Also, arguing that most black prisoners had been convicted in
courts by people conspicuous for their racial prejudice, they
advocated that all black inmates of American jails should immediately
be released and granted amnesty. Because blacks were not properly
represented in the country and were not treated fairly as citizens,
the Panthers contended that they should be exempted from all military
service. Blacks fighting in the Vietnam war, they pointed out, were
represented in numbers above their national proportion and were being
used to fight a racist war against colored people in Asia. Carmichael
had previously made this same point and had popularized the motto,
"Hell No! We Won't Go!"
Although the Black Panthers believed in black power, they were willing
to cooperate with some extremist whites, and they wanted the entire
political system restructured to remove power from the rich and put it
in the hands of the masses of citizens. They expressed this teaching
with the slogans, "All power to the people" and "Black power to the
black people." Eldridge Cleaver had also concluded that some young
whites could be trusted to support the black cause.
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