EXCLUSIVE: New Black Panther Party Joining Baton Rouge Protests

Kevork Djansezian/Getty
Kevork Djansezian/Getty

BATON ROUGE –New Black Panther Party (NBPP) Minister of Education James Evans Muhammad tells Breitbart News exclusively that the group plans to be in town on Sunday to protest the police shooting of Alton Sterling.

Muhammad also said members of the group’s Black Educators for Justice and the Kemetic Empire will be in Baton Rouge this weekend and that he expects about 100 people to come from Florida to Baton Rouge.

Several protesters Breitbart News spoke with at events in Baton Rouge said they were unhappy to hear the New Black Panthers were coming to town.

The New Black Panther Party has made headlines for its incendiary uncompromising black liberation rhetoric.

During protests after the Trayvon Martin shooting, the NBPP put out “Wanted: Dead or Alive” posters with George Zimmerman’s picture on them.

Muhammad was one of the people putting those posters out. The New Black Panther Party also had a presence at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and Charleston, South Carolina.

Breitbart News also reported that Dallas massacre shooter Micah X. Johnson was briefly a member of the Houston, Texas, chapter of the New Black Panther Party.

Muhammad pointed out that in the Ferguson protest, the movement did not come together until specific demands were made. He said that the New Black Panther Party planned to help residents of Baton Rouge organize.

Muhammad also noted that the Alton Sterling shooting was one of the first nationally publicized police shootings in the South, and said that residents also need to focus on jobs and education.

Muhammad suggested Baton Rouge today may be similar for black Americans to Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s.

Muhammad also praised President Barack Obama’s comments on Thursday, saying the speech was one of the best on race he has ever heard. He noted that Obama made specific practical suggestions for protesters to take action.

Although the New Black Panther Party and its leader, Dr. Malik Zulu Shabazz, are controversial among Republicans, they have also garnered criticism from liberal organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which designated them a hate group.

The New Black Panther Party has announced an event for 4 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at the store where police killed Alton Sterling on Tuesday.

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