The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground
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 (which participants termed "expropriations"), and prison breaks.[3]
Formation
The Black Liberation Army gained strength as
Assata: An Autobiography, asserts:
"… the Black Liberation Army was not a centralized, organized group with a common leadership and chain of command. Instead, there were various organizations and collectives working together and simultaneously independent of each other."[6]
One such organization was the Philadelphia-based Black Unity Council, which renamed itself the Black Liberation Army in 1970, independent of BLA groups in New York and DC.[7]
Maxwell Stanford, founder of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), cites the Black Guards, a wing of the RAM, as direct BLA forerunners.[8]
The newly formed BLA believed that "the character of reformism is based on unprincipled class collaboration with our enemy"[9] and asserted the following principles:
That we are
sexist
.
That we must of necessity strive for the abolishment of these systems and for the institution of
socialistic
relationships in which Black people have total and absolute control over their own destiny as a people.
That in order to abolish our systems of oppression, we must utilize the science of
class struggle
, develop this science as it relates to our unique national condition.
Activities
1970–72: Attacks
According to a
Fraternal Order of Police blamed the BLA for the murders of 13 police officers.[11]
On October 22, 1970, the BLA was believed to have planted a bomb in St. Brendan's Church in San Francisco while it was full of mourners attending the funeral of San Francisco police officer Harold Hamilton, who had been killed in the line of duty while responding to a bank robbery. The bomb was detonated, but no one in the church suffered serious injuries.[12]
On May 21, 1971, as many as five men participated in the murder of two New York City police officers, Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones. Those arrested and brought to trial for the shootings include Anthony Bottom (a.k.a. Jalil Muntaqim), Albert Washington, Francisco Torres, Gabriel Torres, and Herman Bell.[13]
On August 29, 1971, three armed men murdered 51-year-old San Francisco police sergeant John Victor Young while he was working at a desk in his police station, which was almost empty at the time due to a bombing attack on a bank that took place earlier - only one other officer and a civilian clerk were there. Two days later, the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter signed by the BLA claiming responsibility for the attack.[14][15]
On November 3, 1971, Officer James R. Greene of the Atlanta Police Department was shot and killed in his patrol van at a gas station. His wallet, badge, and weapon were taken, and the evidence at the scene pointed to two suspects. The first was Twymon Myers (suspected to be one of the group's leaders[16]), who was killed in a police shootout in 1973, and the second was Freddie Hilton (a.k.a. Kamau Sadiki), who evaded capture until 2002, when he was arrested in New York City on a separate charge and was recognized as one of the men wanted in the Greene murder. Apparently, the two men had attacked the officer to gain standing with their compatriots within Black Liberation Army.[17]
On January 27, 1972, the Black Liberation Army assassinated police officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie at the corner of 174 Avenue B in New York City. After the killings, a note sent to authorities portrayed the murders as a retaliation for the prisoner deaths during the 1971
Attica prison riot. Two suspects died in "unrelated shootouts with cops — one in New York, and one in St. Louis, with Laurie’s gun in his car" and a third was sentenced in 2016 to 21 years for selling heroin to undercover police.[18] Another suspect, Henry Brown, was tried for the murders and found not guilty.[19] Evidence found at the scene has been lost.[20]
On July 31, 1972, five armed individuals hijackedDelta Air Lines Flight 841 en route from Detroit to Miami, eventually collecting a ransom of $1 million and diverting the plane, after passengers were released, to Algeria. The authorities there seized the ransom but allowed the group to flee. Four were eventually caught by French authorities in Paris, where they were convicted of various crimes, but one—George Wright—remained a fugitive until September 26, 2011, when he was captured in Portugal.[21] Portuguese courts rejected the initial pledge for extradition. American authorities may still appeal this decision.
