By: Ash K. Srivastava [xe/xyr]
After passing its fifth directive in just three and a half committee sessions, the Committee to Defend the Panthers determinedly continued to work to solve their plethora of crises. Not only are they currently attempting to agree on the best method to free Huey Newton, they are also trying to find the author of a scathing New York Times article that is hiding among them. On top of those two large crises, they are attempting to understand the death of Bobby Hutton and recovering from the assasination of MLK. Many are worried about being surveilled by the FBI and losing public support.
Atticus Radley powerfully brought up another issue: youth involvement. “What we’re forgetting about is the youth...how are we aiding the youth in our fight for freedom?” This powerful sentiment was left for delegates to ponder during a five-minute break. When they returned, they were faced with yet another issue: Huey Newton’s trial beginning. They quickly moved to introduce a directive drafted earlier in the morning about registering Black Panther members to protect their public image in the case of outside forces attempting to radicalize their events. Shortly after, in a speech about another directive, Stokely Carmichael proposed they set up a fake Black Panther Party meeting to root out whoever is surveilling them. The bloc of delegates currently working on this draft is “confident that it will pass.” Those two directives are a small portion of a myriad of directives actively being drafted.
In addition, there seem to be ongoing tensions between two main players in the Committee: Dr. J Herman Blake and Stokely Carmichael. One of the two noted that their professional relationship is “not very strong,” while the other expressed a similar sentiment. Most recently, J Edgar Hoover was broadcast to the Committee and declared that “terrible Communists” are attempting to influence them. Delegates seemed skeptical, with one delegate noting that they “would need to see evidence” and another saying that “Hoover is trying to spread fear and make us look the part of forign (sic) terroist (sic) that will take there (sic) freedom.” Obviously, there is a lot going on in the committee and we will keep you updated.