On this day, 18 July 1969, Black Panthers held a conference in Oakland alongside the predominantly white anti-racist Young Patriots Organisation and Puerto Rican street gang-turned-radical group the Young Lords.
A KPIX news report described the event as an “unconventional convention” which was nevertheless “well-organised and orderly”, and explained that the Panthers’ motivation in holding it was to emphasise “class struggle” and “revolutionary unity”.
The Young Patriots were a group of poor, mostly Appalachian migrants in Chicago. Although they opposed racism, they originally wore Confederate flags, which they believed were a symbol of rebellion.
Leading Panther Fred Hampton played a key role in building links with them and other white working-class youth, until he was assassinated by police.
In his speech, William "Preacherman" Fesperman of the Young Patriots, argued for armed self-defence against police brutality: "A gun on the side of a pig means two things: it means racism and it means capitalism and the gun on the side of a revolutionary, on the side of the people, means solidarity and socialism."
Later, the Young Patriots abandoned the Confederate flag symbol as an irredeemable symbol of white supremacy. As former-Patriot Hy Thurman explained to Redneck Revolt: “As we grew politically and respected the Black Panthers and the Young Lords we determined that there was no place in the movement or the world for the Confederate flag. It symbolises a period of time when our Black brothers and sisters were mere property to be sold or destroyed at the white man's convenience. And that the Confederate flag was created to serve as a symbol of plantation owners to perpetuate slavocracy.”
Learn more about the Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/black-panthers
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