00:00:15.240 - 00:00:41.810

should have. Oh, baby! Oh, the revolution has come Time to pick up the gun The Black Panthers called to arms 1966 chanted in Oakland, California get echoed across the nation. I wanted to be a part of what that Black Panther Party was about because it gave

00:00:41.810 - 00:01:11.990

some purpose to my life. I can't know my brothers in jail. E spotted them. I think almost immediately a squeezy Gangsters as terrorists on we weren't in, tolerated and didn't and put it down. De violence was wrong. Violence against blacks what we wanted to stop. But

00:01:11.990 - 00:01:28.910

the best way to stop violence was not to run out there and let your head be beat or let somebody step on you. The best way to stop violence was to defend yourself and say You want to take my life? Risk yours, black. Follow me. Digna

00:01:28.910 - 00:02:07.840

Day in 19 sixties shook America Okay. As U. S involvement in Vietnam escalated, protesters took to the streets and an anti war movement that would split the country. Yeah, the civil rights movement faced its own prices. Activists were being attacked, beaten, even murdered. The movement looked

00:02:07.840 - 00:02:33.930

to its leaders. I'm still convinced that Nonviolence is the most potent weapon available to oppress people in their struggle for freedom and justice. I feel that violence will only create more social problems than they will solve. No man can speak for Negroes who tells Negroes love

00:02:33.930 - 00:02:53.080

their enemy. No man can speak for Negroes. Who tells Negroes turn the other cheek. No man can speak for Negroes. Who tells Negroes toe suffer piece. There is no Negro in his right mind today. Who is going to turn the other cheek was a great debate

00:02:53.080 - 00:03:15.140

going on in this community around this issue that was being asserted by Martin Luther King of Nonviolence and the issue that was being pushed primarily by Malcolm X. That look, you don't have to surrender any of your rights to gain your rights as American citizens and

00:03:15.140 - 00:03:36.600

that one of the things that you have is a right to defend yourself. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee snake broke with its multiracial past. Its leader, Stokely Carmichael, took the movement in a new direction. Black power In this country, you would think that white people were

00:03:36.600 - 00:03:52.260

God, that they had the right to give our freedom, and so what we had to do was to beg them or to act the way they want us to act before they gave us our freedom. Way must stop speaking to imitate white society. We must create

00:03:52.270 - 00:04:18.970

for ourselves to save our very humanity because the fight for black power in this country is indeed right to civilize a barbaric country. The united Yeah, just so happened the same week that I became a snick worker was the week that Stokely Carmichael announced in this

00:04:18.980 - 00:04:35.500

march against fear in Mississippi that what we wanted was black power and snick became a black power organization in the civil rights movement was transformed. It was in the process of being transformed from a movement, you might say to get into the society a movement to

00:04:36.440 - 00:04:56.800

let blacks have things they were denied into a movement that was redefining what blacks were all about. We felt ourselves to be the heirs of Malcolm and I could I could remember Malcolm saying that, you know, we demand our rights to be treated like a man,

00:04:56.800 - 00:05:10.560

a human being in this society right now, and we are going to have that right by any means necessary, and it makes it still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck to hear that and or to say it, because I still believe

00:05:10.560 - 00:05:38.020

that. In February 1965 Malcolm X was assessed. That summer, police shot a young man in Watts Black Ghetto in Los Angeles. The neighborhood exploded. Story would repeat itself in Newark and Detroit. Thousands of National Guard troops occupied the inner city ghetto besieged city of guerrilla warfare.

00:05:38.030 - 00:06:08.850

Sniper groups use day and night hit and run tactics before tanks move in to curb their window and rooftop barrage. Wreckage is everywhere. In cities across the country, black Americans began looking for ways to make black power a reality. Oakland, California one of the nation's most

00:06:08.860 - 00:06:28.050

integrated cities, Southern blacks came here during World War Two to work in the shipyards. They settled in West Oakland, the heart of the black community. Among them was the Newton family of Louisiana. Julie was one of my first friends that I met when I came to

00:06:28.050 - 00:06:46.150

California. Huey was known as a Zaveri extreme, uh, formidable opponent and and all of the guys on the street who had had confrontations with Huey coming up knew that. And that was one of the reasons why they respected him. Because he was not one who lost

00:06:46.150 - 00:07:07.010

a fight. I mean, you know, he was theory. Philosophy was When you get them down, then you you do something to make sure that they don't don't get up and come back at you. In the early sixties, Oakland was dominated by a conservative political leadership on

00:07:07.010 - 00:07:31.570

the police force that was feared by the black community. People don't know how much we rely, uh, unconsciously on the police and the judicial mechanism to protect us from harm. I mean, we walk around feeling safe and secure because in general, if we have a confrontation

00:07:31.570 - 00:07:46.930

with the law violator, we really think that the judicial system will ferret that out and it will be protected. Well, most black people in the United States everywhere just did not share that view, and they didn't feel safe. You know, we could get arrested for suspicion

00:07:46.940 - 00:07:58.930

off something that happened generally in the area. If you mean it was like since all black folks looked alike, if some, if some black person had done something six blocks away, that you could be arrested and charged with it. Because you happen to be in that

00:07:58.930 - 00:08:13.010

area or if you're walking off from school. Something happened. Even if guys got into a fight. I got my books right. I'm a college prep. I got my books. I'm walking home. Here come the police. Why should I run? Shit. If you didn't run, they'd arrest

