Deep Politics Forum

In October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community based programs. The party was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation — a party whose agenda was the revolutionary establishment of real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines.
The Ten-Point Program
Rules of the Black Panther Party
Original six Black Panthers (November, 1966) Top left to right: Elbert "Big Man" Howard; Huey P. Newton (Defense Minister), Sherman Forte, Bobby Seale (Chairman). Bottom: Reggie Forte and Little Bobby Hutton (Treasurer). Black Panther Theory: The practices of the late Malcolm X were deeply rooted in the theoretical foundations of the Black Panther Party. Malcolm had represented both a militant revolutionary, with the dignity and self-respect to stand up and fight to win equality for all oppressed minorities; while also being an outstanding role model, someone who sought to bring about positive social services; something the Black Panthers would take to new heights. The Panthers followed Malcolm's belief of international working class unity across the spectrum of color and gender, and thus united with various minority and white revolutionary groups. From the tenets of Maoism they set the role of their Party as the vanguard of the revolution and worked to establish a united front, while from Marxism they addressed the capitalist economic system, embraced the theory of dialectical materialism, and represented the need for all workers to forcefully take over the means of production.
Black Panther History: On April 25th, 1967, the first issue of The Black Panther, the party's official news organ, goes into distribution. In the following month, the party marches on the California state capital fully armed, in protest of the state's attempt to outlaw carrying loaded weapons in public. Bobby Seale reads a statement of protest; while the police respond by immediately arresting him and all 30 armed Panthers. This early act of political repression kindles the fires to the burning resistance movement in the United States; soon initiating minority workers to take up arms and form new Panther chapters outside the state.
The Black Panther: [off-site link] Articles from 1968-69
In October of 1967, the police arrest the Defense Minister of the Panthers, Huey Newton, for killing an Oakland cop. Panther Eldridge Cleaver begins the movement to "Free Huey", a struggle the Panthers would devote a great deal of their attention to in the coming years, while the party spreads its roots further into the political spectrum, forming coalitions with various revolutionary parties. Stokely Carmichael, the former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a nationally known proponent of Black Power, is recruited into the party through this struggle, and soon becomes the party's Prime Minister in February, 1968. Carmichael is adamantly against allowing whites into the black liberation movement, explaining whites cannot relate to the black experience and have an intimidating effect on blacks; a position that stirs opposition within the Panthers. Carmichael explains: "Whites who come into the black community with ideas of change seem to want to absolve the power structure of its responsibility for what it is doing, and say that change can only come through black unity, which is the worst kind of paternalism..... If we are to proceed toward true liberation, we must cut ourselves off from white people..... [otherwise] we will find ourselves entwined in the tentacles of the white power complex that controls this country.”
Stokely Carmichael: The Basis of Black Power
In the beginning of 1968, after selling Mao's Red Book to university students in order to buy shotguns, the Party makes the book required reading. Meanwhile, the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, begins a program called COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) to break up the spreading unity of revolutionary groups that had begun solidifying through the work and examaple of the Panthers — the Peace and Freedom Party, Brown Berets, Students for a Democratic Society, the SNCC, SCLC, Poor People's March, Cesar Chavez and others in the farm labor movement, the American Indian Movement, Young Puerto Rican Brothers, the Young Lords and many others. To destroy the party, the FBI begins with a program of surgical assassinations — killing leading members of the party who they know cannot be otherwise subverted. Following these mass killings would be a series of arrests, followed by a program of psychological warfare, designed to split the party both politically and morally through the use of espionage, provocatures, and chemical warfare.
Warning to So-Called “Paper Panthers”, The Black Panther, September 28, 1968
Watered down examples of FBI investigations, provided by the FBI: [off-site links]
The Winston Salem (N.C.) Black Panthers (2,895 pages)
Communist infiltration of the SNCC in 1964 (2,887 pages)
Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers Communist Affiliations in 1965 (2,021 pages)
U.S. Police Terror and Repression

On April 6, 1968, in West Oakland, Bobby Hutton, 17 years old, is shot dead by Oakland police. In a 90 minute gun battle, an unarmed Bobby Hutton is shot ten times dead, after his house is set ablaze and he is forced to run out into a fire of bullets. Just two days earlier, Martin Luther King is assasinated, after he had begun rethinking his own doctrines of non-violence, and started to build ties with radical unions. Two months later on the day of Bobby's death, Robert Kennedy, widely recognised in the minority commmunity as one of the only politicians in the US "sympathetic" to the civil rights movement, is also assasinated.
