Black Liberation Army

American underground, black nationalist militant organization

Not to be confused with Baloch Liberation Army, a militant outfit in South Asia.

Black Liberation Army

Logo of the Black Liberation Army

Leaders|

* Assata Shakur
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Twymon Myers

Dates of operation| 1970–1981
Split from| Black Panther Party
Active regions| United States
Ideology| Marxism–Leninism[1]
Black nationalism
Political position| Far-left
Part of| Black power movement
Battles and wars|

* 1972 Delta Air Lines Flight 841 hijacking
* 1981 Brink's robbery

This article is part of a series about

Black power

History

* Black Arts Movement
* Black is beautiful
* Black power movement
* Black Power Revolution
* Kwanzaa
* Raised fist events of 1968 and 1972

Ideologies

* African socialism
* Africana womanism
* Afrocentrism
* Anti-Americanism
* Black anarchism
* Black feminism
* Black leftism
* Black nationalism
* Black pride
* Black separatism
* Black supremacy
* Intercommunalism
* Pan-Africanism
* Garveyism

Organizations

* African People's Socialist Party
* Assata's Daughters
* Black Guerrilla Family
* Black Liberators
* Black Liberation Army
* Black Panther Militia
* Black Panther Party
* Black Radical Congress
* Black Revolutionary Assault Team
* Black Riders Liberation Party
* Black Women's Defense League
* British Black Panthers
* Conscious Community
* Five-Percent Nation
* George Jackson Brigade
* Huey P. Newton Gun Club
* League of Revolutionary Black Workers
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* May 19th Communist Organization
* MOVE
* Nation of Islam
* National Joint Action Committee
* New Black Panther Party
* Republic of New Afrika
* Revolutionary Action Movement
* Revolutionary Black Panther Party
* SNCC
* Symbionese Liberation Army
* US Organization
* Weather Underground

People

* Angela Davis
* Assata Shakur
* Donald DeFreeze
* Elaine Brown
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Fred Hampton
* George Jackson
* Gloria Richardson
* Hakim Jamal
* Huey P. Newton
* John Africa
* Malcolm X
* Marcus Garvey
* Martin Luther King, Jr.
* Maulana Karenga
* Malik Zulu Shabazz
* Michael X
* Max Stanford
* Obi Egbuna
* Robert F. Williams
* Rosa Parks
* Stokely Carmichael
* Wadsworth Jarrell

Works

* A Taste of Power
* Black Power and the American Myth
* Ten-Point Program
* The Diary of Malcolm X
* Revolutionary Suicide

Related

* Anarchism
* Black Lives Matter
* Black Power gang
* Black Power in the Caribbean
* Black Power in Montreal
* Communism
* Feminism
* Hutu Power
* New Left
* Political hip hop
* Red Power movement
* Socialism
* The Troubles
* United States civil rights movement
* White power
* Youth rights

* Category

* v
* t
* e

The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground Marxist–Leninist, black-nationalist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981. Composed of former Black Panthers (BPP)[2] and Republic of New Afrika (RNA) members who served above ground before going underground, the organization's program was one of war against the United States government, and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States." Groups calling themselves the BLA carried out bombings, killings of police officers and random Caucasians,[3] robberies (which participants termed "expropriations"), and prison breaks.[4]

## Background

[edit]

The eventual emergence of the Black Liberation Army was made possible by several clandestine organizations and an 'underground' armed wing of the Black Panther Party,[5] dispersed throughout the United States, which prioritized armed self-defense and struggle against the police and white vigilantism.

One such organization was the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), founded in 1962 in close association with self-defense advocates like Queen Mother Moore and Robert F. Williams, but also communist intellectuals like James and Grace Lee Boggs. In 1964 Robert Williams published a study of the possibilities of guerrilla warfare in the United States in RAM's paper The Crusader,[6] which helped popularize clandestine armed tactics in RAM and adjacent circles. It was the first step in a transition from armed self-defense to armed struggle against a political enemy.[7]

> The new concept is to huddle as close to the enemy as possible so as to neutralize his modern and fierce weapons. The new concept creates conditions that involve the total community, whether they want to be involved or not. It sustains a state of confusion and destruction of property. It dislocates the organs of harmony and order and reduces central power to the level of a helpless, sprawling, octopus. During the hours of day sporadic rioting takes place and massive sniping. Night brings all out warfare, organized fighting and unlimited terror against the oppressor and his forces.[8]

A later article on the same topic specified some of the tactics that black armed groups would have to use in the United States:

