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NEW ORLEANS — In 1966 the Black Panther Party for Self Defense came to life in Oakland, California.
Founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in direct response to police brutality. Comprised of mostly young black people, some in their early teens, they spread far, wide and fast.
It was the era of Black Power and Black Liberation -- and The Panthers demanded decent housing, employment opportunities, an end to police brutality and a power to determine the destiny of Black people.
And a right to defend themselves if necessary.
The Panthers' ideals and methods broke away from the Civil Rights era of non-violence, but despite their militancy, they were well received in the Black community. Thanks in part to their free programs and educational classes.
One of those communities was here in Desire, one of America's largest and poorest housing projects.
While the party's efforts to combat poverty and racial injustice made them heroes to some, they became a threat to others — especially the police force.
Fifty years ago, that perceived threat would spread to the city of New Orleans and eventually to a long and violent standoff with police.
So, what brought those young men and women to the Desire Projects leading to the tense standoff that began on Piety Street?
We asked some of the key players to share their recollection of what happened here 50 years ago and the implications it has on New Orleans today.
This is the story behind the standoff.
Before he was an activist, before he was a black panther, Donald Guyton, known today as Malik Rahim, was a soldier who served in the Vietnam War.
“The only thing that was challenging and that was being offered to young black men at that time was the military,” he said. “I was in the Navy during the Watt's riots. I seen what was happening there. I was doing that during the march on Selma.”
It was during his tour in Vietnam that Rahim says his political consciousness awakened. He realized the racism he'd experience in America, he'd also witness overseas.
After an honorable discharge and a hard time finding work in California, Rahim returned to New Orleans.
He looked for work as a welder, but it cost him the work he’d already found.
“I was fired … for asking how to become a welder,” he said. “I was told that they didn’t hire n*****s as welders and I was fired on the spot.”
He was full of rage and had lost hope, but a chance meeting on Canal Street would lead to the beginning of his chapter as the Louisiana Black Panther Party’s Head of Security.
“Brother came up and he had a panther paper and I asked ‘man, where you get this paper from?’ He said, ‘man, there was some brothers on Canal Street selling these papers,’” Rahim remembered. “It was the late Alton Edwards. I bought a paper from him and I told him if he came over to the West Bank, get on the bus right here, come over, get off at the project ask for me and I'll show him around. So, with that, it started.”
May, 1970
“National Committee to Combat Fascism, that's what we started as. It was the umbrella organization under the panthers,” Ronald Ailsworth said.
Ailsworth says he co-founded the chapter here in New Orleans with Steve Green.
Green, also a Vietnam Veteran, was recruited into the Panthers by Geronimo Pratt, a high-ranking member of the party from Morgan City, Louisiana.
“I’m looking for all the dudes who invited me – the militant dudes. I’m a young man, 20-years-old, 21. The rest were older dudes. All of them walked out the door, so I raised my hand and said ‘I’ll join,’” Ailsworth remembered. “I was the first one to officially join.”
Malik Rahim said that you couldn’t just open a chapter of the Black Panthers. You had to work in the community first.
“First you start a National Committee to Combat Fascism. And then through your program, you showed your work within the community,” he said.
Betty Ailsworth, known then as Betty Powell, was curious about the organization forming in New Orleans.
“I just begun to come to the classes on St. Thomas Street and they had what they would call political education classes,” she said. “I kept going to the classes and eventually I'd go around and do a little typing in the daytime and one of the brothers suggested I would be good selling at the papers.”
