Independent Lens

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montage of voices

The Black Panthers Black Panther Black Panther Movement The Black Panthers were absolutely unique. -

Female voiceover

Tonight on Independent Lens A special presentation of Stanley Nelson's critically acclaimed documentary on the Black Panther party. Attack dogs, fire hoses. This is what we were going through on a daily basis. Stop brutalizing our community or we're gonna drive em' out. -

Female voiceover

A group who's motives and actions seem just as relevant today as they did fifty years ago. We tried to change some of the clear gender roles. Women had guns, and men cooked breakfast for children. -

Female voiceover

But this controversial movement had powerful enemies. The FBI wanted to destroy the Panthers. This was all-out attack. Every significant office was gonna be raided, bombed, shot. They were coming to kill us. -

Female voiceover

Go inside the rise and fall of the Black Panthers. We were making history and it wasn't nice and clean. It was complex. -

Female voiceover

The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution, now, only on Independent Lens. uplifting music music -

Erika Huggins

There's an old story, and it's used in various cultures, where a group of blind men approach an elephant and try to describe him. The first man approaches the elephant, touches his side, and says, "It feels like a wall!" The next man touches a tusk and says, "The elephant must be like a spear." Another blind man touches the trunk and says, "It feels like a snake". And that is quite often what happens with our descriptions of the Black Panther Party. We know the party we were in, and not the entire thing. We were making history, and it wasn't nice and clean. It wasn't easy, it was complex. -

Don Cornelius

From Chicago Illinois, the Mighty Chi-Lites. For God's sake, you got to give more power to the people There's some people up there hoggin' everything -

Jamal Joseph

The thing that led to the Panthers was what we were seeing on television every day, attack dogs, fire hoses, bombings. -

H. Rap Brown

We stand on the eve of a Black revolution, brothers. -

Jamal

Now we had the emergence of voices within the community, that were saying, "We're not gonna continue "to turn the other cheek." -

Stokely Carmichael

You tell them white folk in Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead. We want Black power. We want Black power. For God's sake you got to Give more power to the people For God's sake -

Carson

This was a revolutionary time. 50 countries in the world gained their independence in the decade before the founding of the Black Panther Party. This is the time when people are getting drafted to go and fight in Vietnam. So if somebody's coming and saying, well if you're gonna fight, why not fight right here in L.A., or Oakland, you know? That made a lot of sense. (gunshots) -

Elaine Brown

We couldn't be absent, and see what we saw. We couldn't unsee it. I was a cocktail waitress in a white strip club two years before I joined the Black Panther Party. How did that happen? The rage was in the streets, it was everywhere. Give more power to the people -

Male voiceover

We not gon' get nothin'. Not by sitting around here, doing these sit-in demonstrations and that. People not gonna do anything. -

Reporter

Well how are they going to? -

Male voiceover

By violence! Violence! An uprising, having a revolution. Let's put blood, you know, let everybody bleed a little bit. More power to the people For God's sake Give more power to the people For God's sake -

NBC News voiceover

Relations between police and negros throughout the country are getting worse. (sirens) One of the cities most troubled by animosity between police and negroes is Oakland, California. People always talk about freedom, and what that means. During that time period, being Black in America, meant that you didn't walk down the street with the same sense of safety, and the same sense of privilege as a white person. -

Bill Calhoun

There was absolutely no difference in the way the police treated us in Mississippi, than they did in California. They may not have called you "nigger" every day, but they treated you the same way they did in Mississippi. -

Wayne Pharr

Police jump on you, beat you up, put the gun at your head. This is what we were going through on a daily basis. -

Elbert Howard

When I first met Huey and Bobby, they were in the process of forming an organization. for primarily self-defense. We didn't plan to have a nationwide organization or anything like that, we were organizing, dealing with the problems in Oakland. -

Huey Newton

We use the black panther as our symbol, because the nature of a panther. Panther doesn't strike anyone but, when he's assailed upon that he'll back up first. But if the aggressor continues, then he'll strike out. -

Sherwin Forte

Huey had studied the law. And in Oakland at that particular time, anyone could carry a firearm, who did not have a felony conviction at the time. The firearm could not be concealed, it had to be in the open.

Huey Newton

The California Penal Code section 12020 through 12027, and also the Second Amendment of the Constitution, guarantees the citizen a right to bear arms on public property. -

Elbert

Huey said, "We're gonna carry our guns, "and we're gonna follow the police, "and if they stop someone, "we're gonna stop, we're gonna maintain a legal distance, "and we're gonna observe these so-called law officers "in the performance of their duties." funk music -

Emory Douglas

We were in the car, driving around, having fun. We would be lookin' at the pretty women, chasing the sistas. Then something might happen, and then all of the sudden the focus would just become serious. foreboding music -

Voiceover

We're coming around the corner (mumbles) where you are. -

Sherwin Forte

We would stop, we would get out of the cars. We would walk up to the scene. Those who had rifles, would carry them in the open. Clearly visible. We would stand at a distance, where the police couldn't say they were interfering with their arrest or their detention of the individual. And make sure that there was no brutality. -

Elbert Howard

We stood back with our weapons, ready to throw down if necessary. They would take the weapon and pass it across like this. And it would sweep right over the officer. -

Sherwin Forte

No one would do anything until a policeman ejected a round in the chamber. Then we would all eject rounds in the chamber, and all up and down the street you could hear this. (imitates rifles clicking) And then when the traffic stop or the incident's over, they bring the weapon across by you like this, and get back in their car and drive off. It was pretty intimidating. -

