Reconciling History As a Black Anarchist with Ashanti Alston (Jan 2023)
Black History Year
PushBlack
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It was in Plainfield, NJ, in 1971 where our guest - Ashanti Alston - joined The Black Panther Party, radicalized in the wake of the 1967 Newark Riots and Malcolm X’s assassination years earlier. Ashanti would begin his life as an anarchist on that day, and it has guided his every step – through the Panther Party, then the Black Liberation Army, his incarceration, and his work honoring the sacrifice of political prisoners in the name of Black liberation with The Jericho Movement.
Ashanti sits with us now with a 21st-century view of the impact of his radical brothers and sisters and the lessons learned from a lifetime of seeking Black liberation.
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Black History Year (BHY) is produced by PushBlack, the nation's largest non-profit Black media company. PushBlack exists to amplify the stories of Black history you didn't learn in school and explore pathways to liberation with people leading the way. You make PushBlack happen with your contributions at BlackHistoryYear.com — most people donate $10 a month, but every dollar makes a difference. If this episode moved you, share it with your people! Thanks for supporting the work.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's not exactly a requiem for a Black Panther, but it's something close. |
| 0:04.7 | Coming up on the best of Black History Year. |
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| 0:51.8 | It was 1971 in Plainfield, New Jersey, where Ashanti Alston joined the Black Panther Party, radicalized in the wake of the 1967 Newark riots and Malcolm X's assassination years earlier. |
| 0:55.8 | Ashanti would begin his life as an anarchist on that day, |
| 0:59.7 | and it has guided his every step through the Black Panther Party, |
| 1:03.3 | then the Black Liberation Army, his incarceration, |
| 1:06.9 | and his work honoring the sacrifice of political prisoners in the name of Black Liberation with the Jericho Movement. |
| 1:11.6 | So it was that in January of 2023, Ashanti sat down with Jay to reconcile with his history as a black anarchist on this episode of the best of black history year. |
| 1:56.6 | In 1966, while Marvel Comics was debuting their first black superhero, the Black Panther, the world was also introduced to one of the most influential black power organizations of all time, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. |
| 2:07.3 | The Black Nationalist Group rose in direct opposition to the police brutality that pummeled members of non-violent civil rights organizations. |
| 2:16.2 | They demanded citizenship rights as well as economic and political power for our people, and they stopped in nothing to insure it. |
| 2:19.9 | This is Jay from Push Black, and you're listening to Black History Year. |
| 2:27.1 | Created in the segregated and poverty-stricken streets of Oakland by Huey Newton and Bobby Seals, |
| 2:33.8 | the Black Panther Party would spread their influence across the country as satellite chapters were established in south |
| 2:35.9 | Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, and Chicago. It was in Plainfield, New Jersey, though, in 1971, |
| 2:43.1 | where our guest, Ashanti Alston, joined the Black Panther Party, radicalized in the wake of the |
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