Black Panthers - white lies | Curtis Austin | TEDxOhioStateUniversity

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What made the Black Panther Party successful, as well as politically dangerous? In his very personal talk, activist and historian, Dr. Curtis Austin tells his story of being labeled a 'felon' as a result of his research on the Black Panther Party. Dr. Austin details the major successes of the Black Panther Party and the key action behind those successes. Using his personal experience, years of research, and some gruesome realities, Dr. Austin contextualizes the recent outcry by people across the United States against the legacy of the Black Panther Party and the Black Power Movement.

Dr. Curtis Austin is an Associate Professor in the Department of African American and African Studies (AAAS) at the Ohio State University. He received his B.A. and M.A. in U.S. History from the University of Southern Mississippi and his Ph.D. in American History from Mississippi State University. While serving as Director of Undergraduate Studies in AAAS, Austin teaches courses on the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, the Black freedom struggle, and the history of American race relations. He is currently writing a book on the Black Power Movement and conducting research for a book that examines the history of radicalism in Black liberation movements. Dr. Austin has won numerous awards that honor his work including the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Award. In 2007, his book, "Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party", won the Choice Library Journal’s Outstanding Academic Book Award.

Good afternoon.

I've been known as many things
over the course of my life.

I've been known as a son, a brother,
a husband, an educator.

But in 2008, I became known as a felon.

And I became known as a felon

through a very curious set
of circumstances.

I was teaching at a university
in Mississippi at the time,

teaching the History
of the Civil Rights Movement,

and I needed a car.

So, I did what most people would do.

I went on the Internet and I found a car.

This car I found was in Des Moines, Iowa.

So I was going to fly to Des Moines
and drive the car back.

A few weeks before that,
I'd had a book signing,

and I actually ran out of books
at this book signing,

but people wanted the books,
so they gave me cash,

and wrote me checks, and said,

"The next time you come through town
just bring the books with you."

And I said, "OK." I'd do that.

I knew that when I was driving
this car back from Iowa,

I was going to have to
pass through this town,

so, I took the books with me.

I packed my stuff up,
went to the airport,

checked in, made my way through security.

And then I hear my name over the intercom.

"Curtis Austin, return
to the check-in counter."

And so I do.

I get back to the check-in counter,
and there's this bevy of airport police

and TSA agents surrounding my bag,
just hovering over my bag.

And they've got these books,
and they're looking at these books.

And the book has
this picture on the cover.

It's a book about
the Black Panther Party.

And they're flummoxed.

They're taken aback, you know?

They've got this black man,
he's got a one-way ticket to Iowa,

no clothes, no toiletries,
and all these books.

And so they said, "Well,
we're going to have to call the FBI."

I said, "Whoa! The FBI? Why?"

He says, "Well, that's what we do
in situations like this."

And that's what they did.
They called the FBI.

And the FBI came to the airport.

TSA and airport security
escorted me upstairs, put me in a room,

and this FBI agent came in the room
and began to interrogate me,

but he had this book.

He was going through this book,
and then he'd ask me questions,

he'd look in the book
and ask me more questions,

and this interrogation went on for hours.

And I finally worked up the nerve
to say, "Am I under arrest?"

And he said, "No, we're just
asking questions here."

And I said, "Well,
does that mean I can leave?"

And he said, "Yeah, you can leave."
So that's what I did.

I left. I found another flight.
I went to Des Moines.

I bought the car and drove it back
and dropped the books off

and went back to work.

I didn't think much more about it.

I mean, I thought it was bizarre,
but I grew up black in Mississippi

and so you get used to the bizarre.

(Laughter)

And I don't think about it anymore
until one day I'm talking with my boss,

and she says, "Curtis, we have a problem."

And I said, "OK,
what kind of problem do we have?"

She said, "Well, it's come to my attention
that you're a felon,

and we can't allow felons
to teach at the University."

A felon?! Wait a minute.

This is a classic
WTF moment for me, right?