Sherwin

We referred to ourselves as "the vanguard", and we were setting by example, a new course, that we wanted the entire community to follow. foreboding music -

Man

No one wants to touch the legitimate hunter. But we've got to protect society from nuts with guns. -

Don Mulford

When bands of armed people with loaded weapons can move about our streets, intimidating and frightening citizens, then I think we should act, and we intend to act. It's my intention to make it a misdemeanor, to have loaded rifles and shotguns and weapons in public places. -

Bobby Seale

The police department had went to a local congressman to get a bill written, so Huey called me up and says, "We have to go to Sacramento." It was conceived as a media event that the press is always at the California State Capitol. -

Sherwin

No one really wanted Huey himself to go, because Huey was kind of a quick-tempered firebrand. Bobby was a little more cautious. And he was like, "Look, you know, "you've been great so far, but you might blow it up there. "Bad things could happen." foreboding music -

Sherwin

We caravanned to Sacramento. I think there were about 30 of us altogether. And most of us had some weapon. -

Emory

We was on the State Capitol on the lawn. And Ronald Reagan, then the Governor of the State of California was there, about 10 feet away from us, holding a press conference, with these young, like parochial school kids. And what happened is soon as the press seen us, they gravitated from Ronald Reagan over to where the Panthers was. -

Bobby

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense calls upon the American people in general, and the Black people in particular, to take careful note of the racist California legislature, which is now 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. -

Reporter

The State Assembly was in the midst of a heated debate, when the young negroes, armed with loaded rifles, shotguns, and pistols, marched into the Capitol. -

Bobby

When we got into the halls, you have to imagine, there's a hundred cameras, still cameras, print media people, backing up, and I'm saying, where is the spectator section? And the press saying, "This way Bobby". Some party members got ahead of me with shotguns, pistol, and wound up on the actual floor of the California State Legislature. -

Reporter

They're heavily armed, whether their weapons are loaded or not, nobody seems to know. tense music -

Reporter

The armed group, who said they were members of the Black Panther Party, retreated to a service station several blocks from the Capitol. -

Emory

I remember this one cop came down on a motorcycle, and he seen all these guns, and he got all on the, on the thing. (sirens blaring) And that's when they started to swoop down on us from everywhere. -

Emory

You have no right to take my gun away from me. You don't know the Constitution right? -

Cop

Sure we do. We're well aware of the Constitution now. -

Emory

I would like to have my gun back. -

Reporter

Why do you believe the legislature is racist? -

Emory

Don't you know, you're a part of it. Isn't it obvious, the white system? -

Sherwin

The news got to everyone in the Black community who had a television, everyone who had a radio. It was in every newspaper across the nation. It put us on center stage. -

Ronald Reagan

I don't think that loaded guns is the way to solve a problem that should be solved between people with goodwill. And anyone who would approve of this kind of demonstration must be out of their mind. upbeat funk music -

Michael McCarty

When I heard about Sacramento, I was like damn! These brothers are bad! They're here up in Sacramento in the Capitol? Packin'?

funky music

super fly -

Mohammed Mubarek

The boldness, the courageousness about it, the arrogance of it. That put a whole new face on things. I said, man I wanna be a part of this, whatever that is! -

Tarika Lewis

Yeah I walked into the office and told 'em I wanted to join the Black Panther Party, and they kinda laughed. I didn't know that there weren't any other women, you know, in the party at that time. Then I asked them, could I have a gun? -

Ericka Huggins

I was a student at Lincoln University outside Philly when I first heard about the Black Panther Party. I found my friend, John Huggins. And I said we need to leave this stupid campus, we have work to do. We got in John Huggins' little hoopty car, we drove across the country from New York, and when we got to the West Coast, we joined the Black Panther Party. -

Man V.O

What we want, what we believe. -

Woman V.O

Point number one, we want freedom. -

Woman V.O

We want decent housing. -

Man V.O

We want an education for our people. -

Man V.O

We want an immediate end to police brutality -

Landon Williams

People joined for all kinds of reasons. But the Panthers had a 10-point platform or program that really was sort of like the fundamental, sort of organizing tool, and orientation tool. -

Jamal

The Civil Rights Movement was basically a Southern movement. So when you had an organization like the Panthers, who were taking on things like housing, and welfare and health, that was stuff that people in the North could relate to, and rally behind. -

Phyllis Jackson

Our attack was not only against white supremacy, but it was also about capitalism. We actually thought that the way in which capitalism created a working class that was kept absolutely destitute, that was wrong. So we took the position that in order for us to be free that system had to be dismantled, we could not be free in a system that oppressed us in the first place. So you have to get rid of that system. upbeat funk music -

Bill Calhoun

We were not after the church folks, we were not after the Muslim folks. We wanted the brother on the corner, the brother who's getting his head banged in every weekend by the police. We wanted the brother who's going to jail, just snatched out of his car, for a traffic ticket 'cause he was Black. That's who we were after. -

Ericka Huggins

We would get calls from Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh North Carolina, Washington D.C., Bridgeport Connecticut, every city small or large you can think of, wanted a chapter of the Black Panther Party. -

Kathleen Cleaver

We would send members of the organization to help connect them to us. But it was destabilizing in the sense it was somewhat chaotic, the way the party was growing, and it was too fast, and too big. -

Bill

There was no screening process, there was no "why are you here?" "What do you expect to have happen while you're here?" "What are you trying to accomplish?" There was none of that. Members came from whoever just came in off the street. The downside of course was, we had no idea who any of these people were. We didn't have time for a whole lot of, who are you, what are you doing? We need, you wanna do this? Fine, here, go. old-timey newsreel music This week on Firing Line, my guest is Mr. Eldridge Cleaver, the information minister of the Black Panthers. -