In January, 1969, The first Panther's Free Breakfast for School Children Program is initiated at St. Augustine's Church in Oakland. By the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school.
The Black Panther: To Feed Our Children
A few months later, J. Edgar Hoover publicly states that the Panthers are the "greatest threat to the internal security of the country."
In Chicago, the outstanding leader of the Panthers local, Fred Hampton, leads five different breakfast programs on the West Side, helps create a free medical center, and initiates a door to door program of health services which test for sickle cell anemia, and encourage blood drives for the Cook County Hospital. The Chicago party also begins reaching out to local gangs to clean up their acts, get them away from crime and bring them into the class war. The Parties efforts meet wide success, and Hampton's audiences and organised contingent grow by the day. On December 4th, at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, thanks to information from an FBI informant Mark Clark, sleeping in the living room chair, is also murdered while asleep. Hampton's wife, carrying child for 8 months, is also shot, but survives. Four panthers sleeping in the apartment are wounded, while one other escapes injury . Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was executed, Mark was 17 years old. According to the findings of the federal grand jury, Ninety bullets were fired inside the apartment. 1 came from a Panther — Mark — who slept with a shotgun in his hand. All surviving Panther members were arrested for "attempted murder of the police and aggravated assault". Not a single cop spent a moment in jail for the executions.
Fred Hampton: I am ... a Revolutionary
In the summer of 1969, the alliance between the Panthers and SNCC begins ripping apart. One of the main points of dispute is the inclusion of whites in the struggle for minority liberation, a dispute which is pushed into an open gun fight at the University of California in Los Angeles against the group US, led by Maulana Karenga, which leaves two Panthers dead. In September, in the government's court house, Huey Newton is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 2 to 15 years in prison; by 1970 the conviction is appealed and overturned on procedural errors. On November 24, 1968, Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver flee the US, visit Cuba and Paris, and eventually settle in Algeria. Earlier in the year Cleaver published his famous book Soul on Ice. By the end of the year, the party has swelled from 400 members to over 5,000 members in 45 chapters and branches, with a newspaper circulation of 100,000 copies.
In 1969 Seale is indicted in Chicago for protesting during the Democratic national convention of last year. The court refuses to allow Seale to choose a lawyer. As Seale repeatedly stands up during the show trial insisting that he is being denied his constitutional right to counsel, the judge orders him bound and gagged. He is convicted on 16 counts of contempt and sentenced to four years in prison. While in jail he would be charged again for killing a cop in years past, a trial that would end in 1971 with a hung jury.
In March, 1970, Bobby Seale publishes Seize The Time while still being held in prison, the story of the Panthers and Huey Newton. On April 2, 1970, in New York, 21 Panthers are charged with plotting to assassinate police officers and blow up buildings. On May 22nd, Eight members, including Ericka Huggins, are arrested on a variety of conspiracy and murder charges in New Haven, Connecticut. Meanwhile, Chief of staff David Hilliard is on trial for threatening President Richard Nixon. The party does little to separate its legal and illegal aspects, and is thus always and everywhere under attack by the government. In 1971, the Panther's newspaper circulation reaches 250,000.
On Huey Newton's release from prison, he devotes more effort to further develop the Panther's socialist survival programs in black communities; programs that provided free breakfasts for children, established free medical clinics, helped the homeless find housing, and gave away free clothing and food.
FBI forgery, provacation, & chemical war

In March, 1970, the FBI begins to soe seeds of factionalism in the Black Panthers, in part by forging letters to members. Eldridge Cleaver is one of their main targets — living in exile in Algiers — they gradually convince him with a steady stream of misinformation that the BPP leadership is trying to remove him from power. Cleaver recieved stacks of forgered FBI letters from supposed party members, criticising Netwon's leadership, and asking for Cleaver to take control. An example of such a forged letter, written using the name of Connie Matthews, Newton's personal secretary:
I know you have not been told what has been happening lately.... Things around headquarters are dreadfully disorganized with the comrade commander not making proper decisions. The newspaper is in a shambles. No one knows who is in charge. The foreign department gets no support. Brothers and sisters are accused of all sorts of things...
