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The Black Panthers And A Community Named Desire

The Historic New Orleans Collection
Lifelong activist Malik Rahim.

On September 15 of 1970, rising tensions between the New Orleans Police and the Black Panther Party came to a head in a 20-minute shootout. The police arrived at the Desire public housing development armed in a war wagon to evict the Panthers. Malik Rahimwas there. In this edition of NOLA Life Stories, Malik speaks about how he joined the Panthers and remembers the showdown in Desire.  

This NOLA Life Stories interview was conducted by Mark Cave for The Historic New Orleans Collection and produced for WWNO by Sarah Holtz.