Mark Kurlansky

Eldridge Cleaver comes out with this book, Soul on Ice, a series of his essays from prison, and the New York TImes says that it's brilliant, it gets onto the bestseller list. So when Eldridge joined the Panthers, the Panthers had gotten themselves a star, a literary star. -

Eldridge

I've been called by the National Review, the Goebbels of the Black Panther Party. And all of this is an attempt to undermine the party, or to give it a bad presentation to the public. -

Clayborne Carson

Huey Newton always had this vision. He was the visionary of our party. Bobby Seale, he had the personality. Eldridge Cleaver was the person who made the party credible to Black intellectuals, to the white left intellectuals. You know, all of them loved Eldridge Cleaver, they understood what he was talking about, or at least they thought they did. -

Felipe Luciano

Eldridge had this incredible ability to encapsulate a thought in a few sentences, and form it into an artistic statement that pointed right at, stabbed right into the heart of the enemy, and he did that all of the time. (applause) Now, was he always correct, no. -

Elridge

I say that Ronald Reagan is a punk, a sissy and a coward. (laughter) And I challenge you to a duel. I challenge you. I challenge you to a duel, to the death or until he says, "Uncle Eldridge". -

Felipe

Was he insane? ---- yeah! That boy was crazy! And he got a lot of people hurt! -

Eldridge

And I give him his choice of weapon. He could use the gun, a knife, a baseball bat, or a marshmallow, and I'll beat him to death with a marshmallow. (laughter) That's how I feel about him, see? -

Marvin X

I said, "They are not going to be able to control Eldridge." Eldridge was a Rottweiler, uncontrollable personality. Who could be in an organization with Eldridge, and he not be the leader? Nobody (laughs). And that's basically how it ended up. foreboding music -

Reporter

A pool of blood marks the spot where 23-year-old Officer John Frey was found fatally wounded from four gunshots. The shooting happened at five AM, approximately where I'm standing on 7th Street, in the heart of Oakland's negro ghetto. The suspect, charged with murder and attempted murder, is Huey Newton, 25-year-old leader of the Black Panthers for Self-Defense. Newton is hospitalized in serious condition, and under heavy guard. -

Tarika

We went up to Highland Hospital, and it looked like every police in America was there. We didn't know for sure if Huey was dead or alive. We didn't sleep that night. Nobody slept then, I don't think. -

Lise Pearlman

As he was handcuffed to a gurney going into surgery, he was arrested for murder, and expected to face execution. -

Kathleen

A lot of the other Panthers were in jail because of the protest that they'd done in Sacramento. So Eldridge was the only available spokesperson for the Black Panther Party. -

Eldridge

The Black Panther Party demands that Huey P. Newton be set free. And we wish to make it very clear, that if he is not set free, there is little hope of avoiding open, armed war, in the streets of California, and sweeping across this nation. -

Kathleen

We said well, Huey's in jail, he's facing the death penalty, what can we do? I think the initial slogan was "Huey must be set free". Eventually it got shortened to "Free Huey". Black is beautiful, oh free Huey Set our warrior free, free Huey Black is beautiful, oh free Huey Set our warrior free, free Huey -

Kathleen

It became a huge movement. Free Huey Set our warrior free, free Huey Black is beautiful, oh free Huey Set our warrior free, free Huey Black is beautiful, oh free Huey -

Reporter

Today there were a number of free Huey Newton rallies across the nation. You did not have to be a member of the Black Panther Party, all you had to be was a human being. People of all kinds took up that cry for Huey. -

Protesters

Free Huey! Free Huey! Free Huey! Free Huey! Free Huey! -

Bobby Seal

Examiner made a report back here, in the last Sunday's paper, that we were anti-white, that we "hold no bones", this is a quote, "pick no bones about being anti-white". This is boldfaced lie. We don't hate nobody because of their color, we hate oppression! We hate murder of Black people in our communities! (applause) -

Kathleen

The people just turned out, they wanted to help, they wanted to give us money, they wanted us to come speak. It was this gathering of connection to the Black Panthers that was different to before. We got to free Huey We got to free Huey, free him We got to free Huey Got to free Huey, everybody Got to free Huey, oh We got to free Huey Free Huey -

Ericka

We were a phenomenon. The way that we walked and talked and dressed, we had swagger. Got to free Huey Got to free Huey, everybody now -

Akua Njeri

It was a rhythm (snaps fingers). It was a rhythm to how we spoke, it was a rhythm to how we walked, and the people recognized that. We stood out. Outside of that, on the street, they probably like, "Ooh that's a butt-ugly person, ooh they ugly!" But in the Party, it was just something that gave them this tremendous sex appeal. -

Panthers

Free Huey! -

Jamal

The Panthers didn't invent the idea of Black is beautiful. People had started wearing afros and dashikis, but one of the things the Panthers did was that urban Black is beautiful. And that look just blew people away. -

Julian Bond

If you were a young Black man living in the city anywhere, you wanted to be like this. You wanted to dress like this, you wanted to act like this, you wanted to talk like this, you wanted to be this. It's a standard of aggressiveness, of militance, of just forcefulness that, the sort of standard we haven't had in the past. (Panthers chanting) -

Interviewer

But figuratively speaking, you're not about to become a Panther? No, not today or tomorrow at any rate. Maybe the day after. Am I Black enough for ya? Am I Black enough for ya? Am I Black enough for ya? Am I Black enough for ya? -

