Rashomon and Repression

State Coercion, Perspective and the Black Panther Party, 1967-1973

Within this project, numerous event-sequences are created from a variety of newspapers in an effort to see what they commonly observe as well as where they differ. This research attempts to identify if and how alternative accounts of contention vary, how they influence what we know as well as how such information can be used to gain a better understanding of why things take place. The project itself concerns contentious interactions between the Black Panther Party and different authorities (from 1967-1973) from 5 different newspapers - varying across ethnic, political and geographic orientation: the New York Times, the Oakland Tribune, the Berkeley Barb, the Sun Reporter, and the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service.