I am disturbed because I, myself, do not know which way to turn.... If only you were here to inject some strength into the movement, or to give some advice. One of two steps must be taken soon and both are drastic. We must either get rid of the supreme commander or get rid of the disloyal members... Huey is really all we have right now and we can't let him down, reglardless of how poorly he is acting, unless you feel otherwise.
Cleaver receives similarly forged letters across the spectrum, from groups outside the Panthers, to Panthers themselves, from rank and file members to Elbert "Big Man" Howard, editor of the Black Panther. The split comes when Newton goes onto a T.V. talk show for an interview, with Cleaver on the phone in Algiers. Cleaver expresses his absolute disdain for what has happened to the party, demands that David Hilliard (Chief of Staff) be removed, and even attacks the breakfast program as reformist. Cleaver is expelled from the Central Committee, and starts up his own Black Liberation Army. In 1973, Seale runs for mayor of Oakland. Though he receives 40 percent of the vote, he is defeated.
The destroyed remnants of the party leadership

With such great struggles, seeing the party being ripped apart by factions and internal hatred, Huey, like many members, becomes disillusioned. He no longer wants to lead the party, though so many expect and demand otherwise, while he spins into a spiral of self-doubt. He becomes heavily dependent on cocaine, heroin, and others. It is not clear this was his own doing, and very probable the work of the FBI. Huey remarked in one of his public speeches in the 1980s, where he would often have spurts of his brilliant clarity but then become entirely incoherent and rambling, that he was killing himself by reactionary suicide, through the vices of drug addiction. On August 22, 1989, Newton is shot dead on the streets of Oakland in a drug dispute.
Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide
Bobby Seale resigns from the party; while Elaine Brown takes the lead in continuing the Panther community programs. In the fall of 1975, Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver return from exile as born-again Christians. In 1979, all charges against Cleaver are dropped after he bargains with the state and pleads guilty to assault in a 1968 shoot out with the cops. He is put on five years probation. In the dimming years of his life, Cleaver assimilates a political outlook similar to Martin Luther King, engages in various business ventures, and becomes heavily addicted to cocaine.
By the beginning of the 1980s, attacks on the party and internal degradation and divisions, cause the party to fall apart. The leadership of the party had been absolutely smashed; its rank and file constantly terrorized by the police. Many remaining Panthers were hunted down and killed in the following years, imprisoned on trumped charges (Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, among many others), or forced to flee the United States (Assata Shakur, and others).
As Cleaver would later explain in an interview a year before his death: "As it was [the U.S. government] chopped off the head [of the Black liberation movement] and left the body there armed. That's why all these young bloods are out there now, they've got the rhetoric but are without the political direction... and they've got the guns."

Black Child's Pledge

I pledge allegiance to my Black People.
I pledge to develop my mind and body to the greatest extent possible.
I will learn all that I can in order to give my best to my People in their struggle for liberation.
I will keep myself physically fit, building a strong body free from drugs and other substances which weaken me and make me less capable of protecting myself, my family and my Black brothers and sisters.
I will unselfishly share my knowledge and understanding with them in order to bring about change more quickly.
I will discipline myself to direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting them in idle hatred.
I will train myself never to hurt or allow others to harm my Black brothers and sisters for I recognize that we need every Black Man, Woman, and Child to be physically, mentally and psychologically strong.
These principles I pledge to practice daily and to teach them to others in order to unite my People.
The Black Panther, October 26, 1968
by Shirley Williams

Links:

Angela Davis: PBS Interview in 1998: "We can't think narrowly about movements for black liberation and we can't necessarily see this class division as simply a product or a certain strategy that black movements have developed for liberation.... We have to look at for example the increasing globalization of capital, the whole system of transitional capitalism now which has had an impact on black populations — that has for example eradicated large numbers of jobs that black people traditionally have been able to count upon and created communities where the tax base is lost now as a result of corporations moving to the third world in order to discover cheap labor."