> Armed defense guards would have to be formed throughout the land. These groups would be organized within the confines of the law and when possible become sporting rifle clubs affiliated with the National Rifle Association. They would function only as defense units to safeguard life, limb and property in the ghetto communities. Some form of central direction would be necessary. A tightly organized and well disciplined underground guerilla force would also have to be formed to perform a more aggressive mission.[9]

In New York City, RAM cadre were the armed security for Malcolm X after his split from the Nation of Islam.[10] In 1966, members of RAM would guide the nascent New York branch of the Black Panther Party through political education and established its armed wing, then called the Black Guards.[11] These RAM cadre would influence the East coast BPP's more militant tactical outlook when compared with the Oakland headquarters.[12][13]

The Black Panther Party on the West coast "differed with RAM's clandestine posture" but nonetheless "organized an underground from its earliest days." This underground armed wing was decentralized, formed out of cells communicating on a need-to-know basis, all "part of a movement concept called the Black Liberation Army."[14][15] Its membership was broader than the BPP's, and incorporated gangs whose leadership had been folded into the Party. Bunchy Carter, as the BPP's Southern California Minister of Defense, incorporated some of the Slausons, a gang which he had formerly led, to build a clandestine armed wing for the Party. After Carter was assassinated in a FBI-orchestrated feud with the US Organization in 1969, Geronimo Pratt assumed leadership of the BPP's underground armed wing. In this capacity he organized underground formations throughout the United States, especially in the South.[16]

Huey Newton's release from prison in 1970 would destabilize the fragile peace between the West and East coast Black Panther Party, and would reverse course on clandestine militancy in the South which Pratt had initiated during Newton's imprisonment. FBI counterintelligence operations were designed to inflame existing tensions and prevent cooperation between disparate representatives of the black liberation movement.[17] A combination of this meddling and the influence of BPP members convinced Newton to expel Geronimo Pratt from the Party, denounce the BPP membership involved in arming and training Southern cadre, and eventually expel the entire New York chapter of the Black Panther Party from the organization.[18][19] This expulsion took shape on tactical lines: Newton was uncomfortable with a national network of clandestine armed units answerable to Pratt but not to him, and was concerned that the armed wing was outpacing the Party's above-ground initiatives.[20][21]

Simultaneous with the establishment and breakdown of the Black Panther Party was the rise and plateau of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika, which envisioned the establishment of a sovereign state in the Black belt. This project took on a project proposed by Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, and involved many of RAM's early supporters, including Queen Mother Moore and Robert F. Williams, along with former SNCC chairman H. Rap Brown.[22] Veterans of the BPP, PG-RNA, RAM itself, and other local organizations would populate the BLA.

## Formation and Development

[edit]

Because it was not an official organization, was not centrally coordinated, and consisted of multiple groups with different timelines, it is difficult to note exactly when and where the BLA emerged out of the pre-existing underground. In some cities, the Black Liberation Army was not connected to or aware of other more coordinated groups of cells, as was the case in Philadelphia, where the BLA formed out of repeat members of the Black Unity Council and the city's chapter of the Black Panther Party.[23] During its early years, as member Assata Shakur notes, it "was not a centralized, organized group with a common leadership and chain of command. Instead, there were various organizations and collectives working together and simultaneously independent of each other."[24] At least by 1970, due to police and FBI sabotage, infiltration, internal disunity, mass imprisonment of members, lengthy prison sentences, and the assassination of key members including Fred Hampton, the party's membership was shrinking and its leadership was responding by closing ranks. Many former Panthers defected to the BLA after Eldridge Cleaver's expulsion from the Party during this period.[25] Others simply emphasized clandestinity and armed struggle in response to police repression and assassinations. The New York chapter of the BLA was committed to "defend Black people, to fight for Black people, and to organize Black people militarily, so they can defend themselves through a people's army and people's war."[26]

The BLA was initially decentralized and autonomous, split geographically and without pretense to ideological unity beyond endorsement of black liberation and typically revolutionary socialism. By the mid-1970s, however, ideological fractures had emerged within the milieu, and "a 'Call to Consolidate'" titled 'Message to the Black Movement' "was issued to create a unified organization. The majority of the BLA who accepted consolidation formed a completely separate group" referred to as the Black Liberation Army - Coordinating Committee; these members largely deferred to imprisoned leadership for strategic guidance and were "involved in the factional struggle" within the PG-RNA.[27] The call to consolidate outlined the majority group's political stance, rejecting reformism as "based on unprincipled class collaboration with our enemy"[28] and asserting the following principles:

1. That we are anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti-sexist.
2. That we must of necessity strive for the abolishment of these systems and for the institution of socialistic relationships in which Black people have total and absolute control over their own destiny as a people.
3. That in order to abolish our systems of oppression, we must utilize the science of class struggle, develop this science as it relates to our unique national condition.

