|
Origin
of the Black Panther Party logo
examples
of source material from the H.K. Yuen Archive
The Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama was also called the
Black Panther Party because it used the symbol to represent the
organization as was required by state electoral law. Although there was
no formal
organizational relationship between that Black Panther Party and the
subsequent Black Panther Party for Self Defense organized in Oakland,
California, several figures - including SNCC field organizer Stokely
Carmichael - served to bridge these two key organizations in the Black
power movement. In a speech delivered at the 1966 S.D.S.-sponsored
"Black Power and Change" conference at U.C. Berkeley, he said:
"In Lowndes County, we developed something called the Lowndes County
Freedom Organization. It is a political party. The Alabama law says
that if you have a Party you must have an emblem. We chose for the
emblem a black panther, a beautiful black animal which symbolizes the
strength and dignity of black people, an animal that never strikes back
until he's back so far into the wall, he's got nothing to do but spring
out. Yeah. And when he springs he does not stop.
Now there is a Party in Alabama called the Alabama Democratic Party. It
is all white. It has as its emblem a white rooster and the words "white
supremacy" for the write. Now the gentlemen of the Press, because
they're advertisers, and because most of them are white, and because
they're produced by that white institution, never called the Lowndes
Country Freedom Organization by its name, but rather they call it the
Black Panther Party. Our question is, Why don't they call the Alabama
Democratic Party the "White Cock Party"? (It's fair to us.....) It is
clear to me that that just points out America's problem with sex and
color, not our problem, not our problem. And it is now white America
that is going to deal with sex and color."
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/stokelycarmichaelblackpower.html
|