War Against The Panthers: A Study Of Repression In America by Huey Netwon, June 1980.
Bobby Seale's Homepage
Interview of Bobby Seale in 1996: "They came down on us because we had a grass-roots, real people's revolution, complete with the programs, complete with the unity, complete with the working coalitions, we were crossing racial lines. That synergetic statement of "All power to all the people," "Down with the racist pig power structure" -- we were not talking about the average white person: we were talking about the corporate money rich and the racist jive politicians and the lackeys, as we used to call them, for the government who perpetuates all this exploitation and racism."
Huey P. Newton Foundation
UC Berkeley Library. Social Activism Sound Recording Project: The Black Panther Party
Interview of Eldrige Cleaver, a year before his death, now using the words of Martin Luther King, in 1997: "I think that it is possible for the capitalist system to have a program of full employment, but we have a spiritual and moral problem in America. Our problem is not economic or political, it is that we do not care about each other.....
Note: This overview lacks a focus on the positive aspects of the Black Panthers and their work because of the great difficulty in finding anything but negative information against the Party and its struggles. Constructive sources of information would be greatly appreciated, please contact Brian Baggins.
Citation Information: Baggins, Brian. History of the Black Panther Party. Marxists Internet Archive (marx.org), copyleft 2002. Retrieved on (today's date). URL: http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/work...-panthers/
History Archive

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]1. Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups.... [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]2. Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement ... Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position.... [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]3. Prevent violence on the part of black nationalist groups.... [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them.... [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]5. . . . prevent the long-range growth of militant black nationalist organizations, especially among youth. 2 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]"the greatest threat to the internal security of the country. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]"Schooled in the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the teaching of Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung, its members have perpetrated numerous assaults on police officers and have engaged in violent confrontations with police throughout the country. Leaders and representatives of the Black Panther Party travel extensively all over the, United States preaching their gospel of hate and violence not only to ghetto residents, but to students in colleges, universities and high schools is well." 3 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]None of our programs have contemplated violence, and the instructions prohibit it, and the record of turndowns of recommended actions in some instances specifically say that we do not approve this action because if we take it it could result in harm to the individual. 9 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Information received from local sources indicate that, in general, the membership of the Los Angeles BPP is physically afraid of US members and take premeditated precautions to avoid confrontations. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]In view of their anxieties, it is not presently felt that the Los Angeles BPP can be prompted into what could result in an internecine struggle between the two organizations. . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The Los Angeles Division is aware of the mutually hostile feelings harbored between the organizations and the first opportunity to capitalize on the situation will be maximized. It is intended that US Inc. will be appropriately and discreetly advised of the time and location of BPP activities in order that the two organizations might be brought together and thus grant nature the opportunity to take her due course. [Emphasis added.] 10 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]On 11/2/68, BPP received information indicating US members intended to assassinate Leroy Eldridge Cleaver ... at a rally scheduled at Los Angeles on 11/3/68. A Los Angeles racial informant advised on 11/8/68 that [a BPP member] had been identified as a US infiltrator and that BPP headquarters had instructed that [name deleted] should be killed. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]During BPP rally, US members including one [name deleted], were ordered to leave the rally site by LASS members (Los Angeles BPP Security Squad) and did so. US capitulation on this occasion prompted BPP members to decide to kill [name deleted] and then take over US organization. Members of LASS . . . were given orders to eliminate [name deleted] and [name deleted]. 11 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]In order to fully capitalize upon BPP and US differences as well as to exploit all avenues of creating further dissention in the ranks of the BPP, recipient offices are instructed to submit imaginative and hard-hitting counterintelligence measures aimed at crippling the BPP. 13 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The purpose of the caricatures is to indicate to the BPP that the US organization feels that they are ineffectual, inadequate, and riddled with graft and corruption. 16 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]On 3/27/69 there was a meeting between the BPP and US organization. . . . Wallace [BPP leader in San Diego] . . . concluded by stating that the BPP in San Diego would not hold a grudge against the US members for the killing of the Panthers in Los Angeles (Huggins and Carter). He stated that lie would leave any retaliation for this activity to the black community. . