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State Repression and the Black Panther Party: Analyzing Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin's Black against Empire

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Abstract

This essay analyzes the contention that state repression did not play a primary role in the Black Panther Party’s (BPP) demise. In their book, Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party, Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin, Jr. claim that during the BPP's early years, state repression actually helped garner outside support for the Panthers. The authors furthermore argue that the Panthers only became more repressible after they lost external support due to uncontrollable circumstances. This paper considers their conclusions while also surveying previous scholarship on state repression against the Black Panther Party.

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Correspondence to Navid Farnia.

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Farnia, N. State Repression and the Black Panther Party: Analyzing Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin's Black against Empire . J Afr Am St 21, 172–179 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-017-9343-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-017-9343-y

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