Kathleen

This brother here, myself, all of us, were born with our hair like this, and we just wear it like this. Reason for it you might say, is like a new awareness among Black people, that their own natural appearance, physical appearance is beautiful. Black people are aware now, they're proud of it. It's pleasing to them. Dig it, isn't it beautiful? All right! (laughter) I got to stay Black Black enough for ya I got to stay Black Black enough for ya Gonna move on up, don't stop no We ain't never gonna stop it no more I got to stay Black Black enough for ya -

Kathleen

You're talking about people who are teenagers, 17, 18, 19, 20, that's the bulk of the Panthers are teenagers. So the fact that we were so young, and the fact that this hadn't happened before, I'm not certain we recognized how startling it looked to other people. -

Voiceover

Dear Mr. Newton, I'm a 13-year-old Black girl, and I want to be a Black Panther. I wish you would fill me in. Does it matter what your religion is? What are some qualifications to be a Black Panther? P.S., write me back personally. -

Rita Williams-Garcia

I was taught to be proper. Behave yourself, you're going out in public, to always know that the white man was listening. With the Black Panthers coming to the scene, it was just a completely different message. As a 12-year-old, you know, what? You had this whole other portrayal of self. And just digging it! Come on up eight by eight Without no awareness We ain't too late Am I Black Black enough for ya -

Kathleen

Photographers took advantage, I mean they took our pictures, they put them on newspapers, they put them on magazines, and that look that we projected, you know, the big afro, the leather jacket, the shades, that became a hit! groovy music And obviously, photographers were drawn to the Panthers. -

David Frost

Well we hear a great deal about the Black Panthers. Black Panther. Black Panthers. The Black Panthers. The Black Panthers were absolutely unique. The Black Panthers. The Black Panthers. Black Panthers. Black Panther movement. Black Panther Party. Black Panthers. -

Jim

I think Black Panthers really understood the media. They knew what we were after, they knew what we were focusing on. The Panthers has amounted to-- Black Panther Party. Many people know of the Panthers. -

Jim

You might say that we exploited the Black Panthers, but I think there's a lot of evidence that they, they used us to their advantage. They were able to establish their legitimacy as a voice of protest. The chairman of the Black Panther Party and here he is. (applause) We have a film of your breakfast program. Is this without sound also? Uh, yeah I think so. All right, will you comment on this? Yes, I will. funk music -

Bobby

Now this is a free breakfast for children program. And they're preparing the food there early in the morning, it's about two hours working in the morning. These party members primarily set the whole program up, and then we get involved as many of the community people as we can. -

Voiceover

Who all wants cereal? Come on in, little brother, come on in little sisters, ya'll can sit down and get something to eat. -

Voiceover

Let's get some grub. -

David Lemieux

Studies came out saying that children that didn't have a good breakfast in the morning, were less attentive at school, and less inclined to do well, and suffered from fatigue, I mean there was all sorts of scientific reasons to have a good breakfast in the morning. And we just simply took that information, and a program was developed serving breakfast to children. -

Rita

After my father came home from Vietnam, and was discharged from the Army and couldn't get work, we were going through a very hard time, food was kind of, you know, just the everyday necessities were hard. I was embarrassed to go, but when you went, you know, kids are all laughing. And then all the sudden the stigma, or whatever you thought was a stigma, went away. And you really got to see that yes, this is what the Black Panthers are. We were showing love for our people. You know, if you have a child, if you know that hey, these men and women are gonna feed my child in the morning, that's a big deal. -

Beverly Gage

Breakfast program actually really caught on. It served about 20,000 meals a week to young people in 19 different communities, so it wasn't a fly-by-night thing, it really, actually was making a difference. -

Donna Murch

Just at the moment that the Panthers are turning towards survival programs, towards free breakfast programs, free clinics, and free food programs that will help them reconnect with the Black community and build their membership, and repudiating this earlier, advocacy of armed self-defense and police patrols, J. Edgar Hoover attacks the Panthers. Hoover saw any form of Black organizing as a threat to the status quo as he saw it. Change that would have involved equality, that would have put power in Black people's hands, was very much a threat to Hoover.

Jeff Haas

He started something called COINTELPRO, directed against what he called, "Black nationalist hate groups". COINTELPRO was the abbreviation of Counter Intelligence Program -

Voiceover

The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of Black nationalists. -

Wesley

Neutralize could mean making somebody an informant, or putting somebody in jail, or having somebody killed. Hoover was sending letters to various offices, almost on a weekly basis to come up with new ideas to go after members of the Black Panther Party. -

Jeff

245 of the 290 COINTELPRO actions were against the Black Panthers. One of the mandates was, do not make this program public, do not tell anybody that it exists. -

Scot Brown

FBI has a memo that states the objectives of counterintelligence operations. One is to prevent the rise of what they called a Black messiah, a single charismatic leader that could unify the movement. They wanted to prevent the appeal of radical political movement to Black youth, and they wanted to isolate these groups, to prevent them from gaining respectability in the Black community. And they were very explicit in stating these goals. We were followed every day, we were harassed, our phones were tapped, our families were harassed. My parents were both visited by the FBI. -

Voiceover

We must create suspicion with respect to their respective spouses, and your imagination and resourcefulness must be employed, in order for the Bureau to be successful. -

Landon

They would send letters to my wife, and the letters would say that "Landon is sleeping with this woman or sleeping with that woman, or sleeping with the other woman." Then when I got arrested, the FBI came to me and said, "Ha, look, we got all this evidence, "all these people are gonna flip and turn on you. "We're gonna execute you. "Because we got you now and we're gonna execute you, "But, if you will be an informant for us, "Then we'll let you go." -

