Cointelpro, The Black Panthers and The Omaha Two Part 5 The Trial Aftermath Cont. 2

snackdoodle for The Town Where I Live

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Friday August 21, 2015 · 2:02 PM PDT

2015/08/21 · 14:02

Again, in their own words the trial and aftermath are dissected.

snackdoodle for The Town Where I Live

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Tuesday August 18, 2015 · 12:03 PM PDT

2015/08/18 · 12:03

One should never underestimate the effects of Cointelpro and the beat down of Black activism. So many wanted nothing more than the rights they had been awarded by law and to lift their communities up. Among them Vietnam War vets, many decorated heroes who came home to separate but unequal status quo and a country largely unmoved by the Civil Rights Act.

One more documentary on the effects of Cointelpro on the black community.

Used with permission Creative Commons

snackdoodle for The Town Where I Live

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Monday August 17, 2015 · 3:09 PM PDT

2015/08/17 · 15:09

This is a good over view done by local reporter and now City Councilman Ben Gray., it as done about 20 years ago. The Bomb that went off killing Officer Larry Minard happened 45 years ago today.

Used with Permission from Creative Commons

snackdoodle for The Town Where I Live

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Monday August 03, 2015 · 12:17 PM PDT

2015/08/03 · 12:17

The racial situation in Omaha became more polarized during the course of 1968, when arch-segregationist George Wallace made a stop in the city during his independent campaign for president. White racists attacked Blacks and whites protesting the notorious bigot at one of his campaign rallies. Later that night, Omaha cops killed a local Black high school student. The following month, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, leading to uprisings in 100 American cities. The Black Panther Party (BPP) became the prime target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations with the stated goal of “neutralizing” their leadership. Mondo we Langa and Ed Poindexter were community activists in North Omaha at the time. They joined the BPP in 1969 and were soon recognized as the leaders of the party in Nebraska. Poindexter, like a growing number of Panthers, was also a Vietnam veteran. The situation in Omaha got even bloodier in 1969. Vivian Strong, a fourteen-year-old Black teenager, was shot in the back of the head and killed by the police in June of that year. The police officer who killed her, patrolman John Loder, was found not guilty of manslaughter by an all-white jury and was reinstated to the Omaha Police Department (OPD) with back pay and benefits. “Among the most vocal critics of such police abuse of power,” according to Rutger’s law professor Lennox Hinds, “were members of the local chapter of the Black Panther party and its successor, the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF).” Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa left the Panthers and founded the NCCF in 1970, with Mondo as chairman and Poindexter as minister of information. They were repeatedly harassed and arrested by the Omaha police for their political activities.

Clearly the government and law enforcement feared the Black Liberation movement. Altho Cointelpro had been around since 1956 and continued to undermine any group or individual who was seen as a threat to the status quo it went into hyper gear in 1968. Thru the years, the number of people and organizations in the sights of Cointelpro included the Quakers, Marcus Garvey, MLK, Jean Seberg and on and on. These were supposed to be hate groups when in fact they were groups pushing for social justice, the toppling of the status quo. Hoover was determined to do everything he could from using fear and smear campaigns to falsely accusing, convicting on fabricated evidence and out right murder to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah.

It leaves all the killings of Black leaders of that era suspect including Malcolm X who had gained a significant following and scared Hoover.

One example of how COINTELPRO operated was the targeting of Malcolm X, who first became known to many people through the Nation of Islam (NOI). Malcolm came to increasingly disagree with, and eventually break with, the NOI, whose program was profoundly conservative. The NOI launched a campaign of vicious personal slander and threats against him, including Louis Farrakhan, who later became the head of NOI, directly saying that Malcolm was "worthy of death." In early 1965, his house, the location of which was publicly known, was firebombed, and his family barely escaped death. Finally, on February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated. On that day, the regular police suddenly left the scene—while at the same time, as it came out later, five FBI informants were in the room when Malcolm was gunned down and Malcolm's main bodyguard was an agent of the New York Police Department. To this day, the exact role of those running the campaign of slander against Malcolm and their relationship with COINTELPRO is unclear. But what is very clear is that the ruling class schemes to prevent the "rise" of Black leaders, while hiding their own role, was greatly aided by that campaign of slander and threats against Malcolm.

Activism was dangerous work and all the more so if your skin was brown, this is the world of Poindexter and Rice (Mondo we Langa) and their last months of freedom. Read More

Cointelpro, The Black Panthers and The Omaha Two Part 1

snackdoodle for The Town Where I Live

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Sunday July 26, 2015 · 12:11 PM PDT

2015/07/26 · 12:11

In August of 1970 an Omaha police officer Larry Minard died in a house bombing. The two men charged with the crime, David Rice and Ed Poindexter were leaders of the Black Panthers in Omaha, they were well known community activists. They were charged and convicted of a crime they had nothing to do with, they remain in prison today, political prisoners, victims of the last vestiges of acceptable overt racial animus.

This is a complicated case of how two innocent young Black men were sentenced to life without parole for a crime they knew nothing about. Ed Poindexter and Mondo We Langa (David Rice) are known as the Omaha Two, who 45 years later are still living in the maximum security Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Nebraska. This is their story in a film by Greg Tunink.

WARNING** Some graphic images in first couple of minutes. (1:43 - 1:58)
Permission by Creative Commons.

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