Black Liberation Army
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The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an armed, underground splinter group from the Black Panthers formed in 1971, following the split between Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton. They went on to carry out a program of armed struggle, which included a series of bombings, robberies ("expropriations"), and jailbreaks. One of the members, Assata Shakur was convicted of murdering a police officer and later escaped jail and fled to asylum in Cuba. The BLA was active in the US until at least 1981, when a Brinks truck robbery (conducted with support from white, former Weather Underground operatives) in New York went awry; several people were killed at the scene and others subsequently arrested. Some BLA members later turned to anarchism, including Ashanti Alston and Kuwasi Balagoon (whose writings were collected as 'A Soldier's Story'). Balagoon died in prison of an AIDS-related disease in 1986; other BLA members remain jailed for their actions. Template:US-poli-stub