The Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO), also known as the Lowndes County Freedom Party (LCFP) or Black Panther party, was an American political party founded during 1965 in

Lowndes County, Alabama Lowndes County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 10,311. Its county seat is Hayneville. The county is named in honor of William Lowndes, a member of the United States Con ...

. The independent third party was formed by local African-American citizens led by

John Hulett John Hulett (November 19, 1927 – August 21, 2006) was an American civil rights activist, sheriff and judge. He was a leader in the civil rights movement in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States, and the founder of the Lowndes County Christia ...

, and by staff members of the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

(SNCC) under the leadership of

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unite ...

Founding and history

Lowndes County Freedom Organization flyer

On March 23, 1965, as the

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March ...

from Selma to Montgomery took place, Carmichael and some in SNCC who were participants declined to continue marching after reaching Lowndes County and decided to instead stop and talk with local residents. After word spread that Carmichael avoided arrest from two officers who ordered him to leave a school where he was registering voters after he challenged them to do so, Carmichael and the other SNCC activists who stayed with him in the county were inspired to create the LCFO with Hulett (who, since the banning of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

in the state, had been active in

Fred Shuttlesworth Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth (born Fred Lee Robinson, March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011) was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder ...

's Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights), and other local leaders. As the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights m ...

allowed African Americans to register to vote, the objective of the party was to register African Americans in a county that was 80% black. Hulett, who was LCFO's chairperson, was one of the first two African American voters whose registration was successfully processed in Lowndes County. Local residents and SNCC staff members decided to avoid joining the Alabama Democratic party because the state party was led by segregationist Governor

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist a ...

and employed the slogan "White Supremacy" represented by an image of a white rooster. Due to high rates of illiteracy among the black residents, an image of a black panther was adopted to identify party members of LCFO in contrast to members of the all-white Democratic party represented by a white rooster. The idea for the logo came from SNCC field secretary Ruth Howard.

Legacy

The LCFO's symbol of a black panther was later adopted by the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...

founded by

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", ...

and

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadership ...

and other organizations throughout the United States.Austin, p. 15 In 1970, The LCFO merged with the Alabama Democratic Party. This resulted in former LCFO candidates winning public offices. Among them was Hulett, who was elected Sheriff of Lowndes County. Hulett served in this position for 22 years before serving three terms as a probate judge. The work of the political organization was examined in the documentary film ''

Eyes on the Prize ''Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement'' is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network, and it als ...

'' within the episode "The Time Has Come (1964–66)".

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

Lowndes County Freedom Party (LCFP)
- Provided by the SNCC Digital Gateway
Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- Provided by the Encyclopedia of Alabama

- Part of th
H.K. Yuen Social Movement Archive, 1963-1982
within th
Comparative Ethnic Studies Collection
located at the University of California, Berkeley {{Authority control 1965 establishments in Alabama African-American history of Alabama Black political parties in the United States Civil rights movement History of African-American civil rights History of voting rights in the United States Political parties in Alabama