Dhoruba bin Wahad

Last updated

Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad (born Richard Earl Moore; [1] 1944) is an American writer and activist, Black Panther Party leader and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army. Dhoruba, in Swahili, means "the storm". [1]

Contents

Early years

Richard Earl Moore was three years into a five-year sentence at Comstock Prison when he learned Malcolm X had been assassinated. Moore, who had a spotty disciplinary record at Comstock, felt the Nation of Islam was dogmatic and valued myrmidons rather than free thinkers, but he admired Malcolm X, who he felt "wasn't just a bow tie, a talking head. He was funny; he was witty; he was analytical." Moore had been reading Malcolm X's teachings and speeches and had considered joining with Malcolm X's army after being released from prison, and was stunned by Malcolm X's public execution. Like many others, black and white alike, [2] Moore believed Malcolm X had been killed by a combination of enemies in the Nation of Islam and law enforcement, and Moore decided the best way to honor his hero's legacy was "to think like Malcolm X, and take his message and apply it to his daily reality." Consequently, Moore converted to Islam, took the name Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad, and began reading political material, including both non-fiction (such as Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Karl Marx's Das Kapital ) as well as historical fiction (such as Leon Uris's Exodus and novels about Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan). [1]

The shooting of D.A. Hogan's police guards

On May 19, 1971, Thomas Curry and Nicholas Binetti, two New York City Police Department officers who were guarding the home of Frank S. Hogan, the Manhattan district attorney, were fired upon in a drive-by shooting, with a machine gun. [3] The officers survived, but were seriously injured, sustaining shots to the head, neck, chest, and abdomen.

The shootings took place during a period of intense violence between black activist organizations and the New York City police department. Two days later, NYPD officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini were shot and killed outside a housing project in Harlem. [4] [5]

Wahad was arrested and initially charged with robbing a South Bronx social club, and then was later charged with the attempted murders of Curry and Binetti.

Wahad's first trial ended in a hung jury; his second in a mistrial. Two years later, in 1973, his third trial resulted in a guilty verdict; he was sentenced to twenty-five years to life. [6]

Prison and release

Wahad spent a total of nineteen years in prison. While incarcerated, he learned about Congressional hearings that disclosed the existence of a covert F.B.I. operation known as COINTELPRO. In December 1975 he filed a lawsuit against the F.B.I. and the police department of the City of New York.

As a direct result of his lawsuit, over the next fifteen years the F.B.I. released more than 300,000 pages of documents regarding COINTELPRO. The COINTELPRO documents were the basis on which Wahad appealed his conviction, and on March 15, 1990, Judge Peter J. McQuillan of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan reversed it, ruling that the prosecution had failed to disclose evidence that could have helped Mr. Wahad's defense. [7]

While Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau stated that he planned to appeal the ruling, and would obtain a retrial if his appeal failed, Wahad was freed and released without bail.

Morgenthau's attempt to appeal was rejected by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, [8] and on January 20, 1995, the Manhattan district attorney's office stated there would be no retrial, indicating that the current condition of the evidence would make this impossible. [9]

Lawsuits

In 1995, the F.B.I. settled with Wahad; the U.S. government paid him $400,000. [10]

On December 4, 2000, Dhoruba's suit against the New York Police Department, seeking $15 million in damages was scheduled to begin. [11] On December 8, 2000, the city of New York laid to rest a 25-year legal battle, and agreed to pay Wahad an additional $490,000 in damages. [3]

Aftermath

Wahad lived in Accra, Ghana, where he organized on Pan-Africanism and the prison system. Using the funds from his settlements for personal damages from the FBI and City of New York, he established the Campaign to Free Black and New African Political Prisoners (formerly the Campaign to Free Black Political Prisoners and Prisoners-of-War) and founded the Institute for the Development of Pan-African policy in Ghana.

He currently lives in New York City and continues his work.

