BLACK Panther Party activity began in 1966 with efforts by 23-year-old Huey Newton and 30-year-old Bobby Seale to stop police brutality and killings during arrests.
In accordance with US’ constitution and California state laws of that time, Huey and Bobby would rush to an active arrest armed with loaded guns.
They would stand 10 feet away from the officers to observe and make sure there was no foul play against the person getting arrested.
This unusual measure by civilians was effective and lowered the rates of deaths and beatings at the hands of police, particularly of blacks during arrests.
The protest which took place in May 1967 and led to Seale’s arrest popularised the Black Panther Movement among the downtrodden blacks and other minorities.
However, it demonised them among the white community and authorities of the US who quickly labelled them black extremists.
California was under Governor Ronald Reagan and the FBI was under the infamous Edgar Hoover.
The white community was fearful of the sight of blacks carrying loaded shotguns, wearing black leather jackets, black berets and holding law books.
This was the signature look of the panthers and their militancy led Reagan to change the gun laws of the state in order for them to be lawfully arrested.
The story of the Black Panthers is one which ends with death and imprisonment for almost all its leaders.
It is a sad and under-stated part of black history whose leaders, like Malcolm X, would be forced to untimely martyrdom.
In October of 1967, police in California tried to assassinate Newton during an arrest at his residence.
Newton shot back, but later gave up and was arrested.
A cop was killed during the shoot-out and Newton was charged with murder and imprisoned.
A prominent Black Panther called Aldridge Cleaver began a ‘Free Huey’ campaign until Newton’s release in 1970.
There were other revolutionary groups which took notice of the effectiveness of the Panthers and began co-operating with them.
These included the Brown Berets, Peace and Freedom Party, American Indian Movement, Poor People’s March, Cesar Chavez, Student’s Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC), SCLC, Young Lords, Young Puerto Rican Brothers and so on.
The Black Panthers became a uniting force and recruited into its ranks well-known and effective proponents of black power such as Carmichael, who was the former chairman of the SNCC.
Carmichael was recruited in February 1968 and discouraged whites joining black movements.
That same year, the Black Panthers distributed Mao’s Red Book to black youths in universities and this alarmed US authorities.
The FBI under Edgar Hoover began the Corporal Intelligence Programme.
This was a covet FBI operation whose purpose, according to Hoover’s own words, was: “To expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralise the activities of black nationalist hate-type organisations and groupings; their leadership, spokesmen, membership and supporters.”
Hoover called the Black Panthers ‘the greatest threat to the internal security of the US’ and hired a specialist on black extremist movements Richard Wallace Held to head the local COINTEL programme in California.
This programme was top-secret, but uncovered to the public in March of 1971 when a group called Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into FBI offices and got away with many files including the above.
The strategy the US authorities used against the Black Panthers was an extension of their initial act of outlawing the carrying of weapons so as to have a lawful excuse to arrest or kill blacks who possessed guns.
Black Panther members who could not be otherwise subverted were targeted by this operation for assassination.
Meanwhile, the party was growing in membership and influence.
They had stipulated goals including seeking full employment opportunities for blacks, better housing, better education, juries composed of blacks during trials, the denouncing of the Vietnam war, exclusion from military drafts and the release of all black people from prisons in the US.
The Black Panthers had stipulated requirements for their members including; regular attendance to political education classes, the reading of certain books like that of Karl Marx and Mao Ze Dong, the memorisation and following of Black Panther programmes and rules, training in the use of firearms and emergency medical techniques.
The party published articles and cartoons in its newspaper called The Black Panther.
These cartoons caricatured police as pigs wearing police uniform.
The panthers had ‘Serve the People Programmes’ which included health clinics, schools and morning breakfast programmes for African-American school children.
That year, the membership of the Black Panther Party increased to over 5 000 and they opened branches which they called chapters in 25 major cities across the US. Aldridge Cleaver, author of the 1967 collection of essays called Soul on Ice was appointed Minister of Information and would popularise the party.
Fred Hampton, at 18, was heading the chapter in Chicago and strengthened the revolutionary spirit of the party.
The South Carolina chapter was formed and headed by Bunchy Carter.
Carter was a devout follower of Malcolm X and became a Muslim while serving a four-year jail sentence for crimes he allegedly committed while he was still a member of a gang called Slanson Renegades.
Carter met Newton in 1967 and instantly became a Black Panther.
Carter worked closely with an ex-Vietnam war veteran called Elmer Geranimo Pratt.
The attacks on the Black Panthers would accelerate after the assassination of Martin Luther King on April 4 1968.
King was getting resentful of maintaining non-violent protests against the US authorities who always responded to the peaceful civil rights movements with violence.
King’s murder is suspected to be part of the infamous COINTEL programme.
One day after King’s assassination, Black Panther Ken Denman was raided without a warrant and that same day, Black Panther leaders Tommy Lewis, Steve Bartholomew and Robert Lawrence were killed by the police.
On April 6 and only two days after King’s assassination, Little Bobby Hutton, who was the Treasurer of the party and was only 17, was shot 10 times by the police. Hutton was unarmed and was killed while running out of his residence which had been set ablaze by the police during a random raid.
In September 1968, prominent Panther members, Carter, John Huggins, Geranimo Pratt and Elaine Brown enrolled into the University of California/Los Angeles’ High Potential programme.
They wanted to start a programme called Black Studies, but one of the involved groups had been infiltrated by FBI agents.
This was a revolutionary group called United Slaves whose members would be used as informants to the FBI.
United Slaves members called the Stiner brothers would be instrumental in setting up the local Panther leadership to be killed and therefore neutralised.
The shooting of Carter and Huggins was physically done by an FBI agent named Claude Hubert and took place in January 1969 at the UCLA Campbell hall.
Hubert, the shooter, was transferred to New York shortly after this incident so as to avoid persecution.
Held, leader of the local COINTEL programme, claimed responsibility for these successful operations against the Panthers and he went further to organise the killing of an eyewitness called John Savage and a Panther called Sylvester Bell.
Geranimo Pratt was also arrested on false charges of murder in this period, but would be released pending trial.
The Black Panthers began suspecting the FBI to be responsible for the UCLA killings after 150 police officers raided the Panthers and arrested 75 of them on charges of intending to murder United Slaves members in retaliation for the killing of their leaders.
Their suspicion of FBI involvement would be confirmed when the Stiner brothers were sentenced to life in San Quentin minimum security prison, but successfully walked free from prison on March 30 that same year without difficulty.