00:08:13.010 - 00:08:31.960

you and charge you with whatever it happens. Huey Newton didn't run from the police. He and his friends, Bobby Seale and Richard Key took a decided to take a stand. So one night we were just sitting around talking and thought that might be a good idea

00:08:33.040 - 00:09:05.010

to organize or create an organization similar to that of another organization located in Los Angeles. This group was called the Community Action Patrol. I believe Cap and, um, Cap was very, very concerned about police brutality. And they were going around following the police and photographing and

00:09:05.010 - 00:09:36.900

tape recording police activities in their community. We felt that that was a very good idea because if the police knew they were being observed and this'll, their activities were being recorded, their credit election towards violence would diminish 1966 Newton and Seale formed an organization to monitor

00:09:36.900 - 00:09:57.090

the Oakland police, borrowing the symbol of a Southern voting rights organization. They call themselves the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Police were there not Thio in our community, not Thio. Promote our welfare or for our security and our safety. But they're there to contain us.

00:09:57.100 - 00:10:16.650

Uh, Thio brutal itis and murderers because they have their orders to do so. And just to the soldiers in Vietnam have their orders to destroy the Vietnamese people. The police in our community couldn't possibly be there. Uh, thio protect our property because we all know properties.

00:10:17.040 - 00:10:41.270

Mr. Okay, The Panther flair for the dramatic attracted the party's first members, a mix of college students, military veterans and streetwise kids from West Oakland. At the time the Panthers were organized in early 66 there was no legal prohibition against carrying open weapons. The laws in

00:10:41.270 - 00:11:01.220

California prohibited the carrying of concealed weapons. But as long as you carried a weapon openly, without any live ammunition in the chamber, it wasn't against the law. The Panthers used this as a two pronged means of both demonstrating to people that they could arm themselves and

00:11:01.220 - 00:11:19.660

also trying to show the black community that they did not have to be terrified of the police. And so they went into the ghetto. Okay, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton with guns. And they would stand within 10 ft of a place where the police officers would

00:11:19.660 - 00:11:42.380

stop some member of the ghetto and they would stand about 10 ft away. And they would say to the brother or to the sister gave you your name on the address and say, Am I under arrest? Don't resist. If you're under arrest, we will follow you

00:11:42.380 - 00:12:01.200

on bail. You out. Submit peacefully. This scared the hell out of the Oakland Police. This is a new experience to be making a car stopped and then have someone rolling behind you. And pretty soon, Theo the hunter is now the hunted, so to speak. I know

00:12:01.200 - 00:12:19.720

of one guy person that quit once. The FBI, I would myself personally in that end of town was uncomfortable. But I developed a posture of taking. I was aggressive If they assume as they rolled up they became the focus of the stop rather than the person

00:12:19.720 - 00:12:39.190

that I originally stopped Eventually left me alone. The police actually got out and injected rounds into that shotguns, and we're standing that point blank, and at any point a shootout could happen. At that point, I very quickly realized how important Hugh Iwas, not only to our

00:12:39.190 - 00:12:52.840

organization, but to my very life and that I had to trust and depend on him as we used to do when when we're in the gang fights, all of a sudden, I knew right then and there that Huey was in control of the situation. Hugh immediately

00:12:52.840 - 00:13:12.650

jacked around in in the shotgun, stood the police off, lay down what the laws were about the guns, talked about it for my constitutional framework. The police backed up. It worked so well that the Oakland police could not restrain themselves from running to get their congressman,

00:13:12.660 - 00:13:29.070

their state representative, to pass the law in California to ban the carrying of weapons. Openly, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense calls upon the American people in general on the black people in particular to take careful note of the racist California Legislature, which is now

00:13:29.070 - 00:13:51.080

considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of black people. Happy black panthers up here with guns on the second floor. Their weapons are loaded

00:13:51.080 - 00:14:14.670

or not. Nobody seems to know. May 3, 1967. As the California State Legislature prepared to pass a gun control bill aimed specifically at disarming Panther patrols, the Panthers burst into the assembly change way. Am I under arrest? Place him under arrest. Am I under arrest? It

00:14:14.680 - 00:14:32.090

am. I Take your hands off me if I'm not under arrest. Um, I'm telling you, take your hands off government works. Don't let a man exercises is constitutional rights. We did not go in there with purpose of disrupting the Assembly. We came there as citizens to

00:14:32.090 - 00:14:49.470

observe, uh, these laws being passed to see what was going on. And so therefore, way We're totally get out. Way left. Came back on top of the grounds way, Sit down. Had our guns still had a guns there on the Capitol grounds. Those who were carrying

00:14:49.470 - 00:15:11.040

guns on, uh, chicken had lunch way. Weren't even know there was no, no, no police. No surveillance. Know anything there at that particular time. So when we left, we got went about a mile away or so, and we will stop filling station to get gas. We

00:15:11.040 - 00:15:29.540

were stopped at the filling station against gas. Then that's where, Out of nowhere, you had a lot. These plainclothes and uniformed police come down on soup down on us, okay? You don't know the Constitution, right? Like this. Sure we do. We're well aware of the Constitution.

