Founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative Dr. Yohuru Williams comments for USA Today on the history of Black militias, specifically The Black Panthers.
From the article: "They wanted to communicate to Blacks in Oakland that somebody was looking out for them," said Yohuru Williams, professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. "The police carried weapons, and that carried the specter of racial terror, so this was a way of evening the playing field."
