The last “caged” Black Panther, Albert Woodfox is, in the words of Louisiana’s Attorney general  “the most dangerous person on the planet.”

Go ’head bra’ . .  with your badass self, keep-up the good work!

A federal judge ruled this week that Woodfox, who in 1971 organized a Black Panther Party chapter behind prison walls to combat the barbaric conditions inside a location which could damn-near be compared to Nazi Concentration camps for jews in WWll . .  the man must be freed immediately, saying the state has never proved — and never it’ll never be possible to prove Woodfox guilty in the stabbing death of prison guard Brent Miller 43 years ago.

The Warden of Angola prison, Burl Cain, has repeatedly said  Al Woodfox is in solitary because he subscribes to “Black Pantherism.  . . .”

However, I’m here to suggest there’s nothing more All-American and Red White n’ Blue patriotic than the original  “Black Panther Party . . . for Self-Defense”. The rhyme, reason and rational which motivated Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to forge the legendary organization,  and it’s stated purpose of “self-defense” is as patriotic as Coca-Cola and Corvettes.

Here, look at the closing of their Nation of Islam/ Malcolm X inspired BPP 10-point program drafted in 1966. “When in the course of human events, it become necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, and that all men are created equal that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.. .  But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, and their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards of their future security." 

The mere notion a man or woman, yes, even a Black man or woman has the inalienable right to pick-up a shotgun and defend themselves from a terroristic government and the hostile rank n’ file WASP population. This nation’s founding fathers, Hancock, Franklin, Monroe, Jefferson , Hamilton and Washington believed just that. In 1776 they too had a distaste for “taxation without representation” - which is the exact adverse situation the GOP would love to place Black America in, that’s what all this “gerrymandering” is about.

The Black Panther’s platform was asking for what the fabled “Minutemen” were asking for  . . .  Freedom. 

We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.

We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities. 

We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.

We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States 

There needs to be an “understanding” amongst Black thinkers, from the so-called uptown Afro-American intellectuals, to the downtown Black bartenders, from the well-read cultured poets and sophisticated, cerebral barbers . . . from the low-lifes to the hi-lites . . . the fact is the United States Of America, i.e., “White” America has been disinclined, unwilling and obviously unenthusiastically allowed token integration and inclusion.

“Diversity” is a four-letter word in most of White America.

Let’s be pragmatic; White people in 1969 were, in-part “prompted” by the real threat of Black people standing-up to them in a way we’d not ever really embraced - a new generation was willing to stop singin’ n’ start swingin’, willing to pick-up a gun against the widespread, blatant White brutality. To accomplish this Blacks had to be “organized” and “enlightened” - and of course the White establishment was determined to halt that transformation. 

The “Angola Three” are symbolic of that threat as Black Panthers.

The Angola warden saw them as that,  just as most of White America saw the Panthers as threats. Now, for creating that type of fear, that type of contempt and animosity amongst a people who apparently “have no consciences”  as Black Panther Stokely Carmichael noted . . . we Black folks ought never take for granted the Panthers immeasurable  “contributions” to the 20th century Black struggle. We should continue to support and demand the release of Mr. Woodfox, for he’s paid an horrific yet nobel price for promoting and spreading “Pantherism . . . .”

Keep on keepin’ on Mr. Woodfox. 

In a 2008 deposition, attorneys for Woodfox asked Cain, “Let’s just for the sake of argument assume, if you can, that he is not guilty of the murder of Brent Miller.' Cain responded, 'Okay, I would still keep him in CCR (solitary) … I still know that he is still trying to practice ‘Black Pantherism,’ and I still would not want him walking around my prison because he would organize the young new inmates. I would have me all kind of problems, more than I could stand, and I would have the blacks chasing after them.”

Might I offer the obvious . . . Black “organization” alarms White folks. It’s as “dangerous” as us being “educated.” Both threaten the monopoly, the stranglehold White America has on the “American Dream.  I’d go as far as to say Conservatives/Confederates would rather we remain in this self-destructive phase for a few more decades, if not centuries. Assisting-in keeping Blacks divided,  “Bloods” killing “Crips,” being at one-another’s throats is highly preferable to Blacks recognizing who our true oppressors are - the angry TEA Party Rednecks who’re entrenched throughout US society intentionally, shrewdly, tactically hindering progress and equality.  

Never forget . . . “ Free not just Huey, Bobby and Angela, but “Free Albert Woodfox . . .” the last caged Black Panther.