Assault by "New" Black Panther Party

On August 19, 2015, Bin Wahad and an associate were assaulted by a faction of the New Black Panther Party. Bin Wahad had been attending a conference in Atlanta, Georgia held by the Nzinga faction of the "New" Panthers, where Bin Wahad confronted the group about their adoption of the Black Panther name and their rhetoric. The two were ordered to leave but when they refused, Bin Wahad was assaulted. Wahad was left with a concussion, a broken jaw and lacerations from the attack. [12] The event led founding member of the original Black Panthers, Elbert "Big Man" Howard, to denounce the group as "reactionaries" and "thugs". [13]

Bibliography

Books

Essays

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COINTELPRO</span> Series of covert and illegal projects by the FBI

COINTELPRO was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic American political organizations. FBI records show COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals the FBI deemed subversive, including feminist organizations, the Communist Party USA, anti–Vietnam War organizers, activists of the civil rights and Black power movements, environmentalist and animal rights organizations, the American Indian Movement (AIM), Chicano and Mexican-American groups like the Brown Berets and the United Farm Workers, independence movements, a variety of organizations that were part of the broader New Left, and white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the far-right group National States' Rights Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assata Shakur</span> American former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army

Assata Olugbala Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1977, she was convicted in the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. She escaped from prison in 1979 and is currently wanted by the FBI, with a $1 million FBI reward for information leading to her capture, and an additional $1 million reward offered by the Attorney General of New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afeni Shakur</span> American political activist (1947–2016)

Afeni Shakur Davis was an American political activist and member of the Black Panther Party. Shakur was the mother of rapper Tupac Shakur and the executor of his estate. She founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation and also served as the CEO of Amaru Entertainment, Inc., a record and film production company she founded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Hampton</span> African-American activist (1948–1969)

Fredrick "Chairman Fred" Allen Hampton Sr. was an American activist. He came to prominence in his late teens and very early 20s in Chicago as deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party and chair of the Illinois chapter. As a progressive African American, he founded the anti-racist, anti-classist Rainbow Coalition, a prominent multicultural political organization that initially included the Black Panthers, Young Patriots, and the Young Lords, and an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them end infighting and work for social change. A Marxist–Leninist, Hampton considered fascism the greatest threat, saying, "nothing is more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Liberation Army</span> American underground, black nationalist militant organization

The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground Marxist-Leninist, black-nationalist militant organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981. Composed of former Black Panthers (BPP) and Republic of New Afrika (RNA) members who served above ground before going underground, the organization's program was one of war against the United States government, and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States." The BLA carried out a series of bombings, killings of police officers and drug dealers, robberies, and prison breaks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geronimo Pratt</span> American political activist (1947–2011)

Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, also known as Geronimo Ji-Jaga and Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt, was a decorated military veteran and a high-ranking member of the Black Panther Party in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Born in Louisiana, he served two tours in Vietnam, receiving several decorations. He moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at UCLA under the GI Bill and joined the Black Panther Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black power movement</span> African-American social, political & cultural movement in the United States

The black power movement or black liberation movement was a branch or counterculture within the civil rights movement of the United States, reacting against its more moderate, mainstream, or incremental tendencies and motivated by a desire for safety and self-sufficiency that was not available inside redlined African American neighborhoods. Black power activists founded black-owned bookstores, food cooperatives, farms, media, printing presses, schools, clinics and ambulance services. The international impact of the movement includes the Black Power Revolution in Trinidad and Tobago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sundiata Acoli</span> American political activist

Sundiata Acoli is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. He was sentenced to life in prison in 1974 for murdering a New Jersey state trooper. Acoli was granted parole in 2022 at the age of 85.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bunchy Carter</span> American activist

Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter was an American activist. Carter is credited as a founding member of the Southern California chapter of the Black Panther Party. Carter was shot and killed by a rival group, Ron Karenga's "Us", and is celebrated by his supporters as a martyr in the Black Power movement in the United States. Carter is portrayed by Gaius Charles in the 2015 TV series Aquarius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuwasi Balagoon</span> American anarchist activist (1946–1986)

Kuwasi Balagoon, born Donald Weems, was an American political activist, anarchist and member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Radicalised by race riots in his home state of Maryland growing up, as well as by his experiences while serving in the US Army, Weems became the black nationalist known as Kuwasi Balagoon in New York City in the late 1960s. First becoming involved in local Afrocentric organisations in Harlem, Balagoon would move on to become involved in the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party, which quickly saw him charged and arrested for criminal behaviour. Balagoon was initially part of the Panther 21 case, in which 21 panthers were accused of planning to bomb several locations in New York City, but although the Panther 21 were later acquitted, Balagoon's case was separated off and he was convicted of a New Jersey bank robbery.

