Black Riders Liberation Party Collection, 1997-2016, 1997-2016

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Summary

Title:
Black Riders Liberation Party Collection, 1997-2016
Dates:
1997-2016
Creators:
Black Riders Liberation Party.
Abstract:
Black Riders Liberation Party Collection, 1997-2016
Extent:
2.10 cubic feet (2 boxes), 10.95 gigabytes
Language:
Preferred citation:

[Item], Black Riders Liberation Party Collection. Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections

Background

Scope and content:

This collection includes organizational documents, letters, publications, fliers, media, ephemera, visual materials, and reference materials related to the Black Riders Liberation Party (BRLP). BRLP was founded in 1996 in Los Angeles by Mischa Culton as a “New Generation Black Panther Party for Self Defense.” Culton sought to unite gang members and to transform them into Black revolutionaries willing to confront a system of racism and capitalist exploitation of the Black community.

Biographical / historical:

The Black Riders Liberation Party (BRLP) is “the new generation Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.” Co-founder and “chairman-general” Mischa Culton says he formed the group in 1996 when he and other youths incarcerated in Youth Transformation Services (YTS; later known as Stark Juvenile Prison) became unified in their concern for the well-being of Black communities. After being released from YTS, Culton joined the New African American Vanguard Movement (NAAVM; later known as the New Panther Vanguard Movement), an organization formed by former Black Panther members following the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising. However, Culton differed with the group’s level of militancy, and left to focus on BRLP. Under the aliases of General T.A.C.O. (Taking All Capitalists Out) and Wolverine Shakur, Culton explained that BRLP was formed to create Black liberation and Black Revolution. The group advocated intra-gang solidarity to destroy capitalism. BRLP’s ideology was built on several key ideas of the Black Panther Party, and articulated as the “Black Commune Program,” which paralleled the BPP’s Ten-Point Platform. BRLP’s Program borrowed ideas and language from BPP’s Platform, particularly in its advocacy of advancing the material conditions of Black people and its condemnation of capitalism. BRLP’s Program also differed in several ways, notably in its emphasis on Black people, as opposed to Black and poor oppressed peoples, and its advocacy of environmentalism. That said, BRLP borrowed Huey P. Newton’s theory of intercommunalism, or an international solidarity movement. Newton described the concept in his eponymously titled essay from 1974: We say that the world today is a dispersed collection of communities. A community is different from a nation. A community is a small unit with a comprehensive collection of institutions that serve to exist a small group of people. And we say further that the struggle in the world today is between the small circle that administers and profits from the empire of the United States, and the peoples of the world who want to determine their own destinies. We call this situation intercommunalism. We are now in the age of reactionary intercommunalism, in which a ruling circle, a small group of people, control all other people by using their technology. As such, BRLP launched an Inter-Communal Solidarity Committee to provide means to overcome ideological and cultural differences, and bridge common issues among “Afrikan, Native American, Mexicano/indigenous, Asian and anti-imperialist white masses.” The ultimate goal was to build a united left that could dismantle capitalism, fascism, and imperialism. To achieve this, BRLP created several programs: ● Hood Health, to provide food and medical services ● Break the Lock, to provide solidarity with the imprisoned by sending literature and providing transportation for visitors to the imprisoned ● George Jackson Freedom School, an after-school program with cultural activities Later, BRLP developed a Kourt Watch program to provide legal aid, the BOSS Black-on-Black violence prevention and intervention program, a Squeeze the Slumlord project, free food giveaways, a boot camp, and a gang truce football games. The group also attempted to form a Brown Riders Liberation Party for Latine allies. BRLP also coordinated with other activist groups, particularly prison abolition initiatives. One such program was the Jericho Amnesty Movement, an effort to win amnesty and freedom for American political prisoners. In recognition of Black August, the annual commemoration of Black political prisoners on the anniversary of the deaths of imprisoned activists Jonathan P. Jackson and George Jackson, BRLP was invited to a national convening to develop a five-year strategy plan for the liberation of all political prisoners held in the United States. BRLP also allied itself with campaigns to free incarcerated individuals, such as Herman Bell, who was convicted of the 1971 murder of two New York City police officers and subsequently served over forty years in prison