Inside the panther revolution: The black freedom movement and the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California

Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements in America

Volumn , Issue , 2005, Pages 300-317

  Spencer, Robyn Ceanne ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84898242830     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (65)

1. See Komozi Woodard, A Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and Black Power Politics (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999);
2. Timothy B. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999);
3. Yohuru Williams, Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power and the Black Panthers in New Haven (New York: Brandywine, 2000);
4. Jeanne F. Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, eds., Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles outside the South, 1940-1980 (New York:Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
5. Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson, A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America (New York: Broadway Books, 1998), 297.
6. Rod Bush, ed., The New Black Vote: Politics and Power in Four American Cities (San Francisco: Synthesis, 1984), 320.
7. Marilynn S. Johnson, The Second Gold Rush: Oakland and the East Bay in World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 52.
8. Donald Hausler, "Blacks in Oakland: 1852-1987," [photocopy], 122,Public History Room, Oakland Public Library, Lakeshore Branch, Oakland, California;
9. Johnson, Second Gold Rush, 214;
10. Hausler, "Blacks in Oakland," 117.
11. Edward Hayes, Power Structure and Urban Policy: Who Rules in Oakland? (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 108.
12. Hausler, "Blacks in Oakland," 125-26.
13. Hayes, Power Structure and Urban Policy, 44-45.
14. Hausler, "Blacks in Oakland," 176;
15. Hayes, Power Structure and Urban Policy, 46.
16. Ten Years of Segregation in Oakland, folder: "Oakland Schools Racial Prob-lems-Other Than Clippings," Oakland Public Library, Lakeshore Branch, Public History Room, Oakland, California.
17. "Crime Commission Reveals Local Cops' Brute Methods," California Voice, 13 January 1950, 1, 2;The police chief at the time did not acknowledge that a problem existed and few reforms were made;
18. see Hausler, "Blacks in Oakland," 122.The Sun-Reporter was at the forefront in reporting complaints of brutality.
19. See "Police Brutality, Old Story," Sun-Reporter, 26 February 1955, 8;
20. "What's Wrong with Our Police Department," Sun-Reporter, 7 June 1958, 6;
21. "New Police Brutality Cases Anger Parents: Ask Police Chief and Mayor 'Stop Brutality,'" Sun-Reporter, 14 November 1959,1;
22. "Victim of Police Brutality?" Sun-Reporter, 4 March 1961, 1, 5.
23. Hayes, Power Structure and Urban Policy, 36-39.
24. Personnel Division, Oakland Police Department to Chief C. R. Gain, 16 February 1973,folder: "Vacancy Projection and Recruiting Data," Oakland Public Library, Lakeshore Branch, Public History Room, Oakland, California.
25. Bobby Seale, A Lonely Rage: The Autobiography of Bobby Seale (New York: Times Books, 1978), 19;
26. Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (Baltimore, Md.: Black Classic Press, 1991), 4;
27. Huey Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (New York: Writers and Readers, 1973), 13-15.
28. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 110.
29. Seale, Seize the Time, 59-63.
30. Judy [Hart] Jaunita, interview by author, 20 October 1997, tape recording, Oakland, California.
31. Sherwin Forte, interview by author, 9 October 1997, tape recording, Oakland, California.
32. Their actions were not without precedent. Other community groups had also begun to monitor police activities in Oakland. The Oakland Direct Action Committee (ODAC), founded by Mark Comfort, began patrolling Oakland's black communities in the summer of 1966. Mark Comfort, "Conditions in the Oakland Ghetto," Interview by Elsa Knight Thompson," 1967, cassette E2BB1309,Pacifica Radio Archives, Los Angeles, California.
33. Emory Douglas, interview by author, 9 October 1997, tape recording, San Francisco, California.
34. Forte, interview by author.
35. Tarika Lewis, interview by author, 16 October 1997, transcript, Oakland, California.
36. Elendar Barnes, interview by author, 25 September 1997, tape recording, Brooklyn, New York.
37. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, 151.
38. Forte, interview by author.
39. Bobby Seale, interview by author, 13 October 1997, tape recording, Oakland, California; "FBI Intelligence Summary-Nov. 15-22, 1968," box 65,Huey P.Newton Foundation Papers, Special Collections, Green Library, Stanford University, California (hereafter, HPN Papers); n.b.: I accessed the HPN Papers at Stanford University in 1996 when the archival recording process was just beginning, and therefore box and folder titles, contents, and so on, may be different.
40. Ruth Beckford, interview by author, 16 October 1997, tape recording, Oakland, California.
41. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars against Domestic Dissent (Boston: South End, 1990), 124-25.
42. Memo re: Agenda Items to be discussed, May 22, 1973,folder: "Central Committee Info," box 10, HPN Papers; "Notes from Central Body Meeting, October 2, 1972," folder: "Central Committee Info," box 10, HPN Papers.
43. Folder: "Central Committee Info," box 10, HPN Papers.
44. James Abron, interview by author, 6 October 1997, tape recording, Oakland, California.
45. Bobby McCall, interview by author, 14 October 1997, tape recording, San Francisco, California.
46. Charles Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 364.
47. Michele Russell, "Conversation with Ericka Huggins. Oakland, California, 4/20/77," 12-13,box 1, HPN Papers.
48. "Panthers Elected to Berkeley Anti-Poverty Program," box 2, HPN Papers.
49. "Bobby Seale campaign info," box 14A, HPN Papers.
50. "Innerparty Memorandum #3," box, 14, HPN Papers.
51. "Panther Protection: Party Will Start Escort Service: Officials Ponder Motives," Sacramento Bee, 10 December 1972,folder: "US v. Hilliard re: Wiretap," box 26, HPN Papers; "Panthers elected to Berkeley Anti-Poverty Program," box 2, HPN Papers.
52. Black Panther Party, ed., CoEvolution Quarterly, no. 3 (fall 1974): 29;
53. "Bud-get, 1971," folder: "Black Panther Party No-Profit Corporations Including Black United Front," box 34, HPN Papers.
54. February 1976 article, folder: "OCS Brochure," box 4, HPN Papers.
55. "July 1977 Corporate Overview EOC," folder: EOC, box 4, HPN Papers.
56. Folder: "Montclair Article," box 5, HPN Papers.
57. Voter Registration Counts, folder: "Voter Registration Elections Committee," box 7, HPN Papers.
58. Folder: "Bobby Seale Campaign Info," box 14A, HPN Papers.
59. "Seale's 'Revolt' Plans," San Francisco Examiner, 12 November 1972, 1.
60. "Election Victory Statement," folder: "Bobby Seale Campaign Info," box 14, HPN Papers.
61. Folder: "Wilson's Donation List," box 17, HPN Papers.
62. "Memo to: The Servant From: Comrade JoNina Abron," folder: "Reports on Comrades," box 14, HPN Papers.
63. "Memo to: Huey, From: Dale re: Women in the Perty [ sic]," 4 October 1977, folder: "Reports on Comrades," box 14, HPN Papers.
64. 1 May 1979 Report, folder: "Reports on Comrades," box 14, HPN Papers.
65. Box 15, HPN Papers, folder "West Magazine Interview with Huey P. by Digby Diehl-LA Times," 30.