In this 1976 statement, the BLA-CC allowed "principled" and "tactical" unity with revolutionary whites; this would guarantee that the revolutionary Black organization made determining decisions both strategically and tactically during the collaboration and guarded against whites using the BLA for their own benefit.[28]

A substantial number of New York Black Liberation Army members did not accept this consolidation effort, and continued to release communiques under the auspices of the BLA in general. By the 1980s, this minority grouping had formed the Revolutionary Armed Task Force, a fusion of veterans of the BLA on one hand and the Weather Underground Organization on the other. The latter were operating as the May 19th Communist Organization, a cell responsible for a series of bombings and robberies. It sought to re-energize the armed struggle in the United States and fund a retrenchment of Black nationalist revolutionary politics that had been eclipsed by the defeat of the movement in the mid-seventies.[29] The alliance between the white anti-imperialist underground and the Black revolutionary nationalist underground caused a great deal of controversy among other groupings in the BLA and PG-RNA, amid accusations that members of the RATF were trafficking drugs and running prostitution rings, Kathy Boudin's guilty plea and dissociation from the movement in exchange for a more lenient sentence, and unsubstantiated accusations that the RATF had been a counterinsurgent 'pseudo-gang' directed by US intelligence.[30]

## Activities

[edit]

### 1970–72: Attacks

[edit]

According to a Justice Department report on BLA activity, the Black Liberation Army was suspected of involvement in over 70 incidents of violence between 1970 and 1976.[31] The Fraternal Order of Police blamed the BLA for the murders of 13 police officers.[32]

On October 22, 1970, the BLA was believed to have planted a bomb in St. Brendan's Church in San Francisco while it was full of mourners attending the funeral of San Francisco police officer Harold Hamilton, who had been killed in the line of duty while responding to a bank robbery. The bomb was detonated, but no one in the church suffered serious injuries.[33]

Herman Bell FBI Most Wanted Poster in 1973

On May 21, 1971, as many as five men participated in the murder of two New York City police officers, Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones. Those arrested and brought to trial for the shootings include Anthony Bottom (a.k.a. Jalil Muntaqim), Albert Washington, Francisco Torres, Gabriel Torres, and Herman Bell.[34]

On August 29, 1971, three armed men murdered 51-year-old San Francisco police sergeant John Victor Young while he was working at a desk in his police station, which was almost empty at the time due to a bombing attack on a bank that took place earlier – only one other officer and a civilian clerk were there. Two days later, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter signed by the BLA claiming responsibility for the attack. Sergeant Young was shot and killed using a stolen police issued revolver, belonging to Patrolman Waverly Jones, killed in May of 1971. [35][36]

On November 3, 1971, Officer James R. Greene of the Atlanta Police Department was shot and killed in his patrol van at a gas station. His wallet, badge, and weapon were taken, and the evidence at the scene pointed to two suspects. The first was Twymon Myers (suspected to be one of the group's leaders[37]), who was killed in a police shootout in 1973, and the second was Freddie Hilton (a.k.a. Kamau Sadiki), who evaded capture until 2002, when he was arrested in New York City on a separate charge and was recognized as one of the men wanted in the Greene murder. Apparently, the two men had attacked the officer to gain standing with their compatriots within Black Liberation Army.[38]

On January 27, 1972, the Black Liberation Army assassinated police officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie at the corner of 174 Avenue B in New York City. After the killings, a note sent to authorities portrayed the murders as a retaliation for the prisoner deaths during the 1971 Attica Prison riot. Two suspects died in "unrelated shootouts with cops — one in New York, and one in St. Louis, with Laurie's gun in his car" and a third was sentenced in 2016 to 21 years for selling heroin to undercover police.[39] Another suspect, Henry Brown, was tried for the murders and found not guilty.[40] Evidence found at the scene has since been lost.[41]

### 1972–79: Actions and flights

[edit]

See also: American fugitives in Cuba

On July 31, 1972, five armed individuals hijacked Delta Air Lines Flight 841 en route from Detroit to Miami, eventually collecting a ransom of $1 million and diverting the plane, after passengers were released, to Algeria. The authorities there seized the ransom but allowed the group to flee. Four were eventually caught by French authorities in Paris, where they were convicted of various crimes, but one—George Wright—remained a fugitive until September 26, 2011, when he was captured in Portugal.[42] Portuguese courts rejected the initial pledge for extradition. American authorities may still appeal this decision.