William O'Neal

My recruitment by the FBI was very efficient, Very simple really. I'd stolen a car and went joyriding over the state limit. And they had a potential case against me, and I was looking for an opportunity to work it off. And a couple of months later that opportunity came when the FBI agent, Roy Mitchell, asked me to go down to the local office of the Black Panther Party and try to gain membership. -

Beverly

The FBI wanted to destroy the Panthers. They absolutely saw the Panthers as the vanguard of a very, very threatening and violent revolutionary movement. They absolutely wanted this organization to be destroyed. -

Ron Freeman

The FBI was coming around my mother-in-law and my wife. And for me to stop that kind of activity, I stopped going home. And a lot of other people did also, to protect their families. You could kinda in a sense say that we abandoned our families for the Panther party. -

Jamal

You might have a three-bedroom apartment that might have 10 Panthers staying there, sharing bedrooms. The living room was basically also a bedroom. -

Blair Anderson

We called them "Panther pads". Somebody would be on 24-hour security. Somebody was responsible for cleaning the place. Often it was a rotating list of responsibilities. It was a sense of community that we created. Everybody I see are going their way They don't realize what's going on today -

Ron

The rank and file was the everyday members that did the daily work of the party. They're the ones that made the party, the backbreakers, the ones you put all the work on. We got to live together, ohh ohh We got to love each other -

Jamal

Panthers realized we have to live together to protect one another, and we have to also be committed to this thing, to this cause, to this movement, 24 hours a day. -

Mohammed

The rank and file, whatever orders that came down from our captains and lieutenants, we did that because that spirit was in us to stay in this movement to our death. Or if it meant going to jail. So whatever they told us to do, we did it. Live together Love each other Stay together, yeah baby -

Ora Williams

I was in labor, cooking breakfast for the breakfast program. So I was between contractions, flipping pancakes. -

Phyllis

I would spend all the day answering the phones. Even after I had my son, when I came back to work. I used to have to jump him up and down really heavy, 'cause he just wouldn't stop crying as I'm answering the phone. -

Ora

You name it, I cleaned freezers with a toothpick. -

Phyllis

That's how I answered the phone, Black Panther Party National Headquarters, Black Panther Party Central Headquarters, can I help you? -

Female voiceover

Dear Huey, when I joined the party, I was thrilled about becoming part of an organization that believes in the equality of men and women. It bothers me, but there are brothers who still view women as sexual objects. We should have no men in the Black Panther Party who feel this way, or women, for that matter. -

Clayborne

One of the ironies of the Black Panther Party is that the image is the Black male with the jacket and the gun, but the reality is that the majority of the rank and file, by the end of the 60s are women. Everybody knows that all the people don't have liberties, all the people don't have freedom, all the people don't have justice, and all the people don't have power, so that means none of us do. -

Elaine

The Black Panther Party certainly had a chauvinist tone. And so we tried to change some of the clear gender roles, so that women had guns, and men cooked breakfast for children. Did we overcome it, of course we didn't. As I like to say, we didn't get these brothers from revolutionary heaven. -

Omar Barbour

The paper was the lifeblood of the Party, that's how we survived. We sold the papers, 25 cents back then. It cost maybe 12 cents to print it, the other 12.5% went to the various chapters and branches. That's how we basically survived. -

Bill

The party paper went places party members would never get to go to. And be reaching people we would never see. But the paper got there some kind of way or other. So it was very important to get the paper out. Los Angeles, 2850. New Haven, 3000. -

Bill

When we were loading boxes, or bundling papers, or whatever we were doing, we did it in an assembly-line fashion. And we would just start singing, Ain't no mountain high enough Ain't no valley low enough To keep me from getting this paper to you Or whatever we would do. We would change the lyric just a little bit, you know, It's your thing, do what you wanna do Why do you keep tellin' me What the, and then we'd sing, what to do. -

Voiceover

We demand decent housing fit for shelter of human beings! -

Ora

In the paper, everything came together. You had the platform, the 10-point platform was in there. You know, it was the first thing you see when you open up the paper. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black community, that's what we're talking about, like number three, number four, decent housing, fit to shelter human beings, you dig? And then we got... It explained who we were, and what we were about, what our goals were. -

Voiceover

Tell me ma'am, do you read the Black Panther Party newspaper? Yes I do. -

Voiceover

Why? Because I am Black and I'm proud. -

Voiceover

What do you like best about the paper? Because they're proud people and I love 'em. Black is you black is me black is us black is free Black is me black is me black is us black is free Black is us black is me black is us black is free -

Felipe

For me there was only one reason to read the Panther newspaper, and that was to see Emory's illustrations. His paintings, his caricatures, his illustrations, literally gave us the story. Black is you, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is me, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is us, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is free -

Emory

The community responded to the artwork because it was a reflection of them in the artwork itself. Because you're putting them on the stage as the characters and the heroes in the images. They could see their brother, or they could see their uncle in the images. Black is me, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is us, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is you, black is me, black is us Through the breakfast program, and the other programs that we had, health clinics, people come in and talk about how they can't pay their bills, or they need childcare. That teardrop symbolized that pain that I observed, even through that pain, there was a strength and determination, and conviction to still battle on. So I was trying to put that into the artwork itself. Black is us, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is free, black is me -

