Angie Nixon Defends Black Power Wall in Her ‘Cafe Resistance’ Honoring Convicted Cop-Killers Following Free Beacon Report: ‘I Stand by Everything in This Bookstore’

Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon passionately defended a wall honoring several notorious black power militants, including convicted murderers, terrorists, and armed robbers, in her Jacksonville cafe and bookstore during a heated exchange with critics at a campaign event this week.

During the back-and-forth, which happened on Monday during a "banned books" event at her so-called Cafe Resistance, Nixon said she stood by "everything in this bookstore." At the same time, Nixon downplayed the wall, saying it allows visitors to "learn their true and accurate history," but is not a celebration of anyone.

"It is talking about people who came from the civil rights movement, who actually were fighting back and pushing back against discrimination," she remarked. "It just talks about who they were. So, I mean, more people need to learn their history."

"People should know what they did, what they were convicted of, what they were exonerated of—what's wrong with me having that up there?" Nixon added.

"I stand by everything in this bookstore," she said.

The exchange came about a month after the Washington Free Beacon first reported on the wall's existence. The wall—which celebrated violent criminals from the 1960s and '70s black power movement, including convicted cop killers—provides fresh insight into Nixon's ideology as she seeks to defeat incumbent GOP senator Ashley Moody in the upcoming midterm election and as she seeks to present herself as a candidate who moderate voters could support, emphasizing the importance of affordability and health care.

Moody has referenced the Free Beacon report repeatedly on social media and campaign advertisements aired on television, which suggests her campaign may see it as an area of vulnerability for Nixon. That may explain why Nixon devoted nearly 10 minutes to addressing the issue on Monday and, at points, raised her voice at the critics who asked about the wall, even suggesting the Moody campaign paid them to be there.

While Nixon, who has served as a Florida state representative since 2020, has refused to remove the wall following the Free Beacon's report, the cafe has added a new sign on it stating that "history is not always good."

The wall—which mainly glorifies black militants who were affiliated with the Marxist-Leninist organizations Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army and were active in the 1960s and 1970s—honors Jamil Al-Amin, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Assata Shakur, Kojo Bomani Sababu, Mutulu Shakur, and George Jackson, among others.

Al-Amin died in a federal prison last year, where he was serving a life sentence for murdering a Georgia sheriff's deputy in 2000; Abu-Jamal is serving a life sentence for murdering a Philadelphia police officer in 1981; and Assata Shakur died in Cuba last year, where she fled after being found guilty of murdering a New Jersey state trooper during a traffic stop in 1973.

Jackson was charged in 1970 with killing a guard in a California state prison where he was held on separate robbery charges. A year later, he died during an attempted prison escape that he planned and which left three guards and two other prisoners dead.

Nixon's Cafe Resistance wall includes a picture of each individual, a label describing whether he or she was affiliated with a group like the Black Panther Party, and a short description of the crimes with which the honoree was charged. But in some cases, the descriptions withhold details—for example, Jackson's merely states he was charged with a $71 robbery and was "murdered within the Jail."

During her diatribe on Monday, Nixon at one point vociferously defended the Black Panther Party, of which Abu-Jamal, Jackson, and others on the wall were leaders. She said the Black Panthers focused on social welfare programs.

"Let's talk about the Black Panther Party," she remarked. "The Black Panther Party saw children in Oakland going to school hungry. When children don't eat, they can't function, they get in trouble, they have higher disciplinary actions."

"So, guess what they did? They started a free breakfast program," she continued. "The Black Panther Party also saw people who didn't have access to quality health care. Guess what they did? They popped up health clinics because the government was failing to ensure that people had a safety net."

Nixon's defense of the wall—that it is important to recognize history, even when it is "messy"—appears to clash with her stance on statues dedicated to honoring Confederate soldiers and leaders across the country.

In 2023, Nixon emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of a Florida state bill that would have punished local officials who sought to remove Confederate statues.

After one of the bill's Republican supporters said the statues were important because "it is history, and history belongs to all Floridians," local outlet WGCU News reported, Nixon said the bill would protect memorials that were designed to "scare and intimidate the black community."

The post Angie Nixon Defends Black Power Wall in Her ‘Cafe Resistance’ Honoring Convicted Cop-Killers Following Free Beacon Report: ‘I Stand by Everything in This Bookstore’ appeared first on .