Written: June 29, 1967
Source: Pamphlet titled Essays From the Minister of Defense published by the Black Panther Party, 1968, Oakland
Transcription/Markup: 2021 by Philip Mooney
Public Domain: Marxist Internet Archive 2021. This work is completely free.
So Let This Be Heard…
Brother Stokely Carmichael:
Because you have distinguished yourself in the struggle for the total liberation of Black people from oppression in racist White America;
Because you have acted courageously and shown great fortitude under the most adverse circumstances;
Because you have proven yourself as a true revolutionary guided by a great feeling of love for our people;
Because you have set such a fine example, in the tradition of Brother Malcom, of dedicating your entire life to the struggle of Black Liberation, inspiring our youth and providing a model for others to emulate;
Because you have refused to serve in the oppressor’s racist mercenary, aggressive war machine, showing that you know who your true friends and enemies are;
Because of your new endeavor to organize and liberate the Crown Colony of Washington, D.C., you will inevitably be forced to confront, deal with, and conquer the racist Washington Police Department which functions as the protector of the racist dog power structure, occupying the Black Community in the same manner and for the same reasons that the racist U.S. Armed Forces occupy South Vietnam;
You are hereby drafted into the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, invested with the rank of Field Marshall, delegated the following authority, power, and responsibility:
To establish revolutionary law, order and justice in the territory lying between the Continental Divide East to the Atlantic Ocean; North of the Mason-Dixon Line to the Canadian Border; South of the Mason-Dixon Line to the Gulf of Mexico.
…So Let It Be Done.