Army of the Wronged: Autobiography, Political Prisoners, and Black Radicalism

Abstract

Shelby presents an analysis of the warfare between Black radicals associated with the Black Panther Party and the US government during the era of the Black Power movement. Shelby observes that these would-be revolutionaries regarded US law as having no authority over them. The radicals also thought that their declaration of war was reciprocated, that state officials were self-consciously using the tactics and machinery of war to repress this internal uprising and insurgency, including killing, capturing, and incapacitating Black radicals. Shelby contends that there is truth in this characterization, and lessons to be learned from it. He explores the underlying questions of political morality through an examination and comparison of four autobiographies—by George Jackson, Huey Newton, Angela Davis, and Assata Shakur. Each spent significant time in prison, and each regarded themselves as political prisoners and, in some ways, as prisoners of war. Attention is given to the narrative conventions these authors rely on to achieve their aims, a tradition that can be traced to, but differs in important ways from, African American slave narratives.