Black Liberation Army

Black Liberation Army
Participant in Black Power movement
Logo of the Black Liberation Army
Active	1970–1982
Ideology	The liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States Anti-capitalism Anti-imperialism Anti-racism Black nationalism Black separatism Feminism Socialism
Leaders	Assata Shakur Eldridge Cleaver
Area of operations	United States
Originated as	Black Panther Party
Became	May 19th Communist Organization
Battles and wars	1972 Delta Air Lines Flight 841 hijacking 1981 Brink's robbery

The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist organization that operated in the United States from 1970 to 1981. Composed largely of former Black Panthers (BPP), the organization's program was one of armed struggle against the United States Government, 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, murders, robberies (which participants termed "expropriations"), and prison breaks.

The Black Liberation Army gained strength as Black Panther Party membership declined. By 1970, police and FBI sabotage (see COINTELPRO), infiltration, sectarianism, the lengthy prison sentences and murdering of key members by the government (among them Fred Hampton, at the hands of police), had significantly undermined the Black Panther Party. This convinced many former party members of the desirability of an underground existence, seeing that a new period of violent repression by the U.S federal and local government was at hand. BLA members operated under the belief that only through covert means, including but not limited to retribution, could the movement be continued until such a time when an above-ground existence was possible.

The conditions under which the Black Liberation Army formed are not entirely clear. It is commonly believed that the organization was founded by those who left the Black Panther Party after Eldridge Cleaver was expelled from the party's Central Committee. A fallout was inevitable between Cleaver and other Panther leaders after he publicly criticized the BPP, among other things accusing Panther social programs of being reformist rather than revolutionary. Others, including black revolutionary Geronimo Pratt (AKA Geronimo ji Jaga), assert that the BLA "as a movement concept pre-dated and was broader than the BPP," suggesting that it was a refuge for ex-Panthers rather than a new organization formed through schism.