In another high-profile incident, Assata Shakur, Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were said to have opened fire on state troopers in New Jersey after being pulled over for a broken taillight. Zayd Shakur and state trooper Werner Foerster were both killed during the exchange; Assata Shakur was shot in the back and the arm. Following her capture, Assata Shakur was tried in six different criminal trials.[43][44][45] According to Shakur, she was beaten and tortured during her incarceration in a number of different federal and state prisons. The charges against them ranged from kidnapping to assault and battery to bank robbery. Assata Shakur was found guilty by an all-white jury of the murder of both Foerster and her companion Zayd Shakur, but escaped prison in 1979. Shakur eventually fled to Cuba and received political asylum there. Acoli was convicted of killing Foerster and sentenced to life in prison.[46]

### 1981: Brinks robbery

[edit]

Main article: 1981 Brink's robbery

The BLA was active in the US until at least 1981 when a Brink's truck robbery, conducted with support from former Weather Underground members Kathy Boudin, David Gilbert and Judith Alice Clark, left a guard and two police officers dead. Boudin, Gilbert and Clark along with several BLA and May 19th Communist Organization members, were subsequently arrested.[47][48]

## Aftermath

[edit]

### Anarchist sympathies

[edit]

Main article: Black anarchism

Following the collapse of the BLA, some members — including Ashanti Alston, Donald Weems (a.k.a. Kuwasi Balagoon), and Ojore Lutalo — became outspoken proponents of anarchism. Weems died in prison of an AIDS-related disease in 1986. Alston remains active in prison support and other activist circles. Lutalo was released from prison in 2009 after serving 28 years on charges related to a shootout with a drug dealer in 1981 (and parole violation stemming from his conviction for a 1975 bank robbery), during which time he was punished with solitary confinement for receiving anarchist literature. While incarcerated, the Anarchist Black Cross Federation gave him support.[49]

On January 26, 2010, Lutalo was arrested for endangering public transportation while on an Amtrak train to New Jersey, after attending the Anarchist Book Fair in Los Angeles, being mistakenly identified as making terrorist threats on his cell phone. The charge was dropped for lack of evidence, and Lutalo settled a suit against the city of La Junta, Colorado, where his arrest was made, for an undisclosed amount.[50]

### Later trials

[edit]

Main article: San Francisco 8

In January 2007, eight men, labelled the San Francisco 8, were charged by a joint state and federal task force with John Young's murder.[51] The defendants have been identified as former members of the Black Liberation Army.[52] A similar case was dismissed in 1975 when a judge ruled that police gathered evidence through the use of torture. On June 29, 2009, Herman Bell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Sgt. Young. In July 2009, charges were dropped against four of the accused: Ray Boudreaux, Henry W. Jones, Richard Brown and Harold Taylor. That same month, Jalil Muntaquim pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter, becoming the second person to be convicted in this case.[53]

### Legacy

[edit]

Black Liberation Army members were cited as an influence by founders of the Black Lives Matter movement.[54]

Ex-BLA member and fugitive Assata Shakur is considered "a hero to many US left-wing activists."[55] She is celebrated by some groups, including the organizers of the 2017 Women's March,[56][57] and Black power group Assata's Daughters.[58]

## List of members and associates

[edit]

### Members in prison, as of 2023

[edit]

* Kojo Bomani Sababu (formerly Grailing Brown); convicted of bank robbery in 1975.[59]
* Kamau Sadiki (formerly Freddie Hilton); convicted on October 13, 2002, and was sentenced to life in prison for the 1971 murder of Atlanta police officer Jim Greene.[60]
* Fred ‘Muhammad’ Burton; one of the Philadelphia Five.[61][62][23]
* Joseph Bowen.[61][62][63]

Arthur Lee Washington FBI Most Wanted Poster in 1989

### Fugitives

[edit]

* Assata Shakur (formerly JoAnne Chesimard); named on the Most Wanted list by the FBI—the first woman ever to make the list.[64] She is believed to be living in Cuba under political asylum. She escaped custody in 1979 after being convicted in the May 2, 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.[65]
* George Wright; escaped convict and 1972 hijacker; living in Portugal, which has refused to extradite him to the U.S.
* Arthur Lee Washington Jr.; FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive #427, wanted for 1989 attempted murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Removed from list in December 2000 as no longer meeting criteria.