(Laughter)

I don't know what's going on
and she doesn't either, but she says,

"I think you should call the FBI."

That's what I do. I call the FBI,
tell them who I am and why I'm calling,

and they look me up on their system
and the woman I'm talking to says,

"Yeah, it says you're a felon."

I said, "Well, what did I do?"
She said, "I don't know."

I said, "When did I do it?"
She said, "I don't know."

I said, "Where did I do it?"
She said, "I don't know.

In fact I don't have
any more information.

Maybe, if you call the
U.S. Attorney's office,

they can give you more information.

She gave me the number
for the U.S. Attorney's office.

I called them.

They looked me up in their system,
and the person I spoke with said,

"Yes, It says here you're a felon."

And I asked the same set of questions,
and got the same exact set of answers.

"I don't know."

It literally takes me more than two years

to get this felony removed from my record.

I came to understand
that the felony was on my record

because I had written a book
about the Black Panther Party.

Some of you may be familiar
with the Black Panther Party.

For those of you who are not,
it was an organization

that started in 1966
in Oakland, California,

as an effort to prevent the police
brutality and murder of black people.

But it also organized
around a range of other issues

that were affecting the black community,
like healthcare, and housing,

and full employment,
and fairness in the courts.

They wanted blacks to be tried
by juries of their peers

because to that point
they were being tried by all whites.

While they were organizing
around these issues,

the press was vilifying them
and demonizing them

and telling lies about them.

In fact, one of the lies
is that it was this group of black men

who wanted to go out
and kill white people.

That's what they were about.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact of the matter
is the Black Panther Party,

the majority of the people
in the Black Panther Party were not men,

they were women.

And a few years after their party started,

the majority of the leadership
of the Black Panther Party were women.

So, It just wasn't true
that there's this group of black men

going around and killing white people.

Another lie that has been told
about this organization

is it was racist and anti-white,

and they just didn't like
white people at all.

Well, also not true,
and I'll prove that to you.

The Panthers would find out
what the problems were

in their communities
and attempt to solve them.

For example, they realized that children
weren't learning in school,

and they weren't learning
because they were hungry.

So they decided to feed the children.

They were going to feed them
before school,

so they created
these free breakfast programs.

And the way they created these programs

was to go to the grocery stores
in their communities,

ask the grocery store owners
if they would donate milk, and bread,

and eggs, and meat, and cereal,
other things people eat for breakfast,

and these store owners said yes,
and they donated these items.

All over the country, in every city
where there was a chapter

of the Black Panther Party,
- and there were about 40 -

there was a free breakfast program.

It's not likely that these
white business owners would donate

to the Black Panther Party
if they were actually racist.

Another thing they did in the community
to serve the people

was they created free health clinics.

Again, they went around and found out
there were a range of health problems

that needed to be attended to.

Black people were rather poor,
so they couldn't afford to go to doctors,

couldn't afford to go to hospitals.

So the Panthers went
to hospitals and medical schools

and asked the doctors and medical students

whether they would come
to the black community

and deal with some
of these medical issues.

Overwhelmingly, they said yes.

Again, all over the country,

in cities wherever the Black Panther Party
set up chapters,

there were these free health clinics;

although they were being run
by the Black Panther Party,

they were peopled by white people,

so I don't know
how they could be racist and anti-white

if their signature programs
were actually being supported

by fairly wealthy and often
middle class white people.

One of the people who was very, very good
at pulling individuals, white and others,

into the Black Panther Party orbit,
was a guy by the name of Fred Hampton.

Fred Hampton was the leader
of the Chicago Chapter

of the Black Panther Party.

He was a very eloquent speaker.
He was very persuasive.

Fred Hampton could persuade people
that there was actual injustice.

More importantly than that,
he could persuade people

that they should do something
to combat that injustice.

So in addition to going
to these hospitals, and grocery stores,

and getting the things
they needed for their programs,

Fred Hampton also worked
with other groups and organizations

who were Latino, Asian, Native American,
even large groups of poor whites

who had moved up from the South
or into Chicago from Appalachia.

