The Black Association for Nationalism Through Unity, or BANTU, was a

youth activism Youth activism is the participation in community organizing for social change by persons between the ages of 15–24. Youth activism has led to a shift in political participation and activism. A notable shift within youth activism is the rise of ...

group focused on black power and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

in the 1960s. Its name is a reference to the

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

peoples of Southern Africa. It was reportedly an arm of the Black Panthers Party. Efforts by some to start a chapter at Tech High School were unsuccessful. According to extensive U.S. government surveillance records, Robert Griffo, a member of the Black Panthers, was appointed minister of student affairs at Tech. BANTU was credited with leading the protests that led to three days of rioting in June 1969, after an Omaha police officer fatally shot teenager Vivian Strong in the Logan Fontenelle Public Housing Projects. BANTU was also the target of a

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...

investigation by the FBI.
A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Federal Bureau of Investigation Surveillance Files - FBI Files on Black Extremist Organizations
'' Retrieved 12/20/07.

References

Bibliography

* Howard, A. M. (2006, Sep) ''The Omaha Black Panther Party and BANTU: Exploitation or a Relationship of Mutual Convenience Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History'', NA, Atlanta, GA Politics of Nebraska African-American history in Omaha, Nebraska History of North Omaha, Nebraska Youth empowerment organizations Organizations based in Omaha, Nebraska Independence movements Post–civil rights era in African-American history COINTELPRO targets Organizations with year of establishment missing 1960s in Nebraska {{Omaha-stub

See also

References

Bibliography