Mutulu Shakur FBI Most Wanted Poster in 1982

### Other members and associates

[edit]

* Sundiata Acoli (formerly Clark Edward Squire); convicted along with Assata Shakur of the murder of a New Jersey state trooper in 1973.[66] Released in May 2022.[67]
* Timothy Adams; died in shooting 1973.[68]
* Ashanti Alston; convicted for bank robbery in 1974. Released 1985.
* John Clark Andaliwa; died in shooting, 1976.[68]
* Atlanta cell
* Ronald Anderson; member of the Atlanta cell.
* Robert Brown; member of the Atlanta cell.
* John Leo Thomas; leader of the Atlanta, GA cell.
* Avon White; member of the Atlanta cell.
* Kuwasi Balagoon (formerly Donald Weems); one of the Panther 21 and later convicted for involvement in the 1981 Brink's robbery. Died in prison 13 December 1986.
* Silvia Baraldini; convicted in 1983 for participation in BLA actions. Repatriated in 1999 and paroled in 2006.
* Dhoruba bin Wahad (born Richard Earl Moore); one of the Panther 21, co-founder of the BLA, and established the Campaign to Free Black and New African Political Prisoners. Convicted for attempted murder in 1973 and released in 1990, subsequently winning lawsuits against the FBI and NYPD.
* Marilyn Buck; convicted for participation in the 1981 Brink's robbery, the escape of Assata Shakur, and other incidents. Released and died in 2010.
* Safiya Bukhari (formerly Bernice Jones); convicted on multiple charges in 1975, escaped 1976, recaptured 1977, paroled 1983.
* Alfred Butler; died in shooting 1975.[68]
* Ronald Carter; died in shooting 1972.[68]
* Judith Alice Clark; convicted for participation in the 1981 Brink's robbery. Released in 2019.
* Jacob John Dougan Jr.; convicted of two murders of random Caucasians in Florida. Currently on death row.[69]
* Frank 'Heavy' Fields, died in shooting 1971.[68]
* Cliff 'Lumumba' Futch[61]
* David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin; both sent to prison for their role in the 1981 Brink's robbery.[70] Gilbert was released in 2021.[71] Boudin was released in 2003 and died in 2022.[72]
* Bashir Hameed (formerly James Dixon York) (died in prison August 30, 2008) and Anthony LaBorde (a.k.a. Abdul Majid) (died in prison on April 3, 2016); convicted of the murder of a police officer in 1981.
* Robert Seth Hayes; convicted of the murder of a NYC Transit Police Officer. Released in 2018 and died in 2019.[73]
* Wayne 'Musa' Henderson; died in shooting following a prison escape, 1977[61]
* Phyliss 'Oshun' Hill[61]
* Ruchell 'Cinque' Magee; perpetrator of Marin County Civic Center attacks, released in July 2023.[74]
* Arthur 'Cetawayo' Johnson[61]
* Jamal Joseph; American writer, director, producer, poet, activist, and educator. Member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was prosecuted as one of the Panther 21 and spent six years incarcerated at Leavenworth Penitentiary.[75]
* Robert 'Saeed' Joyner[61]
* Melvin Kearney; died in escape attempt, 1976.[68]
* Ojore Lutalo; convicted following a shootout with a drug dealer, released 2009.[76]
* Twymon Ford Myers, died in shooting 1973.[68]
* Jalil Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom); one of the New York Three convicted of killing two policemen. Released from prison in October 2020 after over 49 years of incarceration and 11 parole denials.[77][78][79]
* Sekou Odinga (formerly Nathaniel Burns); one of the Panther 21 and later convicted of six counts of attempted murder for participation in the 1981 Brink's robbery and other incidents. Released 2014.
* Susan Rosenberg; convicted in 1985 for possession of explosives, released 2001.
* Harold Russell; died in shooting 1971.[68]
* Mutulu Shakur (formerly Jeral Wayne Williams); charged with conspiracy in 1979 BLA prison break of Assata Shakur, FBI's top ten Fugitive #380. Captured in 1986 and convicted in 1988 of participating in the 1981 Brink's robbery, he received a 60-year sentence in a federal prison. Incarcerated in Victorville, he was released in December 2022.[68] He died in 2023. Shakur was stepfather to the late rap artist Tupac Shakur.
* Zayd Malik Shakur (formerly James F. Coston); died in shooting 1973.[68]
* Russell Maroon Shoatz (August 23, 1943 – December 17, 2021); convicted of the murder of a police officer in 1972. Was granted compassionate release due to advanced cancer and died less than two months later, in 2021.[80]
* Samuel Smith (a.k.a. Mtayari Shabaka Sundiata); died in shooting, 1981.[68]
* William Turk (a.k.a. Sekou Kambui); convicted of two murders in Alabama. Released 2014.
* Albert Washington (died in prison April 28, 2000) and Herman Bell (released 2018); two of the New York Three convicted of the murder of two New York City police officers in 1971.[81]
* Anthony White (a.k.a. Kimu Olugbala), and Woodie Greene (a.k.a. Changa Olugbala); died in shooting 1973.[68]