The Panther 21 is a group of twenty-one Black Panther members who were arrested and accused of planned coordinated bombing and long-range rifle attacks on two police stations and an education office in New York City in 1969, who were all acquitted by a jury in May 1971, after revelations during the trial that police infiltrators played key organising roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvère Lotringer</span> French literary critic (1938–2021)

Sylvère Lotringer was a French-born literary critic and cultural theorist. Initially based in New York City, he later lived in Los Angeles and Baja California, Mexico. He is best known for synthesizing French theory with American literary, cultural and architectural avant-garde movements as founder of the journal Semiotext(e) and for his interpretations of theory in a 21st-century context. He is regarded as an influential interpreter of Jean Baudrillard's theories, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akinyele Umoja</span> American educator and author

Akinyele Umoja is an American educator and author who specializes in African-American studies. As an activist, he is a founding member of the New Afrikan People's Organization and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. In April 2013, New York University Press published Umoja's book We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement. Currently, he is a Professor and Department Chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Georgia State University (GSU).

<i>All Power to the People</i> 1996 American film

All Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and Beyond is a 1996 documentary directed by Lee Lew-Lee. The film chronicles the history of the Black Panther Party, leadership, and members. The film also briefly chronicles the history of the American Indian Movement and Black Liberation Army. The film covers assassinations and methods used to divide, destroy, and imprison key figures within the party. It is composed primarily of archival footage and interviews of former organization members and government agents. The documentary was broadcast in 24 countries on 12 networks in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia between 1997 and 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sekou Odinga</span> American activist (born 1944)

Sekou Odinga was a New Afrikan activist who was imprisoned for actions with the Black Liberation Army in the 1960s and 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Panther Party</span> US black power organization (1966–1982)

The Black Panther Party was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California. The party was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982, with chapters in many major American cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia. They were also active in many prisons and had international chapters in the United Kingdom and Algeria. Upon its inception, the party's core practice was its open carry patrols ("copwatching") designed to challenge the excessive force and misconduct of the Oakland Police Department. From 1969 onward, the party created social programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, education programs, and community health clinics. The Black Panther Party advocated for class struggle, claiming to represent the proletarian vanguard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assata's Daughters</span> Chicago organization of black girls and young women

Assata's Daughters is an American black power organization of young radical African-American women and girls in Chicago, which operates through a Black, queer, feminist lens, that focuses on political education, organizing, and revolutionary services. The group is dedicated to radical liberatory activism in the tradition of Assata Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). The organization is often criticised for this connection, as Assata Shakur was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and other crimes in 1977 in the murder of a New Jersey State Trooper.

<i>Assata: An Autobiography</i> 1988 memoir by Assata Shakur

Assata: An Autobiography is a 1988 autobiographical book by Assata Shakur. The book was written in Cuba where Shakur currently has political asylum.

Peter J. McQuillan was an American judge and jurist. In legal circles, McQuillan was most noted for his work and expertise in the complete revision of the New York State penal code in the 1960s, the first major overhaul of that law since the 1800s.

References

Books

Magazines and newspapers

Films

Music

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 T. J. English (15 March 2011). "7". The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge. HarperCollins. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-06-182455-5.
  2. ↑ T. J. English (15 March 2011). "7". The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge. HarperCollins. p. 6. ISBN   978-0-06-182455-5.
  3. 1 2 Weiser, Benjamin (8 December 2000). "City Agrees to Settle Suit By Former Panther Leader". The New York Times. p. 3.
  4. ↑ Robert K. Tanenbaum; Philip Rosenberg (1979). The Badge of the Assassin . Dutton. ISBN   978-0-525-06070-3.
  5. ↑ Joseph Piagentini And Waverly Jones Archived 2008-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ "Cointel Pro 25 Years Later: New York Settles with Former Black Panther who was Wrongly Imprisoned (Part 2)". Democracy Now!.
  7. ↑ Sullivan, Ronald (23 March 1990). "Court Erupts As Judge Frees An Ex-Panther". The New York Times. p. 1.
  8. ↑ Mcfadden, Robert D. (20 December 1991). "State Appeals Court Narrows Right to a New Trial When Evidence Is Withheld". The New York Times. p. 3.
  9. ↑ "No Retrial in Shootings". The New York Times. 20 January 1995. p. 2.
  10. ↑ Joy James (2003). Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 95. ISBN   978-0-7425-2027-1.
  11. ↑ Feuer, Alan (4 December 2000). "Defiant Ex-Black Panther Sues Defiant New York Police". The New York Times. p. 5.
  12. ↑ "New Black Panther Party for Self Defence". Southern Poverty Law Center. Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  13. ↑ Howard, Elbert (23 August 2015). "Concerning reactionaries and thugs: The New Black Panther Party". sfbayview.com. SF Bayview. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.