Eek! Black Panthers!

I don't watch Fox News so I hadn't been aware of their newfound obsession with the New Black Panther Party. The Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center both identify the NBP as a hate group, which it is. In fact, of the 932 active hate groups in the United States identified by the SPLC, only one has been so heavily advertised and pilloried on Fox News: the New Black Panthers. Not the Klan. Not Neo-Nazis.

What has the White Citizens Council conservative media establishment up in arms is that they believe white voters were allegedly intimidated by the NBP on election day, 2008.

However, there is this minor problem with the story:

In fact, no voters at all in the Philadelphia precinct have come forward to allege intimidation. The complaints have come from white Republican poll watchers, who have given no evidence they were registered to vote in the majority black precinct.

An Associated Press story inaccurately described the scene as one where white voters were being intimidated by the Black Panther members. The only white people at the scene that day appeared to be the Republican poll watchers. And Fox News host Megyn Kelly inaccurately described video taken of the incident as made by a “voter.” In fact, the video was made by Stephen Robert Morse, a blogger hired by the local Republican Party on behalf of the John McCain presidential campaign.

The Philadelphia video also did not capture any racial slurs, although the two Black Panthers were shown in an earlier National Geographic documentary using derogatory terms against whites. The Southern Poverty Law Center has classified the New Black Panther Party as a hate group.

The incident allegedly took place was at 1221 Fairmount Avenue in Philadelphia, where approximately 65% of the nearby residents are black.

A civil complaint was filed against the NBP by the Bush Justice Department on January 7, 2009. J. Christian Adams, a former Bush Campaign poll watcher, conservative activist, and now Fox News pundit, was the prosecutor assigned to the case. Adams had no experience in voting rights law or civil rights law when he was hired, but he did have an extensive background in Republican politics. When the Bush Justice Department decided to drop the case against all but one of the defendants, Adams was silent. But last month he resigned in protest. DOJ cited the lack of a pattern of intimidation and the fact that no voters actually came forward to say they had been intimidated. The Civil Rights Commission held a hearing about the matter last April:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/13/883909/-Eek!-Black-Panthers!

The original BPP ceased to exist in 1980. Various formations have used the phrase "black panther" in their name, but making the distinction is important. The original BPP was an anti-racist, progressive, secular organization.