NEWS

By STEPHANIE GUNTER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL – The role of the Black Panther Party and armed self-reliance groups in the civil rights movement will be the focus of a Feb. 26 panel discussion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Historically, the civil rights movement brings to mind peaceful demonstrations such as the Greensboro sit-ins. Scholars have noted that the concepts of black power and self-defense contradict the strategy of non-violence that is often associated with the movement.

But today, some researchers suggest that strategies of self-defense and black power complemented the court battles and nonviolent protests of the movement.

"This gives us insight to another side of the movement for civil and human rights for African-Americans and others," said Dr. Joseph Jordan, director of UNC’s Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. "In many cases, there were clear steps taken by communities to protect their members from racist violence."

The free public discussion, "The Role of Black Power and Self-Defense in the Evolving Struggle for Civil Rights," will begin at 7 p.m. in the Toy Lounge of Dey Hall. Sponsors are the Stone Center and UNC’s Institute for African-American Research. The institute and UNC, with Duke, N.C. Central and NC State universities, have declared a year of celebration and reflection on the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court, 50 years ago this May 17.

Ahmad Rahman, the Stone Center’s 2004 Diaspora Scholar in Residence for the week of Feb. 22, will moderate the discussion. Dr. Charles Jones of Georgia State University and Dr. Timothy Tyson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison will be panelists.

"The image that we have of the civil rights movement is a popular image," Jordan said. "But that popular image is not always a critical image. Many of the people who participated in self-defense activities were deeply engaged in the civil rights movement. It’s a mistake made in the popular depictions of the movement, but not in the critical depictions of the movement."

Rahman, a visiting assistant professor of Africana studies at the University of Toledo, was a leader in the Black Panther Party in Detroit. He went to prison in 1971 after an FBI investigation and served 20 years. During that time he earned a bachelor’s degree and became the first prisoner admitted to a graduate program at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, where he is completing his doctoral dissertation .

A former Congressional Black Caucus Graduate Fellow, Jones is an associate professor and chair of the department of African-American studies. His teaching and research interests focus on African-American politics. His work has been published in scholarly journals including "Journal of Black Studies," "National Political Science Review" and "Legislative Studies Quarterly." Jones edited an anthology titled "The Black Panther Party Reconsidered" and is working on a history of the Black Panther Party.

Tyson, an associate professor of Afro-American studies, has written three books, including "Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power." The title won the 2000 James A. Rawley Prize for best book on race relations from the Organization of American Historians.

For more information, contact Jennifer Ramirez, Stone Center program coordinator, at (919) 962-9001.

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(Gunter, of Raleigh, is a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication.)

Contact: Jennifer Ramirez, (919) 962-9001, jramirez@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu