Black nationalist groups have been around for decades protesting, and occasionally lashing out violently, against deeply rooted racism in American society. Micah Xavier Johnson, who killed five police officers in Dallas, was increasingly drawn to black nationalist ideology and attended several meetings of the People’s New Black Panther Party. In the late 1990s, the Washitaw Nation became infamous across Louisiana and Texas for fraudulent schemes centered on identification cards and license plates branded with the name of the Washitaw Nation. But several of the group’s original members have denounced the New Black Panther Party as racist and too extreme. The original Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 as a response to police brutality in California, and its members frequently clashed violently with police.

Source: Washington Post July 23, 2016 16:52 UTC