00:15:29.550 - 00:15:45.570

You have no right to take my gun away from me. You bring the Constitution life right? They put truck up charges of conspiracy and felonies on everyone who went in to exercise a constitutional right and said they had no right to bear arms in a public

00:15:45.580 - 00:16:06.360

place. The California Penal code section 12 23 12 27. And also the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the citizen right to bear arms on public property. And then the Panthers had fewer than 30 members when they went to Sacramento. This dramatic display attracted many more.

00:16:08.640 - 00:16:26.590

We will always said we're not afraid to say that these racist Gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our community or we're gonna take up guns. We're gonna drive them out, and we feel we can. Boldness made form or confrontations. There was a fanatical strain in the

00:16:26.590 - 00:16:44.450

Panthers that made them a dangerous organization, but they tended to keep it on the defensive other than the offensive, and they didn't have targets to go out and shoot. They weren't like the order or some of the white supremacist, fanatical groups of today who have been

00:16:44.450 - 00:17:02.750

tried and convicted of assassinating people. Panthers weren't that kind of a group, but they know. But they did shoot back. They were continually hostile and charging the police with the harassment, and they always felt that they brought it on themselves. If they're gonna walked off and

00:17:02.750 - 00:17:21.430

been quiet, I don't think they would have been so much police. Hostility of hostility is there waas. But it was a two way street. After a while, they became almost open game for the police. On the night of October 27th, 1967 Oakland Patrolman John Fry radioed

00:17:21.430 - 00:17:43.060

headquarters that he was stopping a panther car. Exactly what happened in the next few minutes remains unclear. 12 shots were fired, killing officer Fry and wounding a second officer, Huey Newton, also wounded was arrested and charged with first degree murder. The Huey Newton case had everything

00:17:43.060 - 00:18:07.600

in it from a lawyer's dream. It had racism. Jury selection problem. It had a whodunit problem. Huey Newton never had a gun. He had a book by Judge Freaky Law Book in his hand. When he got out of the car and went out towards the police

00:18:07.600 - 00:18:26.650

officers, he didn't have a gun. The prosecution claimed Newton did have a gun, but it jammed. They alleged that Newton then disarmed Fry and shot the officer with his own weapon. No gun was ever found When Huey Newton was shot in October of 1967 and this

00:18:26.650 - 00:18:50.600

case is going to trial, we took his trial as ah vehicle to continue and expand and promote the ideas of self defense. Okay. Gonna catch? No. My brothers in jail way wanted to get people to come out and support him at his trial. We got a

00:18:50.610 - 00:19:09.110

flatbed truck and we drive around the neighborhoods and saying, Come see about hewing. Some people were calling. He's going to the gas chamber. Or that they've never They could not conceive that any black man could go to trial in white court for killing a white policeman

00:19:09.120 - 00:19:30.120

and come out alive. By the time the case actually went to trial in June of 1968 there was about 5000 people outside the courthouse demanding free Huey. Newton didn't go to the gas chamber, but he was convicted of manslaughter. Outside the courthouse, the Panthers played to

00:19:30.120 - 00:19:56.100

their newest ally, a television cameras. They liked black brother jacket, Black beret. They like the posters. They liked the drama. Uh, there was something about the Panthers that was exciting, that was different and that look great on the evening most. If the media hadn't given these

00:19:56.100 - 00:20:09.690

bumps and much attention, they wouldn't be where they are today. We would stumble all over ourselves to get them a little latest word on what they were doing and where they did it and how they did it. And it's quite it is quite possible that if

00:20:09.700 - 00:20:23.430

we had ignored them completely, they would never gotten where they did. I mean, they knew that wanted to read ways that they could get on the six o'clock news was by making some would say outrageous and others would say very dramatic statements and so they made

00:20:23.430 - 00:20:37.560

them execute black people for defending black people. Then we say, Bring it on. If you want war that there be war, This is what we're saying. Is that clear? In other words, if he is convicted and sentenced to death Oakland, will he run? This whole country

00:20:37.560 - 00:20:53.550

is going to reverse what we're telling you. We're gonna do everything that we can to see to it that the whole world erupts. Is that clear? We're not kidding about this. We mean this. The government, the police and large numbers of white people who've never seen

00:20:53.550 - 00:21:09.610

a black Panther in person they'd only seen them on television were convinced that this was the most frightening thing they ever heard of in life. And they should all be abolished. While many Americans feared the Panthers, more and more young people embraced their cause. The Panthers

00:21:09.610 - 00:21:27.890

10 point program, their Bill of Rights, demanded quality housing and education as well as community control of the police. In just over a year, the Black Panther Party grew from a local organization to one with 33 chapters nationwide, 10 point platform and program. The brother, Huey

00:21:27.890 - 00:21:47.390

P. Newton, was running down today in the courtroom is the key. Fact is the key thing that has made the Black Panther Party survived and grow to the numerous numbers and the numerous organization that has now across this country responsible for the growth of the black.

