|
As for the law (if it be law) which has
convicted me, I regard it as a burlesque upon the constitution - as pitiful
as it is abhorrent and atrocious. It affords a fresh illustration of the
sentiment of an able writer, that "of all injustice, that is greatest which
goes under the name of Law; and of all sorts of tyranny, the forcing of
the letter of the Law against the equity, is the most insupportable."
Many hear the term 'radical' and automatically begin to think the worst. Such is the power of mass media projection and the forces of social conformity, that this is so. Who, or what, is a radical? The word literally means: root. In political speech, it is used to characterize those who depart politically from what is considered the norm. In American history, much of what we now take as the norm is in fact, a reflection of what was once considered quite radical. Much of what we consider as an inherent right, such as the 40 hour work week, worker's compensation, women's rights, black pride, etc. are all features of radical American history, and of rights garnered after long hard, arduous, and oftimes bloody struggle. The abolition movement, under the esteemed Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and the like, was a movement against the status quo, and therefore, the most powerful forces in American life - property (human beings held as chattel). It was seen, and projected, by some, as almost demonic in character! William Lloyd Garrison, for example, was in high umbrage when he challenged the churches of his day, which were largely silent or supportive of the slave system. "Religious professors of all denominations must bear unqualified testimony against slavery. No slaveholder ought to be embraced within the pale of a Christian church; consequently the churches must be purified as by fire!" [Papke, D.R. Heretics in the Temple (19980)]. The abolitionist struggle, which seems so much accepted as a force on the right side of history, was, in Garrison's time, seen and depicted as the forces of a serious evil - a challenge to the so-called sacred rules of property. Elizabeth Cady Stanton challenged male patriarchy, and Eugene Debs, through his union organizing and socialist theory, challenged the citadel of Capitalism. Black journalist Ida B. Wells challenged the American apartheid custom of lynchings. To the extent that there is a women's movement, a union movement, and lynchings are no longer a daily occurrence (Jasper, Texas notwithstanding) these are manifestations of the impact of radical movements in American social, labor and political history. In this context, enter the Black Panther Party. As one of the most boldly audacious revolutionary organizations to arise in the 1960's, the Party blazed relatively shortly, but exceedingly bright. The principles of Black militance, self-determination, and black self-assertion were reflections and emanations of the party's multifaceted message. Yet the Party is remembered for its conflicts with the state, a level and degree of conflict that is regarded as a kind of "legal heresy", according to one scholar, who observes: The primary target of Panther hatred and distrust was law enforcement, in particular the urban police department, and the designation of specific instances and extended patterns of police misconduct was central in the Panthers' legal heresy. The best evidence, perhaps, of the coherence and potential of the Panther critique of law enforcement was the police response to it. Both in the Panthers' Oakland home and at a national level, the police suppressed the Panthers and muffled their heresy. A study of the Panthers illustrates the type of legal heresy which might be generated by an African American underclass, but the ultimate fate of the Panthers also illustrates the dangers of articulating a legal heresy that challenges law enforcement and the legal faith too effectively. [Papke, David R., Heretics in the Temple (New York: NYU Press, 1998)m p. 107.] The Black Panther Party, then, damned by the state and relegated to the bitter margins of a kind of sub history, were, at the heart of a radical tradition that challenges the legal faith of what America claims to be. Like those who came a century before (Stanton, Debs, Garrison, Douglass, etc.) the leadership and membership of the Black Panther Party chose to test the claims set out by the American Empire against a history that reflected another reality. For so doing they suffered an all-out assault that indeed continues to this day. Men like Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Anthony Jalil Bottoms, Bashir Hameed, Abdul Majid, Elmore Johnson, Sekou Odinga, Russell Shoatz,, and Albert Nuh Washington (among others) were members of a black revolutionary formation that colors their lives and judicial/administrative treatment to this day as political prisoners and prisoners of war. They were Panthers who fought for the establishment of black revolutionary power for Black folks in the barren ghettoes of America, They should not be forgotten. For More Information please write:
©MAJ 1998 |
Radical
America