Felipe

Emory was our social realism. He gave you a sense of bravery, resilience, courage, and most of all, beauty. That was what I loved about Emory. Black is me, black is us, black is free Black is me, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is us, black is me, black is us, black is free Black is free It was Huey and Bobby's idea to draw a pig drawing that would symbolize the police. So the first pig I did was one on the four hooves. It just come to me one night, why don't I stand it up on two hooves, put a gun bandolier on with a holster and a badge, and flies around it, and that became the symbol, icon of the pig. It took on a life of its own. Brotherhoods against crime Off the pig Time to pick up the gun Off the pig -

Ron McCarthy

That rhetoric didn't bother us when it was spoken by the Panthers. (protesters chanting) But when it was picked up by college students, them saying it, that definitely bothered us. Off the pig Power to the people Off the pig Power to the people -

Pat McKinley

I was a sergeant patrolling in the projects. And there was the cutest little girl. So I stopped to say hello, and I said, hi honey, how are you doing today? And she looked at me and she said, "---- you, pig!" And I thought, we have lost it man, we have flat lost it. -

Howard Saffold

Anybody that criticized the police, especially that didn't have fear of saying it publicly, made the police angry. It was us against them, that became the theme. -

Woman

We have seen the pigs on the scene. We know what he's like, we know what he's capable of. Just being a damn pig, oinkin' and beatin', and walkin' the street. -

Eldridge

The police must be brought under control by any means necessary, including through force of arms. These racist, gestapo pigs have to stop brutalizing our community or we're gonna take up guns, we're gonna drive 'em out. -

Clayborne

That tendency to keep escalating the rhetoric, that was a major part of the growth of the party, but it was also a destructive force. Because you were always upping the ante. I said guns pick up the guns Pick up the guns and put the pigs on the ground Pick up the guns, one more time! -

Clayborne

It brought all the repression down on them, before they were prepared to handle it. I just wanna deal with Blacks, and Black liberation. My scene is picking up my damn gun, and I'm a mother. Have my baby in one hand, my gun in the other, and then, I'm here mother------, to get what's mine. (sirens wailing) -

Lyndon B. Johnson

The voice that called for justice and brotherhood has been stilled. Men of all races now must join together in this hour to deny violence its victory, and to fulfill the vision of brotherhood. -

Kathleen

The effect of the death of Martin Luther King on the Panthers was overwhelming, in the sense that, once King was assassinated, and the way he was assassinated so publicly, it shattered many, many people. -

Bill

It killed their last chance for me to be peaceful with them. They had killed their last chance for negotiation. They killed the man who walked through hell, to try to get along with you, and you killed him? That was our champion. You killed whatever hope I had in you. And I have no more use for you. None. (police sirens wailing) -

Kathleen

I believe that there was a decision made that some response on the part of the Black Panther Party has to be made to what happened to King. -

Donna

Eldridge Cleaver was worried that if the Panthers didn't take decisive action, they would cease to be the vanguard. So he had this idea of actually actively attacking the police. He goes and he approaches members of the Party in Oakland, and all of the older people refused to participate. They knew that this would be suicide. But the youngest member of the Party, Little Bobby Hutton, decides to follow Eldridge into battle. -

Elbert

Little Bobby called me, "Big man, I need a weapon." I gave him a Winchester 12-gauge pump shotgun that I had. And I told him well, be careful out there. You know, watch yourself. And he said, "Okay, I will", and he left. And then first thing in the morning, I have the radio on. -

Voiceover

The Oakland police stated that they were fired upon during a routine investigation of a suspicious person, and after a short search, cornered Hutton and Eldridge Cleaver in the basement of a nearby house. -

Kathleen

A tear gas canister blew up, and the basement they were hiding in caught on fire. They decided they didn't want to burn to death, they would rather surrender. Eldridge told Bobby Hutton, "Take off all your clothes "so they can't say you're concealing a weapon. "When you surrender take off everything." But Bobby was embarrassed and he just took off his shirt. And he kept on his pants Bobby Hutton came out with his hand in the air, first member who walked out of the house, and was gunned down. foreboding music -

Elbert

My heart sank. He was only 17 years old. He was one of the first people to get killed in the Party, and so young. In essence, I felt they went out and got my little brother killed. What if I had not given him the weapon? Those are some of the demons that uh, were in my closet. -

Kathleen

Shot down like a common animal, he died a warrior for Black liberation. In the name of brotherhood and survival, remember Bobby. -

Marlon Brando

That could have been my son lying there. And I'm gonna do as much as I can. I'm gonna start right now, to inform white people, of what they don't know. For the Black Panther Party it was crisis and chaos. Because this was the first time that this had ever happened, there had been no Panther murdered by police. -

Bobby

We want non-violence, just like Martin Luther King. But nonviolence on the part of who? To sit and watch ourselves to be slaughtered like our brother? We must defend ourselves, as Malcolm X said, by any means necessary. -

Kathleen

After the loss of Bobby Hutton, Eldridge was ordered to surrender to San Francisco police to go back to prison. But on November 28th, 1968, he didn't turn himself in, and he was not to be found. -

Reporter

Mrs. Cleaver, do you know where your husband is? -

Kathleen

No. -

Reporter

When was the last time you saw him? Sunday night. -

Reporter

It's rumored that Eldridge is out of the country, do you think this is possible? No, I don't think so. -

Reporter

And so the mystery remains, where is Eldridge Cleaver? It's entirely possible that his wife and lawyer really do not know. To the law, he is simply a fugitive from justice. groovy music -

Kathleen

He had gone to Algeria. There was nothing the United States government can do to us in Algeria. They don't have diplomatic relations with Algeria. We could function openly, politically, in Algeria. So we opened our international section of the Black Panther Party. -