00:21:47.400 - 00:22:01.090

We have the party. Bobby could talk about how this black woman right here, who lives across the street needs to get some more food for her Children because she's been struggling. That was the kind of person Bobby was. So is Bobby talked. You could empathize with

00:22:01.090 - 00:22:18.190

him. You could empathize. He could paint a picture of the black community that would make you wanna go out right now and do something. With Newton in jail for the fry shooting seal took control. The Panthers adopted a new slogan. Serve the people on! Began providing

00:22:18.200 - 00:22:49.900

free breakfast to school Children money. You? Yeah, When the Black Panther Party started that program, we knew that there were many hungry, especially black Children are going to school every day hungry, and then we cannot learn on an empty stomach. There's no way. So we began

00:22:49.900 - 00:23:05.240

to feed some Children around the country. There was no way we could ever feed all the hungry Children in the United States. But we are programs like this. We call them consciousness raising programs, and we hope that people would begin to wonder. Well, the Black Panthers

00:23:05.240 - 00:23:21.800

completed few Children than the United States government. You know, with all their wealth, why aren't why aren't they feeding more Children? The Panthers were doing something, you know. They were doing something. They were feeding people. Um, they were talking about taking care of the seniors in

00:23:21.800 - 00:23:53.810

the community. In some cases, they were providing child care, and free medical centers were in the making and those those air significant accomplishments. So I thought, I think I'll just check these people out. A. Programs developed in Oakland soon spread to other cities in Chicago. Their

00:23:53.810 - 00:24:17.470

success helped 21 year old Fred Hampton recruit 10 members for the Panthers in four months. Way. Yes, they got together with John, and there's nothing wrong with that because we need some God. Black people got Hampton was a former the be organized, a bright young man

00:24:17.480 - 00:24:33.340

who decided that the time it ended to turn the other cheek on the passive resistance philosophy of Doctor King just seemed a little bit inadequate for the emotions that were raging, particularly among young people in the black community. Anything that he said could be done. He

00:24:33.340 - 00:24:46.130

would show you how it could be done. I never forget people would come into the office. Uh, Chairman, I'm having a problem selling these 100 newspapers, he said. Come on out here with me. He would go out in the street with the armful of newspaper stopping

00:24:46.130 - 00:25:01.260

car. Hey, brother. Hey, sister, have you heard about the Black Panther Party newspaper? And his enthusiasm about this publication would just spill over and people would be really site. Well, maybe I'll check this out. You know, people learn by example. I think I don't think anybody

00:25:01.260 - 00:25:17.310

has an argument with that. I think that when he P. Newton said that people learned basically by observation and participation, I think that everybody call go on to bed. Chicago authorities watched nervously as Hampton negotiated alliances with Puerto Rican and white gangs. The original Rainbow Coalition

00:25:17.320 - 00:25:31.290

way didn't talk about a Brexit the Children program. We've gotten one. We're not going to tell you how many kids we intend to freedom, speed in Chicago were feeding 3000 to 4000 every week already, and I don't know how many. All around the country, as the

00:25:31.290 - 00:25:52.870

Panther Community programs caught on, so did their newspaper. In black neighborhoods around the country, tens of thousands were relying on the Black Panther paper for their news. By now, the Panthers saw themselves as part of a larger struggle. Ah, World revolution. Is this the answer, right?

00:25:53.640 - 00:26:17.070

They said it. Yeah. You hear him in there and talking about the red bumps by chanting now, Oh, red China. I don't think the Panthers accomplished anything I think they could have. I think they could have. They could have been, uh, good for the black community.

00:26:17.940 - 00:26:37.770

The less fortunate blacks and the young young people. They tried this. As I said earlier, with programs to feed school Children. Had that been the main thrust instead of marching around with guns and bandolero so across your chest, they could have accomplished something, but got out

00:26:37.770 - 00:27:08.980

of line somewhere. Then plan. Do you think that? So I'm happy tonight. I'm not about it. Any man my have seen the glory. Yeah, history, burn whatever. On April 2nd, 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated. Riots engulfed 67 cities in Oakland. The Panthers clashed with the

00:27:08.980 - 00:27:30.550

police. I heard a radio transmission, Uh, and in the radio, in the background, in the radio, you could hear the M 16. The Panthers wounded two police officers, then fled on foot. Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Hutton took refuge in a house on 28th Street. Was a

00:27:30.550 - 00:27:43.260

firefight, just old fashioned military firefight. We put some chemical agents in the house, and I think there was some concern about the fire. I think maybe that's what might have motivated in Come out. There were, I don't know, 50 officers, maybe in front of the house.

00:27:44.190 - 00:28:00.270

Why have to this day? I don't know. Five. Cleaver did what he was told and all right, you know, the juvenile just everything was fine. And then all of a sudden, bang took off and started running on. But that point state of mind of all the

00:28:00.270 - 00:28:18.470

officers, after being in that stand up for a while, is not knowing whether he was armed or unarmed. I think we all assumed he was armed. Other officers say Hutton didn't run, but merely stumbled the unarmed teenager was shot six times. Friends of Bobby Hutton, who

00:28:18.470 - 00:28:37.330

spoke, did not eulogize the boy as much as they attack the society responsible for his death, as they put it, A sick society. Oh, about it. How we doing? Police around the country went after the Panthers in San Francisco. They raided party offices on the eve

00:28:37.330 - 00:28:54.180

of a major rally. They came over here exhorting the young boy to carry guns to shoot the pigs, that you had to shoot your way to civil rights, that you couldn't get your way. Civil rights by ordinary descent by ordinary action of government. The actual facts

00:28:54.180 - 00:29:13.300

were that there was an exhortation to violence by a group of black Panthers, and when the police moved in to arrest them, they all retreated, ran into this building, and the police followed them directly into this building. There were 11 of us in the office were

