Exercises on the Black Panthers

(PUC-PR) Read the following text:

“One hundred years ago a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we find ourselves today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. (…)

But a hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. A hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still severely held back by the shackles of segregation and the shackles of discrimination. A hundred years later, the Negro inhabits a lonely island of poverty, in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro continues to languish in the corners of American society, as an exile in his own land. So we came here today to dramatize a hideous situation. (…) But there is something I need to say to my people positioned in the lukewarm injunction that leads to the palace of justice. In the process of earning our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongdoing. Let us not try to quench our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must conduct our struggle forever on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not let our creative protest degenerate into physical violence. We must rise again and again to the majestic height of fighting physical force with soul force.”

Excerpts from Martin Luther King's August 28, 1963 speech. Available at:

Interpret the text above and note the following statements about the black movement in the US in the second half of the 20th century:

I. Martin Luther King was an important leader of the black movement in the USA in the period after World War II. His speech is inserted in the context of the struggle for the civil rights of blacks in that country, in which he questions the segregationist laws that delimited, for example, separate places for whites and for blacks in public places.

II. In his speech, Martin Luther King refers to the capitalist propaganda typical of the Cold War period, according to which the USA was a country where citizens enjoyed the American dream of financial bonanza, which did not correspond to the reality experienced by the black community.

III. Martin Luther King was an important representative of the black movement in the USA, known as the "Black Panthers", which preached the violent and radical confrontation of blacks against whites, for the conquest of civil rights by the former, who carried the sad legacy of slavery.

The statements are CORRECT:

a) I and II only.

b) I and III only.

c) I, II and III.

d) I only.

e) II and III only

What is the major difference in discourse between the Black Panthers and Martin Luther King in the struggles against racial prejudice in the United States?

a) the Black Panthers had a strong religious discourse, unlike Martin Luther King.

b) the Black Panthers focused their fight exclusively against the Ku Klux Klan; Martin Luther King fought against every form of prejudice existing in American society.

c) Martin Luther King had a political vision linked to the Left; the Black Panthers had a more “center” view.

d) the Black Panthers preached the arming of the African-American population as a way of confronting state violence; Martin Luther King was considered a pacifist.

e) there were no ideological differences in the struggle promoted by Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers.

Which of the following does NOT reflect a stance held by the Black Panthers?

a) Fight against police violence.

b) Jobs dedicated to the African American population.

c) African Americans put on trial should be tried by people from the African American community.

d) Right to education with emphasis on African-American history.

e) They defended African-American emancipation in a context that encouraged capitalism and the struggle against socialism characteristic of the Cold War.

What reasons explain the weakening of the Black Panthers?

a) achievement of all emancipatory rights for the African-American population.

b) persecution by the American State of the party.

c) the weakening of the struggle for the rights of black people after the death of Martin Luther King.

d) the weakening of the socialist bloc.

Letter A

Martin Luther King was indeed an important leader in the struggle for the rights of the African-American population. His struggle began with the Rosa Parks case, who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a bus in 1955. He actually criticized the contradiction of the “American dream”, which spoke of freedom and consumer goods, but it deprived the African American population of many of these rights. However, Martin Luther King did not share the stance of armed confrontation defended by the Black Panthers, as is evident in the passage “let's not try to quench our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

Letter D

The big difference between the Black Panthers and Martin Luther King is that the former defended the arming of the African-American population as a means of guaranteeing confrontation and security against police violence. Martin Luther King, in turn, defended that civil disobedience should happen through non-violent demonstrations.

Letter E

The Black Panthers had a political stance associated with socialism. They criticized capitalism and the inequalities of society and defended the seizure of the means of production as a way of guaranteeing the African-American population's access to work.

Letter B

The persecution of the American state explains the weakening of the Black Panthers. The head of the FBI (United States Federal Bureau of Investigation) at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, considered the Black Panthers a major threat. Several arrests took place and, in a lecture in Brazil, a former Black Panther activist stated that, in just one year, the FBI killed 28 members of the party.