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This week on Uprising: a one-hour Black History Month special on the Black Panther Party

* Conversation with Elaine Brown, the only woman to have chaired the BPP
* Framing the Black Panthers: The Rise of a Black Power Icon

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Today we spend the hour celebrating Black History Month with a special focus on the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as it was originally called, was established to promote the civil rights and self-defense of African Americans. The party initially espoused a doctrine calling for armed resistance to oppression in the interest of African-American justice and attracted national attention through their open and militant confrontation of law enforcement officers. Although its leaders openly espoused socialist ideology, the party’s black nationalism attracted a broad and ideologically diverse constituency.

The Black Panther Party became well known for their Ten-Point Program, a document that called for “Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace”, as well as exemption from military service for African-American men, among other demands. Over time, the party became more focused on socialism and instituted a variety of community programs to alleviate poverty and improve health. While the party retained its all-black membership, it recognized that different minority communities needed to organize around their own set of issues and encouraged alliances with such organizations.

In 1968, founder Huey P. Newton was tried for manslaughter in a case that caught national attention and rallied panthers across the US. Subjected to an intense campaign of surveillance and discrediting by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, the Black Panther Party eventually collapsed in the early 1970s. Today, examining the legacy of the Black Panther Party, we present two interviews: Jane Rhodes, author of Framing the Panthers, will join us in the second half of the hour, to discuss how the Panthers created an image and how the media and ordinary Americans responded.

Conversation with Elaine Brown

GUEST: Elaine Brown, former leader of the Black Panther Party

But first, an interview with Elaine Brown, the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. She chaired it from 1974 to 1977. When she was Deputy Minister of Information for the party in 1969, Brown released a musical album called “Seize the Time” which was recently re-issued on CD and which we’ll hear music from today. In addition to her work as a community organizer and singer/songwriter, she is also the author of numerous books including “A Taste for Power: A Black Woman’s Story.” Elaine Brown recently declared her candidacy for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008 but then renounced her affiliation with the party and her presidential bid.

For more information, visit www.elainebrown.org

Framing the Panthers

GUEST: Jane Rhodes, Dean for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Chair of the American Studies Department at Macalester College

When the Black Panther Party first emerged in 1966 in Oakland, California, few people, including its founders, imagined the impact the party would have nationally and internationally. Boldly demanding freedom and self-determination, the Black Panthers revolutionary defiance simultaneously shocked and fascinated white America and the mainstream media. Today the image of young black men wearing leather jackets and berets, and wielding arms and a ten-point plan has become an iconic symbol for black liberation. In fact the Black Panthers were probably the first media-savvy activists in the US. But what was the public relations strategy of the leadership of the party and how did the media respond to create such icons? That is the subject of a new book by Jane Rhodes. She is the Dean for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Chair of the American Studies Department at Macalester College. Her book is entitled, “Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon.”

For more information, visit www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&
task=view_title&metaproductid=1382

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“They came down on us because we had a grass-roots, real people’s revolution, complete with the programs, complete with the unity, complete with the working coalitions, where we crossed racial lines.” — Bobby Seale