00:29:13.300 - 00:29:33.180

all arrested. Within a half hour. They had released nine, with no charges on, they came up with some ridiculous charge on me of suspicion of assault on a police officer. Now there were 150 policemen with M 16 and Thompson submachine guns, and I know and everybody

00:29:33.180 - 00:29:57.580

else knows what would have happened had I assaulted a police officer officer. Under those circumstances, in a two year period, police raided 31 Panther offices in 11 states. They arrested more than 400 party members. 19 Panthers and 10 policemen died. The time has come for us

00:29:57.590 - 00:30:22.840

to recognize that five and terror have no place in a free society, whatever the reported cause or the perpetrators make. When President Nixon vowed to crack down on black militants and other radicals, he found a ready ally. An FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover, denounced the

00:30:22.840 - 00:30:42.310

Panthers, calling them the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States. I looked at that like I looked at after Pearl Harbor. The the people we hated were the Nazis and the fascists. And so it depends on who you are against the moment. I

00:30:42.310 - 00:31:02.770

do think they were a threat. I think the fact that the threat no longer exists is an indication of somebody did something right or they fell of their own. Who knows why. FBI documents revealed that as early as 1967 Hoover had begun a counterintelligence program known

00:31:02.770 - 00:31:29.260

as COINTELPRO, to destroy black groups and leaders. After Martin Luther King's death, the Panthers became Hoover's main target was just plain old fashioned hatred for blacks. It didn't make any endurance, whether they were black Panthers are Nation of Islam or what he just didn't like blacks

00:31:29.740 - 00:31:55.960

except as chauffeurs and servants. And he was prepared to Hey, uh, was prepared, I guess, to do just about anything to make sure that the blacks state where you thought they should stay. I mean, obviously swear I've been tired from the things they did again. 25

00:31:55.960 - 00:32:25.180

years in counterintelligence. His last assignment was to censor the bureau's confidential files on the Black Panthers. I didn't know at the time that a lot of the violence was being generated through this. Uh huh. Cointelpro counterintelligence program that FBI informants were actually antagonizing Black Panther members

00:32:25.940 - 00:32:51.920

and other black groups so that they would get into fights with each other and among themselves. Cointelpro operations included extensive surveillance and infiltration. The FBI found that the Panthers were an easy target, having an open door policy, you know, all kinds of crazies and and and,

00:32:51.930 - 00:33:08.930

uh, you know, um, individuals can could walk into our organization and because we were about the business and just day to day survival when people came and offered themselves to do a service we didn't question that way were about the business of trying to carry out

00:33:08.930 - 00:33:27.500

our programs so that, you know, because we didn't have a sophisticated network of screening people in that kind of stuff. It was sort of, you know, easy and and and a natural entree for Asians provocateurs to come into our organization in Chicago. Fred Hampton's bodyguard was

00:33:27.500 - 00:33:46.710

working for the FBI. We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But when I leave you remember I said with the last words on my lips and I am revolutionary, both saying this was there a fire? Uh, they said a

00:33:46.720 - 00:34:08.680

way we ain't going nowhere were intimidated. The police were coming to the Chicago because they knew that we would shoot back, but they wanted us eliminated. They didn't know how how to deal with, uh, it took the FBI, the Justice Department. Uh, it took them two,

00:34:10.040 - 00:34:32.980

uh, conspire to eliminate Fred Hampton. And in chapter on December 4th, 1969 the party's statewide leadership gathered for a meeting at Hampton's apartment. It was late at night when Hampton and Debra Johnson went to bed. We called his mother, talked to her for a while, talked

00:34:32.980 - 00:34:50.220

to his sister, and Fred fell asleep on the phone while talking to them. He gave me the phone. I talked to them a minute, hung it up. I tried to wake Fred up, and I couldn't eventually went to sleep. The next thing I remember with someone

00:34:50.220 - 00:35:13.740

coming into the room shaking Fred Chairman, chairman, wake up. The pigs of vamping still have sleep. I looked up, not saw bullets coming from it Looked like the front of the apartment from the kitchen area. They were pieces. Just shoot matches is just going. You could

00:35:13.740 - 00:35:38.250

feel the bullets going into I just day and everybody in there. Earth. One of the police officers grab my robe open. I was very pregnant at the time. They said, What do you know? We have a broad here. Another police officer grab my hair and kind

00:35:38.250 - 00:36:02.100

of slung me into the kitchen area. Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed in the raid, four other Panthers were wounded. Within hours, State's attorney, Edward Hanrahan, went on the record. The immediate violent criminal reaction of the occupants in shooting at announced police officers emphasizes

00:36:02.110 - 00:36:19.170

the extreme viciousness of the Black Panther Party. So does their refusal. The cease firing at the police officers when urged to do so several times the black community didn't buy Hanrahan story. The response of the community was that they wanted to witness what had happened. So

00:36:19.170 - 00:36:46.560

they just started coming to the apartment. It wasn't organized, spontaneous. On Korda. Calculations we had in excess of 25,000 people went through that apartment within that week. Don't don't move nothing. We want to keep Don't the wall I'll never forget. There were black folks who said

00:36:46.560 - 00:36:57.740

then and who will still tell you. Tell you now that I knew it was murder When I found out what time it happened, that was the kind of reaction a lot of folks had because it happened like four o'clock in the morning, you know? And they

00:36:57.740 - 00:37:10.090

said, you know, ain't none of us up at four o'clock in the morning, you know, it had to be, uh, it had to be Ah, murder had to be an assassination. Had to be a conspiracy. You say your men were fired upon. Witnesses who have seen

00:37:10.090 - 00:37:30.900

the apartment say there is no evidence of bullets from the direction where the Panthers supposedly were to be. I said that after our officers announced their purpose and their stations several times, they were fired upon from within the room for 12 solid minutes. In those early

00:37:30.900 - 00:37:50.460

morning hours, there was gun firing in that apartment. And yet the federal grand jury concludes that only one possible shot could have come from a panther. Weapons to other investigations reached the same conclusion by police fired 98 of the 99 shots in the raid. Ah, map.

