Friday 17 February 2012

Happy Birthday Huey P

Today is the birthday of Huey P Newton who, together with Bobby Seale, founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California in 1966.

Today's show is crammed full with historical documents of Huey and others involved with the BPP at that time. On September 8 1968, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover announced that the BPP was 'the greatest threat to the internal security of the country'.....

Many Panthers were killed by the police and FBI - not least Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, John Huggins and Bunchy Carter - some went into exile in Algeria and other places, and many were sent to jail - where some are still languishing all these years later. - Sounds familiar?

Last week we spoke about the King Alfred Plan dreamed up by John A Williams in  The Man Who Cried I Am... all the while, the Counter-Intelligence Programme (COINTELPRO) was working on something very similar - dubbed the Garden Plot Plan...