The name of this article comes from a speech given by voting and women’s rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer as she spoke at the 1971 National Women’s Political Caucus in Washington, D.C. 

 

In 1969 in Chicago, Illinois, Fred Hampton, José Cha Cha Jiménez, and William “Preacherman” Fesperman formed what is known as the Rainbow Coalition. Hampton was of the Black Panther Party, Jiménez was of the Latino-American-led Young Lords, and Fesperman was of the working-class, white-American-led Young Patriots Organization. 

 

This organization existed as a means of uniting the people of Chicago on the basis of their shared suffering under capitalism. At this time, the city was facing extensive gentrification, as well as severe police brutality, specifically against poor youth. Regardless of ethnicity or background, the Rainbow Coalition welcomed all, working to confront these issues and to alleviate the suffering of Chicago’s poor and working class. Cha-Cha Jimenez, now seventy-four, recalls the transformation of the Young Lords into a political organization: “Fred took the Young Lords under his wing. He gave us the skills that we needed to come right out of the gang and start organizing the community” (Serrato). With the help of community donations, the Rainbow Coalition created a free breakfast program, as well as free daycare centers for neighborhood children. Nonetheless, Hampton and Jiménez were repeatedly jailed and placed in solitary confinement due to their organizing. 

 

The Rainbow Coalition would eventually collapse, partly due to the incessant pressure coming from local and federal law enforcement and partly due to Chicago Police’s assassination of Fred Hampton while he was sleeping in his own home. Nonetheless, the Rainbow Coalition still exists as an excellent example of solidarity among communities of color. Mike Klonsky, a former Chicago leader of Students for a Democratic Society, recalls his involvement in the group: “If there was a protest or a demonstration, the word would get out and we would all come to it and support each other. If somebody was arrested, we would all raise bail. If somebody was killed or shot by the police, we would all respond together” (Serrato). Members of the Rainbow Coalition made the decision to acknowledge their differences and to still work collectively to break long-standing barriers and fight against systemic oppression. They knew that their peers were not their enemies. 

 

The solidarity so abundantly present within the Rainbow Coalition is essential to the dismantling of systemic oppression and of white supremacy as a whole. It is downright impossible to achieve true liberation without first supporting and aligning oneself with other oppressed groups, for white supremacy does not simply come for one group or another. This system of exploitation works in ways that are designed to create barriers between different communities of color, for it is much easier to attack and dismantle these communities when they are busy fighting amongst themselves. An example of this is the British-imposed policy of “Divide and Rule” in India. Following the revolt of 1857, in which Hindus and Muslims jointly fought against the rule of the British East India Company, British leaders developed “a systematic policy of fomenting separate consciousness among the two communities” (Tharoor). The British overtly promoted division between Hindu and Muslim communities, for they knew that collective resistance would threaten and eventually lead to the collapse of their rule. Division would keep people compliant. This is arguably the reason for the assassination of Fred Hampton, as well, as he spent his political career uniting those who were suffering, regardless of race. 

 

It is incredibly important to remember that the liberation of all communities of color is linked. White supremacy is intended to reach into and attack every single non-white group, and even if one group were to achieve “liberation,” the continued oppression of their other counterparts of color would be indicative of the continued existence of white supremacy. Therefore, there would be no true “liberation,” for the instrument of oppression, the very thing from which said group was ostensibly “liberated,” would still exist.

 

Throughout the United States’ history, there have existed several additional examples of racial solidarity. In 1974, Stokely Carmichael, a black revolutionary activist, traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota to show his support for the Indigenous people who stood on trial for the sieging of Wounded Knee, South Dakota (Mays). Carmichael, like many other black revolutionaries, understood the United States to be Indigenous land; Europeans simply stole it. He understood that the foundation upon which our country was built included racial capitalism and the “economic subjugation” and “dispossession” of Indigenous land. Carmichael told a largely Indigenous crowd that he, as well as other black revolutionaries, would shed blood for the Indigenous struggle, for “it represented the larger struggle for humanity” (Mays).

 

Moreover, in 1968 and 1969, minority students at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley united to create what they called the Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of students who demanded self-determination and freedom regarding their education. UC Berkeley’s chapter was born after the strike for Ethnic Studies at SFSU and included the Asian-American Political Alliance, the Native American Student Alliance, the African American Student Union, and the Mexican American Student Confederation (Gilmore). Students worked together to strike and protest for three months, eventually resulting in the creation of Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies (Third World Liberation Front). In 1999, when UC Berkeley students witnessed a series of cuts to this department, they again joined together to hold rallies, sit-ins, and a hunger strike which eventually resulted in a “five-point Agreement in support of Ethnic Studies”. Today, Berkeley’s Center for Race & Gender exists due to this agreement (Third World Liberation Front). 

 

Not only is racial solidarity possible, but it has been displayed time and time again in our country’s history. Today, we continue to see examples of this solidarity, with people of all races supporting movements such as Stop Asian Hate, Black Lives Matter, and Land Back. People are outwardly holding conversations regarding the subjugating nature of white supremacy and the intricacies of systemic oppression.

 

In order to dismantle white supremacy, it is imperative that we recognize the fact that it reaches beyond the scopes of our own communities. It is designed to infiltrate and oppress, and the only way we will truly reach liberation is by aligning ourselves with those who have fallen victim to this same oppression. 

 

Works Cited

Gilmore, Anthony, and Kai Nham. “The Third World Liberation Front.” The Berkeley Revolution, University of California Berkeley, https://revolution.berkeley.edu/projects/twlf/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2022. 

Mays, Kyle T. “The Forgotten History of Solidarity between Black and Indigenous Freedom Movements.” HistoryNewsNetwork, History News Network, 3 Oct. 2021, https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/181434. Accessed 15 Aug. 2022. 

Serrato, Jacqueline. “Fifty Years of Fred Hampton's Rainbow Coalition.” SouthSideWeekly, South Side Weekly, 14 Feb. 2021, https://southsideweekly.com/fifty-years-fred-hampton-rainbow-coalition-young-lords-black-panthers/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2022. 

Tharoor, Shashi. “The Partition: The British Game of 'Divide and Rule'.” Aljazeera, Al Jazeera, 10 Aug. 2017, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2017/8/10/the-partition-the-british-game-of-divide-and-rule. Accessed 27 Aug. 2022. 

“Third World Liberation Front.” UCB Center for Race & Gender, University of California Berkeley, https://www.crg.berkeley.edu/research/third-world-liberation-front/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2022.