## See also

[edit]

* Badge of the Assassin
* Black Anarchism
* Black Guerrilla Family
* Black Revolutionary Assault Team
* George Jackson Brigade
* May 19th Communist Organization
* New Black Panther Party
* Propaganda of the deed
* Republic of New Afrika
* Symbionese Liberation Army
* Vanguardism
* Weather Underground

## References

[edit]

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3. ^ "A Look Back: Copy boy delivered key to case".
4. ^ Cleaver, Kathleen; Katsiaficas, George (2014). Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Black Panthers and Their Legacy. Routledge. p. 12\. ISBN 9781135298326.
5. ^ Ujoma, Akinyele (1999). "Repression Breeds Resistance: the Black Liberation Army and the radical legacy of the Black Panther Party". New Political Science. 21 (2): 131–137\. doi:10.1080/07393149908429859.
6. ^ Ujoma 1999, p. 134
7. ^ Stanford, Maxwell (2007). We Will Return in the Whirlwind: Black Radical Organizations 1960-1975. Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company. pp. 115–16\. ISBN 978-0-88286-314-6.
8. ^ Williams, Robert (May 1964). "Revolution Without Violence?" (PDF). The Crusader. 5 (2): 298.
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12. ^ Umoja 1999, 138
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16. ^ Ujoma, p. 136–7
17. ^ Umoja 1999, p. 139
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19. ^ Stanford 2007, p. 206
20. ^ Vasquez, Delio (June 11, 2018). "Intercommunalism: The Late Theorizations of Huey P. Newton, 'Chief Theoretician' of the Black Panther Party". Viewpoint Magazine. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
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33. ^ "Police Officer Harold Hamilton". Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
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37. ^ Kaufman, Michael (16 November 1973). "Slaying of One of the Last Black Liberation Army Leaders Still at Large Ended a 7-Month Manhunt". The New York Times.
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40. ^ Conlon, Edward (19 July 2018). "The War at Home: Remembering Foster and Laurie". NYPD.
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44. ^ Walter H. Waggoner (1977-03-26). "Joanne Chesimard Convicted in Killing Of Jersey Trooper". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
45. ^ Joseph F. Sullivan (1977-03-25). "Chesimard Jury Asks Clarification of Assault Charges". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-06-23. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
46. ^ Richard J. h Johnston (1974-03-16). "Squire Sentenced to, Life For Killing State Trooper". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2020-06-21.
47. ^ "The Brinks Robbery of 1981". the Crime Library. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
48. ^ "Under Fire: The Death of the Black Liberation Army | The FBI Files S3 EP14". 10 October 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21 – via YouTube.
49. ^ "Ojore". Abcf.net. Archived from the original on 2016-04-16. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
50. ^ Cardona, Felisa. "La Junta to settle lawsuit with man who was wrongfully jailed". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
51. ^ "Ex-militants charged in S.F. police officer's '71 slaying at station". SFGate. 2007-01-24. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
52. ^ Black Liberation Army tied to 1971 slaying Archived February 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine (via USA Today)
53. ^ "2nd guilty plea in 1971 killing of S.F. officer". SFGate. 2009-07-07. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
54. ^ "A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza – The Feminist Wire". Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved 2025-01-05. "When I use Assata's powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata's significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why it's important in our context."
55. ^ "Sundiata Acoli: US Black Panther wins parole after half a century". 2022-05-11. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
56. ^ "CNN pundit, Women's March organizers under siege for 'honoring' birthday of New Jersey cop killer Assata Shakur". Fox News. 2017-07-18. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
57. ^ Carrega, Christina (May 16, 2019). "Assata Shakur, convicted of killing a police officer, still wanted by FBI 40 years after fleeing to Cuba". ABC News. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
58. ^ "Who Are Assata's Daughters? A Q&A with Founder Page May". City Bureau. 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
59. ^ "The 19 black radicals who are still in prison after four decades". The Guardian. 30 July 2018. Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
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66. ^ "Former Black Panther Sundiata Acoli to be released from prison after 49 years". The Guardian. 11 May 2022. Archived from the original on 11 May 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
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69. ^ "New Jacksonville trial starts from scratch for 1974 racial killing of a 'white devil'".
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73. ^ "Former Black Panther, Robert Seth Hayes, Dies at 72 – Blavity". Archived from the original on 2022-02-19. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
74. ^ Marques, Natalia (2023-07-21). "Ruchell Magee wins his release after 67 years in shackles". Peoples Dispatch. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
75. ^ Joseph, Jamal, Panther Baby. New York: Algonquin Books, 2012, ISBN 1565129504, pp280
76. ^ "Arrest on Colorado Amtrak train over alleged threat". ABC13 Houston. Archived from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
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## Sources

[edit]

* Foster and Laurie by Al Silverman. Published by Little and Brown, 1974. ISBN 0316791164.
* Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence by Bryan Burrough. Published by Penguin Publishing Group, 2016. ISBN 0143107976.

