As eight men and one woman patrolled the streets of North Philadelphia on a below-freezing night in late January, they proudly modeled themselves on the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a group founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in California in the 1960s.
The men were following Paul Birdsong, chairman of the newly formed Black Lion Party for International Solidarity, who clutched an MP5 semiautomatic shotgun to his chest. Two journalists from Paris accompanied the group, drawn by Birdsong’s defiant comments about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a recent protest in downtown Philadelphia.
Although Birdsong, 39, said he began building the Philadelphia organization in 2024, his fiery words during a January 8 protest brought him and his organization a viral level of visibility in and out of Philadelphia. They say their mission is to protect their neighbors from gun violence, drug dealers, sex traffickers, police, and most recently, ICE agents…