Black Hammer Party
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The Black Hammer Party, formerly the Black Hammer Organization and known as the Black Hammers, is an American far-right political cult that originated as an anti-colonialist and radical black supremacist and separatist organization founded in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2019. It advertises itself as a "symbol of hope for the colonized working class." They rose to prominence in the early 2020s amidst the George Floyd protests and their attempted creation of a compound in the Rocky Mountains named "Hammer City."
Background edit
History and ideology edit
The Black Hammer Organization was established in 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia as an anticolonial movement for Black and indigenous peoples. According to the group’s website, its mission has been to “take the Land Back for all colonized people worldwide.” Their emblem, the hammer, “represents breaking the chains of colonialism and building a self-determined future for all colonized people worldwide.” In early 2022, the group began referring to themselves as the Black Hammer Party, rather than Organization.
While it is not clear how many active members are affiliated with Black Hammer, based on social media posts, the group likely had a few dozen core activists in its early years. At the group’s peak in 2020, there were at least a dozen chapters nationwide, as well as a chapter in Kenya. However, by mid-2022, the majority of these chapters grew inactive, and the Atlanta headquarters appears to have no more than a dozen key members. Former members have alleged emotional abuse and exploitation at the hands of Kodzo, the organization’s leader, as the cause for their departure.
Ideologically, the group has changed over time. When it was formed, its focus was exclusively anti-colonial in nature. Claiming to advocate on behalf of all black and indigenous peoples, they promoted anti-capitalist and anti-colonial ideas during their events and public preaching sessions to people experiencing homelessness and the students and faculty at Georgia State University. Their main rallying cry is “Land Back,” an effort to “take all of our continents back from the colonizer.” To this end, they attempted (and failed) to purchase their own tracts of land, to be called “Hammer Cities,” to start a new homeland-of-sorts exclusively for people of color with “no cops, no rent, no Coronavirus, and no white people.” As part of their community organizing, activists across the country distributed food and face masks to the local people experiencing homelessness.
By 2021, while still promoting their “Land Back” goals, the group’s leader, Gazi Kodzo, began advancing a more far-right narrative. After failing to acquire land in Colorado in July 2021, the organization has since pivoted to focusing on their objection to Covid vaccine mandates as well as voicing support and staging protests for the January 6 Capitol insurrectionists whom Gazi refers to as “Freedom Fighters.” Kodzo has also promoted the Proud Boys and appeared on Gavin McInnes’ (the Proud Boys’ founder and former leader) show, advocated for formalized segregation in a video titled, “Why I agree with MAGA,” touted election conspiracy theories, and voiced support for Marjorie Taylor Greene after she was removed from Twitter.
The group is often seen armed and sporting tactical vests at public protests and events.
Anti-Semitism edit
Both the organization’s official social media and Gazi Kodzo’s personal profiles have featured antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Their antisemitism is often couched in anti-colonialism, which lends itself to anti-Israel and anti-Zionism rhetoric. Tropes of Jewish control also feature in the group’s Twitter feeds.
Accusations of antisemitism arose in April 2020 when the group launched a campaign on social media, using the hashtag “2BFrank,” that attempted to minimize the Holocaust as “white on white crime” and to argue that Anne Frank’s story should not be taught in schools because the “true victims of genocide” are “the African and Colonized.” They have sited this as an extension of colonialism, asserting that the Jews in the Holocaust were European and as such, European (read: White) narratives are taking precedence.
In an article on their website from February 2021 addressing accusations of antisemitism based on this campaign, the group claimed not to be antisemitic, writing: “Our criticisms have always been against white jews [sic], who have just as much blood on their hands as any other colonizer.” The article goes on to state: “It should go without saying that after World War II, white jews would go on to colonize Palestine. Had Anne Frank lived, there is no doubt that she would have been among the millions of white jews [sic] who helped push Palestinian mothers into the sea to drown in order to take their land. Fuck Anne Frank.”
In May 2021, the group’s official Twitter account shared a post celebrating burning copies of The Diary of Anne Frank. The tweet received over 200 likes and was retweeted over 700 times.
Kidnapping incident edit
On July 19, 2022, police in Fayetteville, Georgia received an anonymous call from someone claiming to be held against their will in a home rented by the Black Hammer Party. A SWAT team was sent to search the home, where there were ten people inside. Nine walked out willingly. An 18-year-old man identified as Amonte T. Ammons was killed by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head. The duration of the standoff was several hours, and the surrounding neighborhood received a shelter-in-place order.
Gazi Kodzo was arrested and charged with aggravated sodomy, conspiracy, false imprisonment, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and street gang activity. Another man, an associate of Kodzo named Xavier H. Rushin, was arrested and charged with kidnapping, assault, and false imprisonment. The group is under joint investigation by the FBI and local authorities. According to a local street gang investigator, the group had been under surveillance by police for months prior to the incident.