In another high-profile incident, Assata Shakur, Zayd Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were said to have opened fire on state troopers in New Jersey after being pulled over for a broken taillight. Zayd Shakur and state trooper Werner Foerster were both killed during the exchange. Following her capture, Assata Shakur was tried in six different criminal trials.[22][23][24] According to Shakur, she was beaten and tortured during her incarceration in a number of different federal and state prisons. The charges ranged from kidnapping to assault and battery to bank robbery. Assata Shakur was found guilty of the murder of both Foerster and her companion Zayd Shakur, but escaped prison in 1979. Shakur eventually fled to Cuba and received political asylum there. Acoli was convicted of killing Foerster and sentenced to life in prison.[25]
1981: Brinks robbery
Main article:
Brinks robbery (1981)
The BLA was active in the US until at least 1981 when a
May 19 Communist Organization members, were subsequently arrested.[26][27]
Following the collapse of the BLA, some members — including
Anarchist Black Cross Federation gave him support.[28]
On January 26, 2010, Lutalo was arrested for endangering public transportation while on the
Anarchist Book Fair in Los Angeles, being mistakenly identified as making terrorist threats on his cell phone. The charge was dropped for lack of evidence, and Lutalo settled a suit against the city of La Junta, Colorado, where his arrest was made, for an undisclosed amount.[29]
In January 2007, eight men, labelled the San Francisco 8 were charged by a joint state and federal task force with John Young's murder.[30] The defendants have been identified as former members of the Black Liberation Army.[31] A similar case was dismissed in 1975 when a judge ruled that police gathered evidence through the use of torture. On June 29, 2009, Herman Bell pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Sgt. Young. In July 2009, charges were dropped against four of the accused: Ray Boudreaux, Henry W. Jones, Richard Brown and Harold Taylor. That same month, Jalil Muntaquim pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter becoming the second person to be convicted in this case.[32]
List of members and associates
BLA members in prison as of 2023 include the following:
Kojo Bomani Sababu (formerly Grailing Brown); convicted of bank robbery in 1975.[33]
Kamau Sadiki (formerly Freddie Hilton); convicted on October 13, 2002, and was sentenced to life in prison for the 1971 murder of
FBI—the first woman ever to make the list.[38] She is believed to be living in Cuba under political asylum. She escaped custody in 1979 after being convicted in the May 2, 1973 murder of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster. Shakur has been cited as an inspiration by Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.[39]
George Wright
; escaped convict and 1972 hijacker; living in Portugal, which has refused to extradite him to the U.S.
1981 Brinks robbery, he received a 60-year sentence in a federal prison. Incarcerated in Victorville, he was released in December 2022.[43] Shakur is stepfather to the late rap artist Tupac
.
Russell Maroon Shoatz (August 23, 1943 – December 17, 2021); convicted of the murder of a police officer in 1972. Died 2021.[44]
Jalil Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom); one of the New York Three convicted of killing two policemen. Released from prison in October 2020 after over 49 years of incarceration and 11 parole denials.[45][46][47]
Sekou Odinga (formerly Nathaniel Burns); one of the Panther 21 and later convicted of six counts of attempted murder for participation in the 1981 Brink's robbery and other incidents. Released 2014.
Dhoruba bin Wahad (formerly Richard Earl Moore); one of the Panther 21, co-founder of the BLA, and established the Campaign to Free Black and New African Political Prisoners. Convicted for attempted murder in 1973 and released in 1990, subsequently winning lawsuits against the FBI and NYPD.
Safiya Bukhari (formerly Bernice Jones); convicted on multiple charges in 1975, escaped 1976, recaptured 1977, paroled 1983.
Ashanti Alston; convicted for bank robbery in 1974. Released 1985.
Bashir Hameed (formerly James Dixon York) (died in prison August 30, 2008) and Anthony LaBorde (a.k.a. Abdul Majid) (died in prison on April 3, 2016); convicted of the murder of a police officer in 1981.
David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin; both sent to prison for their role in the 1981 Brink's robbery.[49] Gilbert was released in 2021.[50] Boudin was released in 2003 and died in 2022.[51]
Judith Alice Clark; convicted for participation in the 1981 Brink's robbery. Released in 2019.
Marilyn Buck; convicted for participation in the 1981 Brink's robbery, the escape of Assata Shakur, and other incidents. Released and died in 2010.
Silvia Baraldini; convicted in 1983 for participation in BLA actions. Repatriated in 1999 and paroled in 2006.
Susan Rosenberg; convicted in 1985 for possession of explosives, released 2001.
Albert Washington (died in prison April 28, 2000) and Herman Bell (released 2018); two of the New York Three convicted of the murder of two New York City police officers in 1971.[52]
Robert Seth Hayes; convicted of the murder of a NYC Transit Police Officer. Released in 2018 and died in 2019.[53]
John Leo Thomas; Leader of the Atlanta, GA cell.
Ronald Anderson; member of the Atlanta cell.
Avon White; member of the Atlanta cell.
Robert Brown; member of the Atlanta cell.
Ojore Lutalo; convicted following a shootout with a drug dealer, released 2009.[54]
William Turk (a.k.a. Sekou Kambui); convicted of two murders in Alabama. Released 2014.
Anthony White (a.k.a. Kimu Olugbala), and Woodie Greene (a.k.a. Changa Olugbala); died in shooting 1973.[43]
^"Caged panthers". Mondediplo.com. 2005-10-11. Archived from the original on 2020-11-21. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
^Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party, 2001.
^Umoja, Akinyele Omowale (ed.) "Repression Breeds Resistance: The Black Liberation Army and the Radical Legacy of the Black Panther Party.", New Political Science, 21.2 (1999): 131-54.
^US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Most Wanted". FBI Most Wanted Terrorists. US Department of Justice. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2015.
^Garza, Alicia. "A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement". The Feminist Wire. Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2015. When I use Assata's powerful demand in my organizing work, I always begin by sharing where it comes from, sharing about Assata's significance to the Black Liberation Movement, what its political purpose and message is, and why it's important in our context.
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence by Bryan Burrough. Published by Penguin Publishing Group, 2016.