Mark

The Black Panthers were welcomed by all sorts of liberation movements. The North Vietnamese who were moving into a newer embassy, gave their old embassy to the Panthers, and the Black Panthers of course, loved being accepted like this. -

Yohuru Williams

In Eldridge Cleaver's successful attempt to establish an international wing, he's able to do some things that are very important. Malcolm X and other Black nationalists had talked about forging those types of alliances. The Panthers actually did it. (speaking foreign language) -

Translator

"We wish you victory in your struggle." "And hopefully see if you will be liberated by now." -

Eldridge

Tell him that I hope to receive them in Washington D.C.. -

Kathleen

At that time, America was being demonized considerably because of the war in Vietnam. So here we are, Black Americans, who are opposed to all of this, we're the counter to the United States. We were able to connect with North Koreans, Vietnamese, the Chinese, and with also many African liberation movements, and many people came to see us there. -

Eldridge

We came over here to do what we can to communicate to you what's happening in our struggle in the United States. -

Beverly

I think a lot of what draws these groups together is a kind of anti-American sentiment. If you want to really shake the American establishment, you want them to think that they are in danger, that a revolutionary new world is on its way, the Panthers are certainly the people you're going to support. Since the United States of America is the backbone of oppression in the world, the blows of each crack against the empire affair, will also aid liberation struggles in Africa, Asia, uniting America as we aid ourselves. (applause) -

News anchor

Face The Nation, a spontaneous and unrehearsed news interview with the chief of staff of the Black Panther Party, David Hilliard. Your minister of information is now in exile, Eldridge Cleaver. You speak with him often on the phone, is that correct? You know I do, they tap the phones. The phone is probably hooked up to the White House. The leaders of the party, its national leadership, sits with David Hilliard. Bobby Seale is in and out of prison, Huey Newton is in jail at this point for a number of years, and Eldridge Cleaver is in Algeria. -

Flores Forbes

David was someone who was considered a, um you could say he was a sound storekeeper. He kept the shop in order. -

David

Richard Nixon is the chief spokesman of the American people, and if the man is not responsible for the people in government, like the FBI agencies, or the local police, then he should stand up and, let the American people know that he do not endorse the kind of campaigns that's been waged against Black and other colored people in the world. lively marching band music -

H. Rap Brown

Nixon is elected with a sense of a mandate to crack down, and he feels, that it is his personal charge, after the '68 election, to repress. -

Nixon

This is a nation of laws. And as Abraham LIncoln has said, no one is above the law, no one is below the law, and we're going to enforce the law, and Americans should remember that if we're going to have law and order. -

H. Rap

The Nixon administration gives J. Edgar Hoover even more of a sense that he can repress, without restriction. -

Reporter

Do you feel the nation is in trouble? -

Hoover

I think very definitely it is. -

Reporter

What is the answer? -

Hoover

The answer is vigorous law enforcement. -

Reporter

That's the only answer? -

Hoover

That's the only answer. -

Reporter

How about justice? You hear a lot about justice with law enforcement. -

Hoover

Justice is merely incidental to law and order. -

News Anchor

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover today asserted that the Black Panthers represent the greatest internal threat to the nation. Hoover said the Panthers have perpetrated numerous assaults on police, and have engaged in violent confrontation throughout the country. -

Clayborne

When Hoover identified the Black Panther Party as the number one threat to the national security of the United States at a time when they're fighting in Vietnam? You know of course that was crazy. But it was politically very effective. And it says to law enforcement at the local level, we can take the gloves off now. We don't have to respect the civil liberties, and we can go after them with everything we've got. -

Jimi Hendrix

We're gonna do the Black Panthers' national anthem. -

Ronald

One of the executive orders of the Panther Party, was that we was to defend ourselves from unwanted attacks. To not allow the police to just forcibly come in. -

Woman

Tear gas, so here's your wadding and match. Keep this on you, okay. -

Fred Hampton

Nobody's coming in the front door, nobody. No gas. Anybody gettin' on the roof. I just wish they would come tonight. Yeah, I want 'em to come. I stand up next to a mountain I chop it down with the edge of my hand The Panthers were a criminal organization, were violent, and they wanted to kill cops. That's all I needed to know. -

Newsreporter

About 40 policemen arrived on the scene, and began surrounding the Black Panther headquarters. They were trying to change government as we know it, through terrorist activity. We took a very proactive stance in combating what we considered a terrorist organization. I think the FBI manipulated the police. The FBI arranged for the Black Panthers to get guns, through informants. They would convince the police that the Panthers had weapons. They had to go in and be ready to be shot at, so the police went in and shot at them first. -

Mohammed

You hear about raids taking place against Black Panther offices. They were coming to kill us. -

Newsreporter

Police say there was sniper fire throughout the early morning hours, so they moved in cautiously, and then began shooting. The Black Panther police shootout lasted 30 minutes. It was obvious that the government had made a decision that this was all-out attack on the Black Panther Party. Every significant office was going to be raided, going to be bombed, going to be shot, there are going to be mass arrests. -

Newsreporter

In the pre-dawn hours in Chicago today, police and negroes fought a... -

News announcer

Police and Black Panthers clash in Houston, New Orleans, and other cities. -

Kathleen

For the Black Panther Party, it was a crisis situation because we didn't have the resources to handle all these arrests and all these trials. -

