[Ppnews] Omaha Two (Part 7) - J. Edgar Hoover informed of United Front Against Fascism in Omaha

[Political Prisoner News]

J. Edgar Hoover informed of United Front Against Fascism in Omaha

    * By <http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Michael 
Richardson, COINTELPRO Examiner
    * March 19th, 2011 12:50 pm ET
Omaha Two story: Sept. 22, 1969
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-informed-of-united-front-against-fascism-omaha

For reasons that remain unclear the Black Panther Party in Omaha, 
Nebraska disbanded in the summer of 1969.  Many believe the closing 
of the chapter and expulsion of Eddie Bolden, head of the Omaha 
chapter of the Black Panthers, was a result of 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-fbi-sets-up-cointelpro-unit-and-j-edgar-hoover-targets-black-panthers>COINTELPRO 
dirty tricks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

COINTELPRO was a massive, illegal, and clandestine operation of the 
FBI directed against the Black Panthers and other groups under 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-directs-cointelpro-plot-against-omaha-chapter-of-black-panthers>J. 
Edgar Hoover.  Hoover personally monitored the COINTELPRO campaign of 
misdeeds and crimes against the Black Panthers.

In June, during the riots that ravaged Omaha's Near North Side 
following the police shooting of 14 year-old 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1>Vivian 
Strong, Hoover ordered Paul Young, Special Agent-in-Charge of the 
Omaha office to take a "new approach" to eliminate the Black Panthers.

In Oakland, California, the Black Panthers sponsored a national 
conference of the United Front Against 
Fascism. 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case>Mondo 
we Langa, then David Rice, was a community activist and anti-poverty 
worker in Omaha who traveled to California to attend the conference.

Not long after Mondo's return to Omaha, he and 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police>Ed 
Poindexter, a member of the Omaha Black Panthers, decided to 
revitalize the group under the United Front Against Fascism 
banner.  Unknown to the two leaders, the Omaha FBI was watching the 
organizing efforts closely.

On September 22, 1969, Paul Young sent a COINTELPRO memo to J. Edgar 
Hoover updating him on developments in Omaha.

Young wrote to Hoover:  "JUNE HILLIARD, Assistant Chief of Staff, 
National BBP Headquarters, in August, 1969, announced that the Omaha 
BPP Chapter had been disbanded and its leader [Eddie Bolden] expelled 
from the BPP, however, he announced that the BPP might reestablish a 
Omaha chapter at a future date."

Young continued:  "In late August, 1969, an organization known as 
United Front Against Fascism (UFAF) was formed in Omaha and this 
organization has been described as a replacement for the BPP.  The 
activities of this group are being closely followed."

In October 1969, the newly formed UFAF chapter began the Vivian 
Strong Liberation School, following the Black Panther model of 
liberation schools.  The Omaha school was located in Mondo's house on 
Parker Street and his living room became the classroom.  Children 
attending the Vivian Strong Liberation School were taught black 
history not included in their public school curriculum.  Critics said 
the school was indoctrinating the youth with Black Panther ideology.

Meanwhile events in Chicago, where the secret FBI war on the Black 
Panthers was proceeding with lethal ferocity, would have a powerful 
effect on the Panthers nationwide.  On December 3, 1969, the Chicago 
FBI office sent a COINTELPRO memo to headquarters, which Hoover 
vainly called the "Seat of Government", outlining a planned police 
raid against the Black Panthers.

The FBI had been able to recruit Chicago Black Panther leader Fred 
Hampton's bodyguard, William O'Neal, into becoming an 
informant.  O'Neal provided the FBI with a map of Hampton's apartment 
interior for the raid.

On December 4, 1969, a special squad of Chicago police operating 
under Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan conducted a 
pre-dawn raid against the Black Panther leadership.  The heavily 
armed raiding party riddled the apartment of Fred Hampton killing 
Hampton and Mark Clark, a Black Panther leader from Peoria, 
Illinois.  Three other people in the apartment were wounded in the 
police fusillade.

Fred Hampton was killed in his bed and did not fire a single 
shot.  The police shoot-in during the December raid against the 
Chicago Black Panthers sent shock waves through black communities 
nationwide and increased animosity between police and the Black Panthers.

In Omaha, Ed Poindexter, the new leader of the UFAF, altered his 
routine and began staying in different safe houses each night to 
prevent a similar fate as Fred Hampton.

Poindexter's fears were well placed since he and Mondo we Langa 
became Hoover's chief targets in Omaha as the FBI director sought to 
break the Black Panther Party.

To view all the Omaha Two story articles click 
<http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national>HERE

Permission granted to reprint




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20110319/f273425f/attachment.htm>