Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention
The Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention (RPCC) was a conference organized by the Black Panther Party (BPP) that was held in Philadelphia from September 4–7, 1970.
[2][3] Attendees convened in workshops to draft declarations of demands related to various issues, which were ultimately intended to be incorporated into a new constitution which would function as the final vision of those movements.
[3][6] After the Philadelphia conference, attempts were made to reconvene to finalize and ratify the new constitution in Washington, DC a few months later but ultimately failed due to police interference and Panther disorganization.
[15] These groups shared many goals, including putting an end to the Vietnam War and fighting police brutality in American cities.
[1] On May 31, 1970 an advertisement was published in the Black Panther newspaper calling for a "mass rally and national press conference to announce date and place of Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention" at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on June 19, or Juneteenth.
Other ethnic groups, the youth of America, Women, young men who are slaughtered as cannon fodders in mad, avaricious wars of aggression, our neglected elderly people all have an interest in a new constitution…"[18] On the same day a similar rally was held in Bobby Hutton Memorial Park in Oakland, "to inform the Black Community concerning the issues of political prisoners and the re-writing of the constitution to make it apply to Black people.
[24] The Hartford Courant reported that the Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Frank L. Rizzo, "had considered violence a strong possibility and had tried to keep the Panthers out of town.
In attendance were leaders and members of most prominent New Left and radical activist organizations in the US, including the Young Lords Party, the Youth International Party, Students for a Democratic Society, the Young Patriots, I Wor Kuen, the Gay Liberation Front, Radicalesbians, the Third World Gay Liberation Front, Rising Up Angry, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the National Urban League, as well as individuals not affiliated with any group and international visitors.
Opening events included a screening of the documentary The Battle of Algiers, as well as a street fair where RPCC attendees were offered discounted prices.
[21] The opening plenary session of the convention was held in McGonigle Hall at Temple University, and was scheduled for Saturday at 9am but was delayed for four hours.
The session featured speeches by Panthers Michael Tabor (a member of the New York 21), Huey Newton, Audrea Jones, and Charles Garry.
Considering the success of the RPCC, plans were announced by the Panthers at its end for a second meeting in Washington DC to ratify the new constitution, tentatively scheduled for November 4.
Difficulties plagued the Washington convention from its inception, with the newly formed DC chapter of the BPP, simultaneously struggling to find a space for the event and suffering from disorganization as a result of the arrest of several of their leaders.
[34][35] At the end of the weekend Huey Newton spoke at St. Stephens of the Incarnation Church and assured attendees that another convention would be held where the constitution would be discussed and finalized.
Simultaneously, the deescalation of the Vietnam War brought to a close one of the largest focuses of protest in the 60s and early 70s, and further weakened the power and human numbers wielded by the New Left.