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]On 4/2/69, there was a friendly confrontation between US and the BPP with no weapons being exhibited by either side. US members met with BPP members and tried to talk out their differences. 20 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The BPP members ... strongly objected being made fun of by cartoons being distributed by the US organization (FBI cartoons in actuality) ... [Informant] has advised on several occasions that the cartoons are "really shaking up the BPP." They have made the BPP feel that US is getting ready to move and this was the cause of the confrontation at Southcrest Park on 4/4/69. 24 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Reliable information has been received ... that members of the US organization have purchased ammunition at one of the local gun shops. On 6/5/69, an individual identified as [name deleted] purchased 150 rounds of 9 MM ammunition, 100 rounds of .32 automatic ammunition, and 100 rounds of .38 special ammunition at a local gun shop. [Name deleted] was tentatively identified as the individual who was responsible for the shooting of BPP member [name deleted] in Los Angeles on or about 3/14/69. 26 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]In view of the recent killing of BPP member Sylvester Bell, a new cartoon is being considered in the hopes that it will assist in the continuance of the rift between BPP and US. 32 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Shootings, beatings, and a, high degree of unrest continues to prevail in the ghetto area of southeast San Diego. Although no specific counterintelligence action can be credited with contributing to this overall situation, it is felt that a substantial amount of the unrest is directly attributable to this program. [Emphasis added.] 33 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The article, which is an attack on Ron Karenga of the US organization, is self-explanatory. It is felt that if the following letter be sent to Karenga, pointing out that the contents of the article are objectionable to members of the US organization in San Diego, the possibility exists that some sort of retaliatory action will be taken against the BPP . . . . 35 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The purpose of the caricatures is to indicate to the BPP that the US Organization considers them to be ineffectual, inadequate, and [considers itself] vitally superior to the BPP. 37 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]US Incorporated and the Black Panther Party are opposing black extremist organizations. Feuding between representatives of the two groups in the past had a tendency to limit the effectiveness of both. The leaders and incidents depicted in the caricatures are known to the general public, particularly among the Negroes living in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The leaders and members of both groups are distrusted by a large number of the citizen within the Negro communities. Distribution of caricatures is expected to strengthen this distrust. 39 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][s]ubmit recommendation to Bureau . . . for exploitation of same under captioned program. Consider from two aspects, one against US and Karenga from obvious subject matter; the second against BPP because, inherent in article is admission by BPP that it has done nothing to retaliate against US for killing of Panther members attributed to US and Karenga, an admission that the BPP has been beaten at its own game of violence. 41 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The Los Angeles Division is aware of the mutually hostile feelings harbored between the organizations and the first opportunity to capitalize on the situation will be maximized. It is intended that US Inc. will be appropriately and discretely advised of the time and location of BPP activities in order that the two organizations might be brought together and thus grant nature the opportunity to take her due course. [Emphasis added.] 43 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]While Bureau appreciates obvious effort and interest exhibited concerning anonymous letter ... studied analysis of same indicates implied threat therein may constitute extortion violation within investigative jurisdiction of Bureau or postal authorities and may subsequently be embarrassing to Bureau. 45 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Fort is reportedly aware that such remarks have been circulated, but is not aware of the identities of the individual responsible. He has stated that he would "take care of" individuals responsible for the verbal attacks directed against him. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Chicago, consequently, recommends that Fort be made aware that [name deleted] and [name deleted] together with other BPP members locally, are responsible for the circulation of these remarks concerning him. It is felt that if Fort were to be aware that the BPP was responsible, it would lend impetus to his refusal to accept any BPP overtures to the Rangers and additionally might result in Fort having active steps taken to exact some form of retribution toward the leadership of the BPP. [Emphasis added.] 48 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]. . . everyone went upstairs into a room which appeared to be a gymnasium, where Fort told Hampton and Rush that he had heard about the Panthers being in Ranger territory during the day, attempting to show their "power" and he wanted the Panthers to recognize the Rangers "power." Source stated that Fort then gave orders, via walkie-talkie, whereupon two men marched through the door carrying pump shotguns. Another order and two men appeared carrying sawed off carbines then eight more, each carrying a .45 caliber machine gun, clip type, operated from the shoulder or hip, then others came with over and under type weapons. Source stated that after this procession Fort had all Rangers present, approximately 100, display their side arms and about one half had .45 caliber revolvers. Source advised that all the above weapons appeared to be new. