The Relationship Between The Weather Underground And The Black Liberation Army

By the 1970s the BLA and the Weather Underground were among the few anti-war activist groups still active. Between the two groups there was common cause, as each sought to accomplish similar ends through violent confrontation and other forms of direct action, as Cengage Learning explains. Both groups primarily saw themselves waging direct revolution against the American government. The police officer killings at the hands of the BLA soon grew too much for the Weather Underground, though. As a result, the Weather Underground, once allied with many Black revolutionary groups, began to distance itself from the BLA (per NPR).

Nevertheless, members of the BLA continued to attack, capture, and kill police officers. By the mid-1970s, many leaders aligned with Black Liberation Army were captured or killed by law enforcement agencies. The BLA’s last leader, Joanne Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur (pictured), fled to Cuba, while many members of the Weather Underground, including University of Chicago law professor Bill Ayers and Kathy Boudin, were on the run (via The Hill). By the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, some charges against the Weather Underground were dropped. As a result, several members of the Weather Underground emerged from hiding.