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Explore the life and legacy of John Lewis, a civil rights activist and former U.S. Congressman. Raised on a cotton field in rural Alabama, Lewis served on the frontline of the civil rights movement to end systematic racial segregation. From speaking at the March on Washington to enduring severe beatings as he participated in the Freedom Rides, John Lewis continued the fight for equality as a U.S. Congressman.

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The 1960s brought upheaval and dramatic changes to American life—political, economic, social, and cultural. It was a time filled with contrasts: optimism and tragedy, innocence and disenchantment, success and failure.