African Americans have made extraordinary contributions to the history and culture of the United States as part of the nation and apart from it. This month, Auction Finds presents “28 days (Plus 1)” of this collaborative history. The additional day is intended to break Black history out of the stricture of a month into its rightful place as an equal partner in the history of America. Each day, I will offer artifacts culled from the auction tables and my research, along with the stories they hold.
Feb. 21, 2022
An Ala. banner & its link to Black Panther Party
In 1965, activists in Lowndes County, AL, formed the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, a political party whose aim was to register Black voters and offer candidates for local office. Among the organizers were Stokely Carmichael and other members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
The organization chose the black panther as its mascot and called itself the Black Panther Party. The choice of mascot was to counter the Alabama Democratic Party’s symbol of a white rooster and its slogan “White Supremacy/ For the Right.”
The black panther “never bothers anything, but when you start pushing him, he moves backward, backward, and backward, and then he comes out and destroys everything that’s in front of him,” said John Hulett, the group’s chairperson.
Carmichael became a leader in the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in California, founded in 1966. Read the full story.