## External links

[edit]

Media related to Black Liberation Army at Wikimedia Commons

* Incidents attributed to the BLA on the START GTD database

* v
* t
* e

Black Panther Party

Founders|

* Huey P. Newton
* Bobby Seale

Leadership|

* Elaine Brown
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Donald Cox
* Fred Hampton
* David Hilliard

Members|

| West Coast based|

* JoNina Abron-Ervin
* Richard Aoki
* Charles Barron
* William Lee Brent
* Ed Bullins
* Bunchy Carter
* Mark Comfort
* Aaron Dixon
* Emory Douglas
* B. Kwaku Duren
* Barbara Easley-Cox
* Kent Ford
* Reggie Forte
* Raymond "Masai" Hewitt
* Elbert "Big Man" Howard
* John Huggins
* Ericka Huggins
* Bobby Hutton
* George Jackson
* Joan Tarika Lewis
* Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony Bottom)
* Pat Parker
* Geronimo Pratt
* Robert Trivers
* Michael Zinzun

|

East Coast based|

* Mumia Abu-Jamal
* Sundiata Acoli
* Ashanti Alston
* Kuwasi Balagoon
* Dhoruba bin Wahad
* Veronza Bowers Jr.
* Safiya Bukhari
* W. Paul Coates
* Marshall "Eddie" Conway
* Jamal Joseph
* Chaka Khan
* Warren Kimbro
* Lonnie McLucas
* Denise Oliver-Velez
* Larry Pinkney
* Alex Rackley
* Nile Rodgers
* George W. Sams Jr.
* Afeni Shakur
* Assata Shakur
* Russell Maroon Shoatz
* Michael "Cetewayo" Tabor
* James Dixon York

Southern based|

* H. Rap Brown
* Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin
* Mark Essex
* James Forman
* Robert Hillary King
* Pete O'Neal
* Malik Rahim
* Herman Wallace
* Albert Woodfox

Chicago based|

* Mark Clark
* William O'Neal
* Bobby Rush
* Marion Stamps
* Akua Njeri (Deborah Johnson)

Others|

* Stokely Carmichael
* Connie Matthews

Influences|

* Black power
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Frantz Fanon
* Harry Haywood
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Malcolm X
* Robert F. Williams

Programs and projects|

* Ten-Point Program
* Free Breakfast for Children
* The Black Panther (newspaper)
* Rainbow Coalition
* United Front Against Fascism

Inspired groups|

| Contemporary|

* American Indian Movement
* Black Guerrilla Family
* Black Liberation Army
* Black Liberators
* Black Panthers (Israel)
* British Black Panthers
* Dalit Panthers
* George Jackson Brigade
* Gray Panthers
* I Wor Kuen
* Ngā Tamatoa
* Polynesian Panthers
* Red Guard Party
* The Pink Panthers
* Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi
* White Panther Party
* Young Lords

|

Subsequent|

* Assata's Daughters
* Black Panther Militia
* Black Riders Liberation Party
* Black Women's Defense League
* Huey P. Newton Gun Club
* New Afrikan Black Panther Party
* New Black Panther Party
* New Panther Vanguard Movement
* Revolutionary Black Panther Party

Films and television|

* Black Power, We're Goin' Survive America (1968)
* Black Panthers: A Report (1968)
* Black Panthers (1968)
* Mayday (1969)
* Interview with Bobby Seale (1969)
* Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (1969)
* Finally Got the News (1970)
* The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
* Teach Our Children (1973)
* In the Event Anyone Disappears (1974)
* Charles Garry: Streetfighter in the Courtroom (1992)
* Panther (1995)
* All Power to the People (1996)
* Public Enemy (1999)
* A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
* Night Catches Us (2010)
* The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)
* Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
* The Big Cigar (2024)

Books|

* Soul on Ice (1968)
* Seize the Time (1970)
* Blood in My Eye (1972)
* Revolutionary Suicide (1973)
* A Taste of Power (1992)
* Black Against Empire (2013)

Related articles|

* 1968 Olympics Black Power salute
* COINTELPRO
* Intercommunalism
* Murder of Betty Van Patter
* New Haven Black Panther trials
* Panther 21
* Rice–Poindexter case
* Robert Templeton
* Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
* Panther Power (2000)
* Black power movement
* Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention

