Pancakes and Communism

• New younger members are joining the Black Power Movement.

  Malcom X would always talk about Black Nationalism: the idea that white people and black people can’t coexist because white people will always be violent towards them, but they still want to be treated equally.
• Malcom’s real name was Malcom Little but he changed it to Malcom X. He’s originally from Nebraska, his family moved to Chicago because the Klan was targeting his family.

  Law enforcement refused to investigate the death of his father.

  Malcom’s mother got turned into a mental hospital because she had a mental breakdown about having a new child with no father present.

  Malcom is taken along with his siblings and put in foster care.

  He thought he could trust his white teacher, but he immediately notices his racism.
• Malcom X and Dr. King

  Never agreed with their methods of protest
• Dr. King


  Speaking about non-violence to black people in the South
• Malcom X


  Speaking to black people in the North/NY
• Malcom X's belief


  If someone hits you, you hit them back
• COINTELPRO and the federal government put a lot of thought into a plan to stop Malcom X's campaign of self defense instead of non-violence
• Malcom X does his pilgrimage to Mecca


  1964
• Malcom X is finding out bad things about Elijah Mohammed and the other people in the cult he's in
• Malcom X


  Interacts with people who are muslim but not black
• When Malcom X comes back, he leaves the Nation and creates his own group called the Organization for Afro-American Unity
• The Nation


  Views Malcom X's leaving as treason because they believe they are indeed a nation
• The Nation puts a bounty over Malcom X's head
• Malcom X meets with Dr. King's wife, lets her know that he doesn't want to be enemies with King or his followers
• Malcom was making a speech to his Organization when 3 guys get up and shoot him with machine guns
• One of the guys confesses that he did it because Malcolm was a "traitor" to the Nation and names 2 other people who worked with him
• The two people named were not the ones that got arrested, and the ones that got arrested claim they didn't do it
• A lot of Malcom's followers continue to work with his self-defense strategy
• Stokley Charmichael gave a speech where he coined the phrase "black power"
• "Black power"


  Black empowerment, wanting to be treated as an equal because all people are already "equal"
• Stokley Charmichael is not the only one that believes this
• Ballot or the Bullet
• The Black Panthers- formed by Bobby Seale and Huey Lewis who grew up together in Oakland, California, the north part of Cali.

  Oakland was over policed , Huey and Bobby have not had positive interactions with the police.

  The Black Panthers (Party) decide that they’re going to get their needs met whether the government likes it or not.
• Organized like a military group with uniforms and strict structure.

  Cop Watch- the first programs in the Black Panthers, Huey and Bobby were very educated, if they saw a law enforcement officer talking to a black civilian they would stop and watch them, standing armed and silent.

  Cops didn’t like how educated the Panthers were with laws, if a black person got arrested, the Panthers would follow them to jail and bail them out.
• Panthers formed in 1969, year after King was assassinated in his hotel room.

  After Voting Rights, the SCLC moves onto Economics.

  Dr. King had gone to Memphis a lot of times and would stay in the same motel every time.

  One day, he was leaving the motel to go to a meeting with the SCLC, a sniper shot him as he stepped out on the balcony.

  Sniper was James Earl Ray.

  That same night, there were many riots across the South.
• Now the Panthers are the FBI’s main priority.

  The Black Panthers sent a book to all their chapters including hundreds of programs and fundraiser ideas for the party.

  • Free Children’s Breakfast program was one of the programs presented by the Panthers. Every morning, they had free breakfast and a talk about Communism.
  • States start passing laws for free breakfast in schools.
• The Panthers organized the largest sickle cell anemia testing program in the country. A lot of information on the trait today came from the Panthers.

  Seniors Against a Fearful Environment- would give rides to old people to their pharmacies and appointments, would aid all old people.
• Bobby Seale was arrested for murder while Huey was in Cuba.

  Fred Hampton- head of the party in Chicago, Illinois.

  • Constantly spoke about unity. Met with other groups in Chicago, a lot of gangs and people with the Confederate flag??
  • All these groups sign an agreement to cease fire and work together to bring down the systems that oppress them. Rainbow Coalition.
  • J Edgar Hoover now views him as his #1 Enemy.
• • J Edgar Hoover is worried about a “Black Messiah” which is why he’s trying to stop movement leaders.
  • Hoover started infiltrating Hampton’s meetings, Hampton was charged for not paying $13 dollars for ice cream and gets sent to prison.
  • Hampton gets out with help from the judge, then Hoover’s men make a diagram of Hampton’s apartment.
  • FBI & Chicago PD start shooting through the front door.
  • They get into the house after shooting the members and shoot his bedroom
  • His 6 month pregnant girlfriend survived the attack, not a single graze, and gives birth to Fred Hampton Jr.
• By the 80s, the Panthers are completely dissolved.

  We see the movement end in various riots and with lots of violence.

  Long Hot Summer in 1969 where more race riots were active.

  News on TV about these riots and Vietnam practically 24/7.

  President Johnson does an investigation called the Kerner Commission. THEIR CONCLUSION WAS RACISM LIKE THAT WASN’T ALREADY CLEAR
• Government comes up with a list of solutions but Johnson doesn’t act on it because he’s worried about Vietnam.