00:37:50.460 - 00:38:12.550

Lead them to the room where Hempton slept. It was provided by Hampton's bodyguard, William O'Neal. The FBI paid O Neal Ah $300 bonus for his efforts. We arranged it so that the Chicago Police Department would go in there, and we told the the police Department that

00:38:13.020 - 00:38:35.070

they had so many certain kinds of guns and ammunition, and this place was well fortified. It was going to be a real shootout when they went into arrest these people. So, uh and I'm sure you know the Chicago police officers that well, you know, this is

00:38:35.070 - 00:38:58.290

coming from the FBI. This was straightforward stuff. It's gonna be pretty bad. And it turned out that it was pretty bad. One thing that really did trouble people was the fact that, uh, this J. Edgar Hoover that high up in our federal government, uh, literally orchestrated

00:38:58.290 - 00:39:17.530

what amounted to political assassinations of people that he thought were undesirable. That's really kind of kind of the bottom line of the later disclosures of what the FBI did under Hoover in targeting Panther leaders. That's a pretty frightening thought. By 1970 the Panther leadership was decimated.

00:39:18.420 - 00:39:40.850

Huey Newton was still in jail. Eldridge Cleaver had fled to Algeria to avoid prosecution for the Oakland Shootout. And Bobby Seale faced trial in Chicago on charges that he had incited riots of the 1968 Democratic convention. If we had to do all over again, perhaps we

00:39:40.850 - 00:40:02.040

would not have brandished the weapons so openly. Although we certainly do have a right to have them. But those weapons became out our albatross, You know, around our neck, they use those weapons against us, Thio to vilify us, to scare the community and to the criminalizes

00:40:03.380 - 00:40:27.650

from his prison cell, Newton concluded the Panthers were hopelessly outgunned. He instructed party members to drop the revolutionary rhetoric. We eventually realized that our emphasis should be on trying Thio make national more breakfast programs, better educational system, health services and that kind of stuff that that

00:40:27.650 - 00:40:46.180

was what we were about to from Algeria. Eldridge Cleaver accused Newton of selling out the rift between Newton and Cleaver was exploited by the FBI A write letters to Eldridge and say, When you're gone, the Panthers really denounce you. They don't wanna have anything to do

00:40:46.180 - 00:40:59.470

with you. They make fun of you. You're just dead meat on. They'd write letters to Huey and say, Eldridge really hates you. Uh, he's organizing people to come and kill you. And then they signed the names of people that both of them knew. So they both

00:40:59.470 - 00:41:12.820

believe the other was planning to kill them. So when Huey was released from jail in 1970 Eldridge called and said, Why don't you come and visit me in Algeria? So of course he was suspicious that this is it. They're planning to kill me. He won't come.

00:41:13.510 - 00:41:31.750

And it's in this context that Eldridge and all the people in the Black Panthers in Algeria was. About 30 people at the time called it the international section. We're all expelled by hewing. Newton's manslaughter conviction was overturned after three years in prison. He found himself a

00:41:31.750 - 00:41:45.620

the head of a very different organization than the one he started. You know, it's one thing to go into, go into prison in 1967 with a handful of people and then to come out three years later and you've got a couple of 1000 or maybe more

00:41:45.620 - 00:42:04.220

around the country and to be the center of attention and to be a symbol. And when you become a symbol, that's a lot of responsibility. People way expect our symbols and our leaders to be almost perfect. If some people have a distorted view of me and

00:42:04.220 - 00:42:18.220

it gives me very much trouble, it's it adds to the sort of timid personality that I already have. It makes me uncomfortable because I know that I can't give them all of those things that their idol is supposed Thio and I don't want appear to them

00:42:18.220 - 00:42:33.570

a fake. But I would just like to tell them that that, you know, I'm just another regular human being. When he was released from prison, we had made ah, fatal mistake because we had developed a cult of personality around here in Newton, which is something that

00:42:33.570 - 00:42:45.690

we should not have done. But we thought that we were so smart. I mean, damn, I was 24 years old. You know what? I thought my shit didn't think I was so smart. You know what I mean? In the rest of us have had that attitude

00:42:45.700 - 00:43:00.030

to. So we felt that because we had read about the cult of the personality and the dangers that it could cause that there was no way that we would fall into that trap. But at the same time, right? What we didn't realize was that our efforts

00:43:00.040 - 00:43:16.010

to keep you from being killed by putting his picture up and by saying support Huey Newton support here in Newton. Our leader, Huey Newton. We had, in fact, created the cult of the personality. And so when he returned from prison, this gang leader returned toe multimillion