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Source advised they left the gym, went downstairs to another room where Rush and Hampton of the Panthers and Fort and two members of the Main 21 sat by a table and discussed the possibility of joining the two groups. Source related that Fort took off his jacket and was wearing a .45 caliber revolver shoulder holster with gun and had a small caliber weapon in his belt. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Source advised that nothing was decided at the meeting about the two groups actually joining forces, however, a decision was made to meet again on Christmas Day. Source stated Fort did relate that the Rangers were behind the Panthers but were not to be considered members. Fort wanted the Panthers to join the Rangers and Hampton wanted the opposite, stating that if the Rangers joined the Panthers, then together they would be able to absorb all the other Chicago gangs. Source advised Hampton did state that they couldn't let the man keep the two groups apart. Source advised that Fort also gave Hampton and Rush one of the above .45 caliber machine guns to "try out." [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Source advised that based upon conversations during this meeting, Fort did not appear over anxious to join forces with the Panthers, however, neither did it appear that he wanted to terminate meeting for this purpose. 49c [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]As events have subsequently developed . . . the Rangers and the BPP have not only not been able to form any alliance, but enmity and distrust have arisen, to the point where each has been ordered to stay out of the other territory. The BPP has since decided to conduct no activity or attempt to do recruiting in Ranger territory. 50 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Brother Jeff: [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]I've spent some time with some Panther friends on the west side lately and I know what's been going on. The brothers that run the Panthers blame you for blocking their thing and there's supposed to be a hit out for you. I'm not a Panther, or a Ranger, just black. From what I see these Panthers are out for themselves not black people. I think you ought to know what they're up to, I know what I'd do if I was you. You might hear from me again. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0](sgd.) A black brother you don't know. [Emphasis added.] 51 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]It is believed the above may intensify the degree of animosity between the two groups and occasion Forte to take retaliatory action which could disrupt the BPP or lead to reprisals against its leadership. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Consideration has been given to a similar letter to the BPP alleging a Ranger plot against the BPP leadership; however, it is not felt this would be productive principally because the BPP at present is not believed as violence prone as the Rangers to whom violent type activity -- shooting and the like -- is second nature. 52 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Brother Hampton: [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Just a word of warning. A Stone friend tells me [name deleted] wants the Panthers and is looking for somebody to get you out of the way. Brother Jeff is supposed to be interested. I'm just a black man looking for blacks working together, not more of this gang banging. 57 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Brother [deleted] : [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]I'm from the south side and have some Panther friends that know you and tell me what's been going. I know those two [name deleted] and [name deleted] that run the Panthers for a long time and those mothers been with every black outfit going where it looked like they was something in it for them. The only black people they care about is themselves. I heard too they're sweethearts and that [name deleted] has worked for the man that's why he's not in Viet Nam. Maybe that's why they're just playing like real Panthers. I hear a lot of the brothers are with you and want those mothers out but don't know how. The Panthers need real black men for leaders not freaks. Don't give up 'brothers. [Emphasis added.] 59 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]A black friend. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]in the hope that a state of distruct [sic] might remain among the members and add to the turmoil presently going on within the BPP. 61 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Dear Mr. (excised): [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]I would call and talk to you about this matter, but I am not sure how you feel, and I do not wish to become personally embroiled with neighbors. It seems that the property owners on (excised) Street have had enough trouble in the past without bringing in Black Panthers. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Maybe you are not aware, but the Black Panthers have taken over (address deleted). Perhaps if you drive up the street, you can see what they are going to do to the property values. They have already plastered a nearby garage with big Black Panther posters. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]-- A concerned property owner. 66 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]At a time when Matthews is in or has just passed through Paris immediately following one of her trips to Algiers. The enclosed letter should be held by you until such an occasion arises at which time you are authorized to immediately mail it in Paris in such a manner that it cannot be traced to the Bureau. 