446. The Black Panthers and Revolutionary Struggle, 1966-82

Willie Hiatt via Zoom

The formation of the Black Panther party in 1966 in Oakland, California, was met with unprecedented violence and intimidation by federal and local law enforcement. Unlike the non-violent tactics of the Civil Rights Movement in the South, the Black Panthers advocated for armed self-defense against violent white policing. The group sought not only voting rights but actual political and economic power. This lecture explores the role of leaders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the Panthers’ goals, and the FBI’s infiltration and harassment of a group it perceived as an existential threat to national security.

10-12 noon                                                                                                                  1 Session

Wednesday, March 25                                                                                                     Fee:  $30

[A Zoom link will be sent to you prior to each session, typically on the day before your class and the morning of your class.  If you have any questions or need help getting online, feel free to call us at 516-480-5733 and we’ll get right back to you with assistance.]

ABOUT THE LECTURER

Willie Hiatt, a Kentucky native, is an Associate Professor of History at Long Island University,

Post Campus, and a former Society for the Humanities Fellow at Cornell University (2019-20).

He’s the author of The Rarified Air of the Modern: Airplanes and Technological Modernity in the Andes (Oxford, 2016). His current research is an oral history project examining how Maoist

insurgents in Peru targeted high-tension towers during the Shining Path movement (1980-92).