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Great American Patriot Party
[ Oddly, the name "Patriot Party" was originally associated with a socialist group which branded itself with the Confederate flag. ...
Patriot Party (1970s)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Patriot Party was a socialist organization of the early 1970s in the United States that organized poor, rural whites in the Appalachian South and Pacific Northwest. The party was formed after a split with the Young Patriots Organization. The YPO's membership was drawn from street gangs of Appalachian whites in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois; it became politicized after working with the Young Lords, an ethnic Puerto Rican gang; and the African-American Black Panther Party. ...
Use of the Confederate flag
Despite its association with white supremacism, the Patriot Party used the Confederate flag as a symbol. In addition to easy access at military surplus stores, the flag was used, according to Amy Sonnie and James Tracy, "as a symbol of southern poor people's revolt against the owning class." Buttons with the slogan "Resurrect John Brown" - a reference to the avowed abolitionist - were also commonly used. Pamphlets contained slogans such as "The South will rise again, only this time with the North and all the oppressed people of the world."
Downfall and legacy
In 1970 the FBI arrested the entire central committee of the Patriot Party[who?] and charged them with various felonies. They later dropped the charges but, by the mid-1970s, the FBI's COINTELPRO program had effectively suppressed the organization.
The group was also strongly opposed by far-right white militias.
In 1982 the civil rights activist Jesse Jackson adopted the name of "Rainbow Coalition" for organizing multi-ethic groups to support and vote for liberal (generally Democratic) candidates for public office, in order to strengthen minority voices by acting in collaboration.
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