before being successfully paroled. Several BRLP members aside from Culton appear throughout the group’s documented history. Kalifa or Khalifa Olugbala and Shango Abiola are credited with directing a short film, Let Um Hear Ya Comin’!, about the creation of the Bay Area chapter of BRLP. Abiola also wrote articles about BRLP, and Olugbala received correspondence from several imprisoned individuals. BRLP received press coverage from Michael Novick, a Los Angeles-based anti-racist activist and editor of the leftist publication Turning The Tide. The relationship between Novick and BRLP was close until Culton’s removal from the Party. In 2014, the Afrikan Peoples Liberation Tribunal investigated Culton on several charges, including deception, abuse of trust, physical and sexual abuse, and torture. Based on their findings, the Tribunal issued sanctions that same year against Culton which effectively barred him from participating in activist circles of Black communities. Four years later, Novick wrote a “self-criticism” of his relationship with Culton and BRLP in Turning the Tide. BRLP continues to operate without Culton, though General T.A.C.O.’s name continues to be regularly mentioned on the group’s Facebook page. Sources Abiola, Shango. (2013, January-March). Unitary conduct: building the Inter-Communal Solidarity Committee. Turning the Tide, Vol. 26. No. 1. Anon. (2015, Spring). The US Government War Against the Black Riders. Fire to the Prisons. No. 12. Central Committee of the Black Riders Liberation Party. (2010, Summer). General T. A. C. O. Gets Assassinated by the Police! African Intercommunal News Service. Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 1-2/ Gallegos, Emma E. (2012, May 4). Black Riders Liberation Party Says Authorities Targeted Its Headquarters After May Day Protests. LAist. https://laist.com/news/black-riders-liberation-party-say-t Jeffries, B. S. (2020). Prioritizing Black Self-Determination: The Last Strident Voice of Twentieth-Century Black Nationalism. Genealogy, 4(4), 110. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy4040110 Law, Victoria. (2019, February 26). Police Unions Fight To Rescind Parole For Former Black Panther. The Appeal. https://theappeal.org/police-unions-fight-to-rescind-parole-for-former-black-panther/ Moore, Solomon. (2005, February 16). Hundreds Go to Funeral for Slain Teenager: A Time for Mourning. Los Angeles Times. p. IEA1 Musgrove, George Derek. (2019, Fall). There Is No New Black Panther Party: The Panther-Like Formations and the Black Power Resurgence of the 1990s. The Journal of African American History. Volume 104, Number 4. https://doi.org/10.1086/705022 (pdf) Newton, Huey P. (1974), Intercommunalism. Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation Inc. Collection, Box 50, Folder 2-3. Novick, Michael. (undated). On the Black Riders, Revolutionary Intercommunalism and the Way Forward. Novick, Michael. (2018, January-March). Self-Criticism & Rectification. Turning the Tide. Vol. 30, No. 1. p. 7. soynoise. (2006, June 14). Interview with Taco from Black Riders Liberation Party. [Video]. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkNikCJNegM&list=PLlAdaDFkWgZYCk136DWqvb1g_uu-8g1qM.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from D. Anthem, Bookseller. The collection came from a storage unit belonging to either Mischa Culton or another BRLP member. The collection came to the bookseller with some material damaged and/or incomplete.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid created by Los Angeles Public Library staff.
Date Prepared:
1997-2016
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on Nov. 4, 2025, 3:39 p.m.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research by appointment only in the Special Collections reading room. Information about setting appointments can be found on the Library’s website at lapl.org/special-collections. Appointments can also be arranged by sending an email inquiry to specialcollections [at] lapl.org.

Terms of access:

Any reproduction, redistribution, publication, or other use, by any means, without prior written permission is prohibited. Photocopies, copy prints and digital images can be provided. With the proper fees and permissions, many images can be used in commercial and non-profit applications. For personal and commercial uses of the Library's images, the Library will send to the user a Commercial Use Agreement which states access rights to images and copyright restrictions. This agreement must be returned to the library before the order will be processed. It will also state proper credit to be used for the product whenever photographs are used in commercial or non-profit situations. Further information regarding Use and Reproduction may be found on the Library’s website: https://tessa.lapl.org/special-collections-ordering

Preferred citation:

[Item], Black Riders Liberation Party Collection. Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections

Location of this collection:
Central Library
630 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071, US
Contact:
(213) 228-7355
specialcollections@lapl.org
Website