They would work with these organizations

and set up the same kinds of programs
in their communities.

They were very successful at this,

but the government
didn't like what they were doing,

so in addition to vilifying
and discrediting them in the press,

they began to arrest its members

and in very extreme cases,
to kill its members.

And thats exactly what happened
to Fred Hampton.

On December 4th, 1969,

the Chicago Police Department,
the Illinois State Attorney's Office,

burst into Fred Hampton's apartment
at 4:30 in the morning,

while he and everyone else
in there were asleep,

and just began spraying
the place with bullets.

It wounded several people.

There was a person guarding the door
named Mark Clark.

They shot him straight through the heart,
and he died immediately.

They make their way through the house
to Fred Hampton's bedroom,

find him there, he's asleep,
because he's been drugged,

but he's asleep next to his girlfriend
who's eight and a half months pregnant,

and they grab Fred Hampton by his hair
and shoot him in the back of the head

at point blank range twice,
killing him instantly.

That's the end of Fred Hampton.

So we have to ask ourselves,
what is it about this organization

that prompt's such an irrational,
over the top, and extreme response,

that 40 years after the organization
has died, a lowly professor like myself

can be stopped in an airport,
detained for hours, questioned,

then labeled a felon for simply
writing a book about the organization?

Why does Fred Hampton have to pay
with his life for simply organizing

around issues, that everybody --

there's nothing wrong with feeing kids,
and taking care of sick people.

There's nothing wrong with not wanting
to be killed by the police.

So we have to ask ourselves,
what is it about this organization?

And I'll tell you.

The thing about this organization
is that it was actually anti-racist,

and it made a point to work
with all people whether it was

upper and middle class whites,
lower class whites, Asians,

latinos, Native Americans.

Anybody who wanted to help
solve these problems,

this organization was willing
to work with them,

and that was the problem.

If this interracial organization
was not effective,

people would not have been
so dead set against it.

So it wasn't just Fred Hampton
who had to pay.

It wasn't just me who had to pay
with being labeled a felon.

You probably saw this a few weeks ago.

Beyonce performed at the Super Bowl,
at the halftime show,

and she and the women
who were dancing with her,

dressed up in these black leather outfits,
these black berets,

and they were dressed that way
to pay homage to the Black Panther Party.

2016 marks the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the Black Panther Party

and they were trying to honor
this community service organization.

But what they got in return
was a ton of hate mail.

People all over the country are saying
they are racist and anti-white,

they are cop haters.

Police officers has said
that they don't want to give her

the security she needs at her concerts.

Mayors have said
they don't want her in their town.

Beyonce is racist. Beyonce.

I mean, racy maybe? But not racist.

(Laughter)

So, we just have to keep asking ourselves

why are we told these stories
about the Black Panther Party,

and who benefits
from us knowing these lies.

I want to encourage you
to do your own research about the party,

but be careful
when you're doing your research

because I've been studying
this subject for 25 years now,

and what I've discovered is that 73%
of all the newspaper articles

written about the Black Panther Party,

were written by the FBI,
or people the FBI recruited.

So there is all this villainy
and misinformation.

And we spoke about
Fred Hampton a second ago,

and I just want to tell you
that Fred Hampton and Mark Clark's family

actually sued the city of Chicago,
the State Attorney's Office,

a jury found them guilty,

and they paid them
almost two million dollars.

But that doesn't bring Fred back,
and that doesn't stop the villainy.

We have to find out the truth
about this organization for ourselves,

and I encourage you to do that.

I also encourage you to question
your own biases about what you know

about American history.

And finally, I want to encourage you

to reach out across
racial lines and ethnic lines,

and do your part in solving the problems
that face our country today,

because black people can't solve
these problems on their own.

White people can't solve them
on their own.

Latino people can't solve them
on their own.

Unless all of us come together as a people
and solve these problems,

they will never be solved.

So I say to you: power to the people.

(Applause)