Coercion, Collusion, Condemnation: Comparing the loss of leaders in the US Black Panther Party and South African Black Consciousness Movement

Abigail Moore, Wake Forest University

From 1969-1971 the Black Panther Party trials in New Haven, CT tried various members of the BPP for the murder of 19-year-old Alex Rackley, suspected FBI informant. Testimonies from members of the party allege Rackley’s murder was instigated by another FBI informant posing as a party member, while the state accusation was that BPP president Bobby Seale ordered the killing. Throughout the trials, questioning and testimony revolve around the questions of who knew what at what time, and who was justified in their use of secrecy, coercion, and violence as means towards their own ends. Importantly, the trials served as a turned point in media representation of the BPP—it was through the New Haven trials and the exposure of the murder of one teenage Black Panther by other Panthers that the party lost widespread support throughout the Black community and instead gained a reputation as an organization of cutthroat dissidents. In 1977, South African activist Steve Biko was tortured by apartheid police and died of brain injuries while in custody. A panel of state-compensated medical examiners forged a false autopsy report and stated that Biko died from a self-imposed 7-day hunger strike. The news of Biko’s death and the dishonesty in which it was shrouded resulted in uprisings across the country, during which several more young protesters were killed. Despite outrage over his death and the collusion of medical professionals with the state to cover up the police role in his killing, the Black Consciousness movement declined greatly after Biko died. How did these representations come to be? I propose an analysis of the legal and cultural frames of legitimacy applied to the violence performed by members of the American BPP and FBI, and the South African apartheid police force and Black Consciousness Movement.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 128. Power and Normativity in Society and History I: Race, Politics, and Legitimation