The FBI believed the Republic of New Afrika to be a seditious group and conducted raids on its meetings, which led to violent confrontations, and the arrest and repeated imprisonment of RNA leaders. In addition, the group was a target of the COINTELPRO operation by the federal authorities, but was also subject to diverse Red Squad activities of the Michigan State Police and Detroit Police Department-among other cities.
This collection provides documentation collected by the FBI through intelligence activities, informants, surveillance, and cooperation with local police departments. These documents chronicle the activities of Republic of New Afrika national and local leaders, power struggles within the organization, its growing militancy, and its affiliations with other Black militant organizations.
The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated from 1970 to 1981. Composed largely of former Black Panthers (BPP), the organization's program was one of "armed struggle" and its stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States." The BLA carried out a series of bombings, robberies (what participants termed "expropriations"), and prison breaks.
If one were to examine, African American history, one would be surprised to find a long history of militant armed struggle. Slave rebellions, urban "guerilla" activities in the 1960s, rural defense leagues, were all part of a tapestry of black militancy. An icon of black armed struggle, the Black Liberation Army, was a linchpin in understanding the development of the "armed rebellion" phenomenon in the late 1960s through early 1980s. The idea of the Black Liberation Army emerged from conditions in African American communities: conditions of poverty, indecent housing, massive unemployment, poor medical care, and inferior education. The BLA arose because of the political, social, and economic oppression of felt by African American people in the urban areas.