00:43:16.010 - 00:43:37.140

dollar organization with offices in Chapter spread across this country and internationally, he could not handle it. The Black Panther Party was built on the campaign to free Huey Newton, but his release had consequences no one anticipated. Newton moved immediately to consolidate his power. First, he kicked

00:43:37.140 - 00:43:58.340

out the entire New York chapter. Next, Newton began shutting down most of the 30 remaining chapters. Then he turned on David Hilliard in jail on a weapons charge. Newton said later he thought Hilliard was behind an assassination plot. Of course I was pissed off, Resentful about

00:43:58.340 - 00:44:13.160

you expelling me from the Black Panther Party. How could he do that? I would say hello. I found that the parties essentially me and Bobby Seale built the party from 20 some Panthers. He come home to a national international organization and expelled me while I'm in

00:44:13.160 - 00:44:35.050

prison. I was bitter, of course. I was bitter with him. He surround himself with loyalists or yes, man, uh, and anyone who questioned, uh, his leadership. He tried to isolate one way or another. And what we learned was that Curie had gotten really into drugs, too,

00:44:35.060 - 00:45:01.340

you know, and that the combination of this sort of natural paranoia and egotism combined with, uh, cocaine binges and alcohol binges just completely perverted his personality. By now, Newton was living in a penthouse on Oakland's Lake Merritt. The press learned about it from the FBI. We

00:45:01.340 - 00:45:17.610

published the story and I got I took a little bit of doing to find the how much rent he was paying and all in I got phone calls from black militants who would say, Hey, man, where is he getting the dough? Where is this bread coming

00:45:17.610 - 00:45:34.320

from? The bread. They'd call it bread for money and some of them were down in West Oakland were a little unhappy. I couldn't understand why he would elevate himself, because that's what he did. Hey, took residents on a high floor in a penthouse, had overlooked our

00:45:34.320 - 00:45:51.610

community and in a house where, or rather residents where we were not usually welcome when we did not reside there. So I couldn't figure out why he would put himself in a tower overlooking the community while the rest of us were still down on the flatlands.

00:45:52.090 - 00:46:10.680

Hello. My name is Bobby. Feel I'm a candidate for mayor. Vocal. This is my family. My mother in 1970 There to help the Panthers make their image. This is my sister Betty and her daughter Charlotte. Seal. Got enough votes to force incumbent John Reading into a

00:46:10.680 - 00:46:30.030

runoff election. Okay, okay, right. Don't be. Oh, okay. On April 17th, vote for Bobby Seale for mayor of Oakland and Elaine Brown for City Council. Is it going to be a close for in May 15? Might be running. Won the election, but seals strong showing inspired

00:46:30.030 - 00:46:44.860

black politicians around the country. E c. A victory for the people. But the campaign was this very popular. People say we have a black Panther can run for public office, and they were considered quote unquote an extremist group by many people. And certainly other black people

00:46:44.860 - 00:47:01.190

can run for public office. So I do think that it made an impact locally, you know, And on a national level, the people of Oakland began to see that look out boats can make a difference. You have people who said that they ought coming become involved

00:47:01.190 - 00:47:20.340

with their school boards and the education of their Children. And I think that tradition continues on. I don't mean that these were things that had not been done before. But there was a new spirit about the effort. People felt renewed that they could make a difference

00:47:20.340 - 00:47:42.190

in that they could bring about change. The party was successfully shutting its violent image, but Newton's took several blows. He displayed all the symptoms of a person that was addicted to cocaine. He was irrational. He was abrasive, inconsistent in his behavior. One day he's, you know,

00:47:42.450 - 00:47:59.950

in mood for the people. The next day it's he's out killing somebody. His victims always seemed to be black people, the people he was claiming to protect him further the cause. Um, and he just He evolved from a guy that had maybe a good intention into

00:47:59.950 - 00:48:20.660

a really just basic common criminal. During 11 days in August 1974 Newton was accused of attacking two women in a bar pistol, whipping his Taylor and murdering a young prostitute. Newton's behavior angered many of the remaining party members. If they found out about these things, they

00:48:20.660 - 00:48:36.880

walked away. They walked away. They could not be associating with those kind of activities because it wasn't what they joined the Black Panther Party for. It wasn't they weren't quite literally putting their lives on the line so that folks could go on drug binges. Newton fled

00:48:36.880 - 00:48:59.680

to Cuba. Elaine Brown took control of the party. By 1974 it had become a local organization. Once again, Elaine was getting us more involved in what might be considered more kind of traditional, established black organizations. Community organizations were trying to broaden the base, the party's outreach.

