Introduction
In
1966, Huey P. Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party. Two years later, he
was sentenced for a minimum imprisonment term of two years. Indeed it was in
1970 that he would exit prison and resume his work towards liberating “all
political prisoners” – one of the shared goals of the Black Panther Party, as
he wrote[1].
Its mission statement stated the Party’s intention to bring about, among other
things, “justice and peace”. Many Panther programs were centered around
resisting excessive police force as well as improving support and programs for
Black communities. The agenda of the party to protect Black Americans from
police force manifested in part in the Party’s efforts to raise awareness about
those in unfair imprisonment or experience harsh conditions during
imprisonment. As Huey Newton writes in his essay, “Prison: Where is Thy
Victory”, his own prison experiment was marked by his refusal to work for an
exploitative salary (around three cents an hour) and the subsequent disdain and
aggression he faced from prison guards. In
this particular piece of Newton’s work, written during his graduate studies, he
discusses the manipulative behavior of the guards as well as a system that
refused to let him access educational programs unless he work for wage far below
minimum. He describes maintaining a strong will in the face of this
condescension, a feat which he attributes to the support of his followers and
those calling for his freedom. Ultimately, his paper calls for the continued
work towards the release of all political prisoners.
At a
similar time, movements for queer liberation were emerging across the country. Some
organizations, in seeking to avoid police oppression as well, borrowed Panther
concepts in their goals and missions. This paper seeks to further explore the
demands, expectations and programs of the Black Panther Party oriented towards
prisoner rehabilitation and freedom. The further question that it asks is in
what ways the LGBT movement of the 1970s borrowed from and interacted with the
Black Panther Party – ultimately, it seeks to explore shared and divergent anti-prison
goals of the two groups.
[1]
“Prison: Where is thy Victory?” by Huey P. Newton, accessed from the Huey P.
Newton Foundation Collection at Stanford University
Secondary Sources
-
Eleanor Novek & Stephen Hartnett, Working for Justice: A Handbook of Prison
Education and Activism
-
Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power
o
Available in hard copy from Green Library.
-
Che Gossett, Raina Gossett, AJ Lewis “Reclaiming
Our Lineage: Organized Queer, Gender-Nonconforming and Transgender Resistance
to Police Violence”
-
Joshua Bloom, Black Against Empire
o
Available in Green Library
-
Adolfo Esquivel & Matt Meyer, Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents
from the Movements to Free US Political Prisoners
-
Christina Hanhardt, Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History and the Politics of Violence
o
Not available from Green right now, unsure of
how to acquire the text. Discusses differences in LGBT activist groups.
o
page 122: TWGR sixteen-point plan based on Black
Panther plan
-
Elihu Rosenblatt (editor), Criminal Injustice
o
Available at Crown
-
Estelle B. Freedman, Their Sisters’ Keepers
o
Available at Crown
-
Regina Kunzel, Criminal Intimacy
o
Not available through Stanford Libraries right
now, unsure of how to acquire
Article: Jon Mooallem “You Just
Got Out Of Prison. Now What?” New York Times
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