71 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Various items were discussed by these individuals with Hilliard. Connie Matthews discussed with Hilliard "those letters" appearing to relate to the counterintelligence letters, which have been submitted to Cleaver and Hilliard purportedly by Matthews .... [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]It appears ... that [Elbert Howard] had brought copies of the second counterintelligence letter to David Hilliard with him to Algiers which were then compared with the ... letter previously sent to Cleaver in Algiers and that ... discussed this situation .... 72 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]stresses the leadership and strength of David Hilliard and Eldridge Cleaver while intimating Huey Newton is useful only as a drawing card. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]It is recommended this directive ... be mailed personally to Huey Newton with a short anonymous note. The note would indicate the writer, a Community Worker in Philadelphia for the BPP, was incensed over the suggestion Huey was only being used by the Party after founding it, and wanted no part of this Chapter if it was slandering its leaders in private. 75 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]provoke Cleaver to openly question Newton's leadership ... It is felt that distance and lack of personal contact between Newton and Cleaver do offer a counterintelligence opportunity that should be probed. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]In view of the BPP's unsuccessful attempt to convene a Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention (RPCC), it is suggested that each division which had individuals attend the RPCC write numerous letters to Cleaver criticizing Newton for his lack of leadership. It is felt that, if Cleaver received a sufficient number of complaints regarding Newton it might . . . create dissension that later could be more fully exploited. 85 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Mr. Cleaver, [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Here is a letter I sent to Huey Newton. I'm sincere and hope you can do something to set him right and get him off his duff. 86c [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Dear Revolutionary Comrade: [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The people's revolution in America was greatly impeded and the stature of th Black Panther Party, both nationally and internationally, received a major setback as an outcome of the recent Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention. . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention did little, if anything, to organize our forces to move against the evils of capitalism, imperialism and racism. Any unity or solidarity which existed between the Black Panther Party and the white revolutionary movement before the Convention has now gone down the tube. . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The responsibility of any undertaking as meaningful and important to the revolution . . . should not have been delegated to the haphazard ways of [name deleted] whose title of Convention Coordinator . . . places him in the . . . position of receiving the Party's wrath . . . Huey Newton himself (should) have assumed command . . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]The Black Panther Party has failed miserably. No longer can the Party be looked upon as the "Vanguard of the Revolution." [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Yours in Revolution, [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0]Lawrence Thomas,
Students for a Democratic Society. [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]Things around headquarters are dreadfully disorganized with the comrade commander not making proper decisions. The newspaper is in a shambles. No one knows who is in charge. The foreign department gets no support . . . I fear there is rebellion working just beneath the surface . . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]We must either get rid of the Supreme Commander [Newton] or get rid of the disloyal members. 87 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]The present chaotic situation within the BPP must be exploited and recipients must maintain the present high level of counterintelligence activity. You should each give this matter priority attention and immediately furnish Bureau recommendations . . . designed to further aggravate the dissention within BPP leadership and to fan the apparent distrust by Newton of anyone who questions his wishes. 88 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]This dissention coupled with financial difficulties offers an exceptional opportunity to further disrupt, aggravate and possibly neutralize this organization through counterintelligence. In light of above developments this program has been intensified ... and selected offices should ... increase measurably the pressure on the BPP and its leaders. 89 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]Eldridge: [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][Name deleted] told me Huey talked with you Friday and what he had to say. I'm disgusted with things here and the fact that you are being ignored.... It makes me mad to learn that Huey now has to lie to you. I'm referring to his fancy apartment which he refers to as the throne. . . . [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]I can't risk a call as it would mean certain expulsion. You should think a great deal before sending Kathleen. If I could talk to you I could tell you why I don't think you should. 95 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]fortunes of the BPP are at a low ebb.... Newton is positive there is an informant in Headquarters. Cleaver feels isolated in Algeria and out of contact, with Newton and the Supreme Commander's [Newton's] secretary (Connie Matthews) has disappeared and been denounced. 96 [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-+0][SIZE=-1][SIZE=+0]We did not know who to believe about what, so the general effect, not only of the letters but the whole situation in which the letters were part was creating uncertainty. It was a very bizarre feeling. 96a [/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]