* Category|Black Panther Party

* v
* t
* e

Weather Underground

Background|

* Anti-Vietnam War movement
* Counterculture of the 1960s
* New Left (New Communist movement· Maoism)
* Students for a Democratic Society (Revolutionary Youth Movement)
* 1968 Democratic National Convention (riots)
* Flint War Council
* Domestic terrorism in the United States
* Women's Brigade of Weather Underground
* Seattle Weather Collective
* FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1970s
* Bill Clinton pardon controversy
* Bill Ayers 2008 presidential election controversy

Members|

* Jane Alpert
* Bill Ayers
* Kit Bakke
* Alan Berkman
* Silas Bissell
* Kathy Boudin
* Scott Braley
* Judith Alice Clark
* Bernardine Dohrn
* Dianne Donghi
* Elizabeth Ann Duke
* Linda Evans
* Brian Flanagan
* Larry Grathwohl (informant)
* David Gilbert
* Ted Gold
* Phoebe Hirsch
* John Jacobs
* Naomi Jaffe
* Jeff Jones
* Michael Justesen
* Michael Kazin
* Sharon Krebs
* Nancy Kurshan
* Howard Machtinger
* Eric Mann
* Sam Melville
* Mark D. Naison
* Diana Oughton
* Robin Palmer
* Eleanor Raskin
* Jonah Raskin
* Terry Robbins
* Susan Rosenberg
* Robert Roth
* Mark Rudd
* Matthew Steen
* Susan Stern
* Laura Whitehorn
* Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson

Attacks|

* Days of Rage (Weather High School Jailbreaks)
* Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
* Bombing of the National Guard
* Bombing of the Presidio of San Francisco
* Bombing of the Bank of America HQ
* Timothy Leary escape from California Men's Colony
* Bombing of Marin County Courthouse
* Bombing at Harvard University
* Bombing of the United States Capitol
* Bombings of the Office of California Prisons
* Bombing of the New York Department of Corrections
* Bombing of the Pentagon
* Brink's robbery
* 1983 United States Senate bombing (Resistance Conspiracy case)

Derivatives|

* Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (May 19th Communist Organization)

Associates|

* Seattle Liberation Front (Michael Lerner)

Media|

* The Weather Underground
* Katherine
* Underground
* The Company You Keep
* American Pastoral
* Osawatomie
* Mother Right
* Fugitive Days
* The Anarchist
* Columbus Free Press

See also|

* Protests of 1968
* Communist terrorism
* Yippies
* Rainbow Coalition
* John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
* Michael Klonsky and Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist)
* Tate–LaBianca murders (Charles Manson)
* Attica Prison riot
* Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues
* Black Power movement
* Jewish left
* Student activism
* White privilege theory (Critical race theory)
* COINTELPRO

* v
* t
* e

American New Left

Organizations and
movements|

| General|

* Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee
* Diggers
* Free Speech Movement
* George Jackson Brigade
* Maoist Internationalist Movement
* New Communist movement
* Peace and Freedom Party
* Progressive Labor Party
* Rainbow Coalition
* Red Guard Party
* SLATE
* Symbionese Liberation Army
* Up Against the Wall Motherfucker
* United Freedom Front
* Young Patriots Organization
* Youth International Party ("Yippies")

|

Students for a Democratic Society|

* New American Movement
* Revolutionary Youth Movement
* Venceremos Brigade
* Weather Underground
* Worker Student Alliance

Ethnic movements|

* American Indian Movement
* Antonio Maceo Brigade
* Black Liberation Army
* Black Liberators
* Black Panther Party
* Brown Berets
* I Wor Kuen
* National Amerindianist American Redman's Party
* Revolutionary Action Movement
* Sojourner Truth Organization
* White Panther Party
* Young Lords

People|

| Influences|

* Theodor W. Adorno
* Murray Bookchin
* Noam Chomsky
* Erich Fromm
* Paul Goodman
* Che Guevara
* Herbert Marcuse
* C. Wright Mills
* Ho Chi Minh
* Raymond Williams
* Erik Olin Wright
* Malcolm X
* Mao Zedong

|

Activists|

* Saul Alinsky
* Bob Avakian
* Bill Ayers
* Bernardine Dohrn
* David Gilbert
* Ted Gold
* Tom Hayden
* Abbie Hoffman
* John Jacobs
* Huey P. Newton
* Terry Robbins
* Jerry Rubin
* Bobby Seale

Publications|

* Berkeley Tribe
* Dissent
* Liberated Barracks
* National Guardian
* The Newsreel
* Radical America
* Ramparts
* Telos

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Israel

Other|

* IdRef
* SNAC

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*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template