New Panthers, Old Panthers and the Politics of Black Nationalism in the United States
D.J. Mulloy, Patterns of Prejudice, July 2010
Abstract
The New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense has been a cause du scandale since it was formed in the early 1990s. Indeed, the Anti-Defamation League has described it as ‘the largest organized anti-Semitic and racist black militant group in America’. It is somewhat surprising, then, that there has been very little detailed analysis of the party and its activities. Mulloy begins to fill this gap by outlining the origins and development of the party, and by closely examining the ongoing dispute between the New Black Panthers and surviving members of the original Black Panther Party–established by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California in 1966–over the right to claim the name, the history and the legacy of the Panthers in the United States. Critically assessing the strategies and actions of the New Black Panthers, Mulloy argues that its high-profile, media-centred approach to political activism has largely been a failure with regard to its overall aim of reviving the Black Power movement in the United States.
[D.J. Mulloy’s article can be read on-line or downloaded as a PDF file here. There is a charge.]