00:48:59.860 - 00:49:22.950

And, you know, I personally thought it was a smart move, because times change. Under Brown's guidance, the Panthers gained access to the halls of power. The government began funding some of their programs, including the internationally recognized Oakland Community School. We gave the quality of private school

00:49:22.960 - 00:49:43.370

education those two kids who I couldn't even afford to go to public school because they didn't have shoes because they didn't have lunch. We gave that the 2.5 2 12 year old students who came to our school three meals a day. We provided a full curriculum

00:49:43.380 - 00:50:03.160

for them, and we were available to them. In some instances, I became the surrogate mother for a number of kids whose families were, too, um, troubled to take good care of them. First, we're gonna talk about the cube today, Okay? And I want someone to tell

00:50:03.160 - 00:50:33.090

me First of all, what kind figure is a cute way we're preparing them. Makes home for really buy and wear. My You make sense of it. Wear a We had them to recognizing on self worth. I calculated we have enough air. 1977. Newton returned from Cuba

00:50:33.110 - 00:50:52.730

to stand trial for the murder of the prostitute Kathleen Smith. Like I like for everyone to know that I'm not guilty of anything to Juries. Failed to reach a verdict. After the second mistrial, the prosecution dropped the case. What happens to your life now? Well, im

00:50:52.740 - 00:51:08.780

currently in, uh, school. I met you. See it, Santa Cruz. I'm a candidate for the doctor's degree in social philosophy and I am working on a dissertation. I should have it finished by June on. Of course, I'll carry on our community work with the Black Panther

00:51:08.780 - 00:51:29.110

Party, and I'm writing a book and doing all sorts of things. I'm very happy today. Newton went on to finish his doctorate, but he couldn't escape the twin demons that possessed him. Cocaine on alcohol. By the early eighties, the Black Panther Party had disappeared. This man

00:51:29.110 - 00:51:45.090

has never had it. One day's freedom. Not going to court and fight in the police. Fuck It will drive me to drink it. You know, I would want to drink. You know Andi overall, he did okay. I mean, when school got Ph. D did incredible things

00:51:45.090 - 00:52:03.700

he did under that pressure, but he still did not see the necessity to not drink. Um, Newton spent much of the last 10 years of his life in and out of court. He did jail time for possession of cocaine. Onda no contest pleaded charges that he

00:52:03.700 - 00:52:27.440

embezzled money from the Panthers school. Larger community family that he connected himself with. He long ago severed with he lost Andi. And I certainly understand that pain. So we had I mean, we were our investment was in in the future somewhere. Not here on bond. We

00:52:27.440 - 00:52:52.260

were the architect of a new social order, and when that was taken away from us and we couldn't dream and we couldn't couldn't couldn't be visionaries. And we couldn't, uh, project anymore, then cut off our life. On August 22nd, 1989 Huey Newton was gunned down in

00:52:52.260 - 00:53:16.540

the same neighborhood where he started the Black Panther Party. Authorities say he was shot in an argument over drugs. First half is his public life. He started something amazing, which some people have said was Great Street Theater and some have said, was the greatest movement in

00:53:16.550 - 00:53:49.280

history in the United States, who, some have said was the most awful phenomenon that they've ever witnessed. The world is, as you see it, in the second half of his public life, we saw a man who, after having been daily hourly, harassed and often hurt by

00:53:49.290 - 00:54:21.150

law enforcement I mean physically as well as emotionally hurt by law enforcement and, um, intelligence, beaten down by two a good degree. And one of the things that I came to know about him was that his heart was very fragile. Mr Sam time, when you said

00:54:21.150 - 00:54:41.570

we want to end to police brutality is a great family, because what happened is black people is that they stopped tolerating being beaten down the street for nothing. The power structure, which was the word of the day, had to begin to confront people in the black

00:54:41.570 - 00:55:00.930

community who in the past have been considered militant But when compared to the Panthers, we're not militant at all. In Oakland, the old guard has been replaced by African American leaders. The Panthers were instrumental in electing the city's first black mayor, Lionel Wilson, but it was

00:55:00.930 - 00:55:24.500

only one step toward their goals. There's still a need for a new organization, you know, with the spirit and with the voice that the Panther Party had the people of West Oakland, our justice, disenfranchised and impoverished. They're not empowered. They do not own these buildings you

00:55:24.500 - 00:55:52.050

see here they they're not the owners of that story on the corner. We still do not have any economic democracy so that our situation today is as it was 20 years ago. Chicago's South Side. This neighborhood was once controlled by Mayor Richard J. Daley is legendary

00:55:52.050 - 00:56:11.390

political machine. But the death of Fred Hampton transformed Chicago's political landscape in death. Hampton Court became martyrs, very powerful martyrs for the cause of black self determination in this city. The first thing that had to be done was to get even with Ed Hanrahan, the state's

00:56:11.390 - 00:56:29.720

attorney, who orchestrated the raid in 1972. The black community stood together in voting against Ed Hanrahan on, uh, this was very important because combined with white votes, Hanrahan was voted out. More than that. He was the candidate endorsed by the Daily Machine. So this was a

00:56:29.720 - 00:56:52.840

significant defeat for the Daily Machine. That really was the beginning of a movement that resulted eventually in the election of Harold Washington in 1983 the same night Chicagoans chose Harold Washington, the South Side got a new representative on the City Council. Former Panther Bobby Rush reminds

00:56:52.840 - 00:57:14.470

me of the old Panther party way I see, perhaps for Children programs Now, in all the schools, I think that the legacy of the Black Panther Party is that the youth of America, African American youth, pour in the person youth across this country can in fact

00:57:15.330 - 00:57:46.440

make a tremendous impact on the nation on can really move to solve some of the problems that it's confronted with on a daily basis. The Panthers rallying cry no longer echoes across this nation. But the story of their accomplishments and failures is being told to a

00:57:46.440 - 00:59:32.070

new generation. No, wait. Hey there, Mr White Man, Can you hear me? I don't want No, you lived it. I just wanna be someone know you. You want to say saying a simple