The racial situation in Omaha became more polarized during the course of 1968, when arch-segregationist George Wallace made a stop in the city during his independent campaign for president. White racists attacked Blacks and whites protesting the notorious bigot at one of his campaign rallies. Later that night, Omaha cops killed a local Black high school student. The following month, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, leading to uprisings in 100 American cities. The Black Panther Party (BPP) became the prime target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO operations with the stated goal of “neutralizing” their leadership. Mondo we Langa and Ed Poindexter were community activists in North Omaha at the time. They joined the BPP in 1969 and were soon recognized as the leaders of the party in Nebraska. Poindexter, like a growing number of Panthers, was also a Vietnam veteran. The situation in Omaha got even bloodier in 1969. Vivian Strong, a fourteen-year-old Black teenager, was shot in the back of the head and killed by the police in June of that year. The police officer who killed her, patrolman John Loder, was found not guilty of manslaughter by an all-white jury and was reinstated to the Omaha Police Department (OPD) with back pay and benefits. “Among the most vocal critics of such police abuse of power,” according to Rutger’s law professor Lennox Hinds, “were members of the local chapter of the Black Panther party and its successor, the National Committee to Combat Fascism (NCCF).” Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa left the Panthers and founded the NCCF in 1970, with Mondo as chairman and Poindexter as minister of information. They were repeatedly harassed and arrested by the Omaha police for their political activities.
Clearly the government and law enforcement feared the
Black Liberation movement. Altho Cointelpro had been around since 1956 and continued to undermine any group or individual who was seen as a threat to the status quo it went into hyper gear in 1968. Thru the years, the number of people and organizations in the sights of Cointelpro included the Quakers, Marcus Garvey, MLK, Jean Seberg and on and on. These were supposed to be hate groups when in fact they were groups pushing for social justice, the toppling of the status quo. Hoover was determined to do everything he could from using fear and smear campaigns to falsely accusing, convicting on fabricated evidence and out right murder to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah.
It leaves all the killings of Black leaders of that era suspect including Malcolm X who had gained a significant following and scared Hoover.
One example of how COINTELPRO operated was the targeting of Malcolm X, who first became known to many people through the Nation of Islam (NOI). Malcolm came to increasingly disagree with, and eventually break with, the NOI, whose program was profoundly conservative. The NOI launched a campaign of vicious personal slander and threats against him, including Louis Farrakhan, who later became the head of NOI, directly saying that Malcolm was "worthy of death." In early 1965, his house, the location of which was publicly known, was firebombed, and his family barely escaped death. Finally, on February 21, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated. On that day, the regular police suddenly left the scene—while at the same time, as it came out later, five FBI informants were in the room when Malcolm was gunned down and Malcolm's main bodyguard was an agent of the New York Police Department. To this day, the exact role of those running the campaign of slander against Malcolm and their relationship with COINTELPRO is unclear. But what is very clear is that the ruling class schemes to prevent the "rise" of Black leaders, while hiding their own role, was greatly aided by that campaign of slander and threats against Malcolm.
Activism was dangerous work and all the more so if your skin was brown, this is the world of Poindexter and Rice (Mondo we Langa) and their last months of freedom.
The summer of 1970 was unseasonably hot in Omaha, the temperatures regularly rose into the high 90s topping above 100 degrees. Tempers were short, people were restless, it had been six years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act and nothing had changed. In Omaha the assault on the Panthers also extended to Nebraska Committee to Combat Fascism headed by Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa. The campaign to destroy the activists and their organization was headed by Hoover personally and his top operatives, joined by the CIA, NSA and DoD all to squash urban unrest.
Both were community activists advocating fair housing and ending racism in the Omaha public schools. They promoted political education and worked to end the Vietnam War. Omaha Police Department was notorious for their brutality and ingrained racial animus, they were infuriated not only by the demonstrations but by the constant chant of "pig".
For more than a year FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Paul Young had been reporting to Hoover trying to find something they could pin on anyone in the Omaha branch of the Black Panthers. Coming up with nothing it was determined Poindexter and we Langa were the likely leaders, Hoover gave Young permission to send an anonymous letter to Panther headquarters accusing Poindexter of ripping off the community, Young co-ordinated this activity with the San Francisco office of the FBI.
The problem was Poindexter and we Langa didn't fit the street criminal profile of some Panther members in other cities. In Omaha, the group worked with anti-poverty agencies, on a petition drive, operated a liberation school for children, and worked on a breakfast program. With no evidence of criminal activity it was going to be hard to discredit them. Then on August 15th just days before the bombing hoping to create another rift Young sent a second smear letter to the Panther headquarters. In the anonymous letter he accused Poindexter of collaborating with the Omaha World Herald, whitey's newspaper.
It was decided by Hoover and his field people the way to remove Poindexter and we Langa was to frame them for murder. The opportunity presented itself Aug.17th 1970 when Officer Larry Minard was killed in a bomb blast.
Next is the trial testimony
Part 1
The Most Dangerous City in America for African Americans
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4