International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, a member of the Black Panther Party who became an anarchist writer and community organizer, has been active in struggles for civil rights, labor and worker rights, and in opposition to police brutality, racism, and US involvement in the Vietnam War. Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1947, Ervin was directly exposed to racism as an African American in the US South. In the 1950s, at the age of 12, he became active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the struggle for civil rights. In 1965, Ervin was drafted and spent two years in the US Army during the Vietnam War. He was court-martialed for his anti-war position, radical politics, and activism. Two years later he joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , where he became steeped in the culture of democratic resistance. Then, in 1967, Ervin became an active member of the Black Panther Party. After the FBI declared him a suspect in the bombing of Ku Klux Klan offices and gun running, he went underground. On February 25, 1969, to avoid prosecution on charges of attempting to kill a Ku Klux Klan leader, Ervin hijacked an airliner that departed from St. Louis to San Juan to Cuba, where he surrendered to government authorities. In April 1969, Ervin left Cuba for Czechoslovakia, where he was given asylum, and later renounced his US citizenship. He escaped ... log in or subscribe to read full text