Voiceover

Contribution to Panther Defense fund? Contributions to the Panther Defense Fund? They're trying to either wipe out the Panther party by jailing all the members, wiping them out economically, financially, or violently, through killing them. After all, they're just negroes you know. In other cities, the Panthers were under physical attack from police departments. But New York City was gonna handle its Panther problem differently. They created a conspiracy case that allowed them to arrest the entire leadership of the New York City Black Panther Party. -

Walter Cronkite

A New York grand jury has indicted 21 alleged Black Panthers on charges of plotting several bombings in this city tomorrow. -

Gerald Lefcourt

On April 2nd, 1969, in the pre-dawn raids, 21 Black Panthers were charged with all kinds of terrorist activity. -

News anchor

These are some of the men the police are accusing of being involved in the plot which could have wounded or killed scores of busy New Yorkers. 12 men were arrested today, two are already in jail, and seven more are still at large. And so the Panther 21 started. -

Jamal

I had just turned 16 years old, but I had already become a section leader. When they first kicked in the door of my grandmother's house at four o'clock in the morning I thought, wow, I'm important enough to be arrested, I'm a real Panther now! There was a feeling that it was a badge of honor. -

Gerald

This was the most important place in the nation at that time for the party. It was spreading all over the East Coast. From New Haven, Baltimore, everywhere, it was spreading. This group, 21 people, was the leadership of the New York area, all tied up in court with $100,000 bails, which none of them could make. -

Jamal

We were facing 360-plus years in prison. And I began to feel, and accept the fact that, I was going to spend the rest of my life in prison. -

Reporter

The Black Panther Party is riddled with informers who are intent on creating situations in order to bring forth such indictments, in an attempt to destroy the Black Panthers. Are you saying that they tried to frame them? No question about it. I mean, I told the jury that maybe the police started the Party. (protesters chanting) People who've come back to New York, are going to work full time, until the Panther 21, and the people accused, are allowed to get a fair trial. -

Jamal

We spent a lot of time building awareness and doing fundraisers, and then we had to have high-profile fundraisers because this kind of money that we needed couldn't come from the Black community. We would wind up doing fundraisers at places like Jane Fonda's townhouse, so that we could raise money for the legal defense fund. We'd all be in our leather jackets, we'd all have berets, some of us would be packin', some of us wouldn't. The only people that would speak would be the two people that was designated to speak. They would speak, the rest of us would just line the walls, fold our arms, and look like Black Panthers, you know, like we was ready to kill somebody. And them stars, they loved that ----. They just ate that ---- up, you know? -

Jamal

After a 13-month trial, where New York State spent millions of dollars, and put dozens of witnesses, and hundreds of pieces of evidence, a jury deliberated for three hours. The jury have considered all the counts and charges against the defendants, and have found them not guilty. (cheering) -

Gerald

There were 156 not guilty verdicts. It was astonishing! The courtroom erupted. The city erupted. There were people dancing in the streets, as word spread. Come on over! Juries, defendants, everybody, we're all here. 640 Broadway. -

News reporter

Most of the defendants have been in jail for more than two years, unable to raise the high bail set point. The trial lasted eight months. -

News reporter

The jury reached its verdict of innocent on all counts in less than four hours, concluding the longest criminal proceeding in New York State history. What it was on the part of the jury to me, I don't know how each individual juror feels, but together they have rejected once and for all, a society which refuses to allow change. They said you must allow people to get together and think about changing life and the way they live. And it's a beautiful victory. slow piano music playing -

Beverly

Even as the New York 21 are being acquitted, you're seeing smaller trials, other trials pop up really all over the country. Some of them result in acquittals, some of them result in convictions. But this really consumes most of the Party's energy. -

Gerald

People were afraid to join, they knew that it was infiltrated, they knew that they would be watched immediately. They were afraid of being prosecuted unjustly. Nobody wants to go near such an organization that's so hot. slow piano music playing (crowds protesting) -

Tom Hayden

I was part of planning a demonstration against Vietnam at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Bobby Seale was invited to speak. -

Bobby

The revolution in this country that's occurring, is in fact people coming forth to demand freedom. (cheering) (sirens) -

Tom

He then left, and didn't have anything to do with the demonstrations or riots or confrontations in Chicago, but he was arrested on the advice of the FBI, and he was later indicted for that speech. Bobby Seale asked to have his, to postpone the trial, 'til his lawyer, Charles Garrett, could come to Chicago. The judge refused, and then Bobby said, "Well, I'll represent myself." -

News anchor

It started when Seal demanded to cross-examine a prosecution witness, accusing the judge of denying his constitutional rights to defend himself. The judge ordered him to sit down and be quiet. But the fiery Black Panther leader continued to cry out. -

Gerald

The judge told the marshals to hold him down. And that started several days of insanity. -

Bobby

This trial is a lie. And we have a right, (unintelligible), I will defend myself. -

Gerald

He kept insisting on his right to represent himself, and a judge's response to that was to order the bailiffs to put gaffer tape over his mouth, and tie him to his chair. I mean, it couldn't have been more definitive, if they had put a sign on him saying, "slave". (laughs) You know? (muffled yelling) -

Mike

But it turned out Bobby could make noise, and say things through the gag! (muffled shouting) -

man chanting

Stop the trial, stop the trial! Stop the trial, stop the trial, stop the trial! Stop the trial, stop the trial, stop the trial! -

Mike

One of the most amazing phenomena for that time, was outside the federal court building, there was a plaza. It was right in the heart of town. Right in the middle of the loop. And these kids were coming down from the courtroom, and it was... with fire in their eyes, having just seen that madness up there. And all of the sudden, one day, this Black orator, who at that time was 20 years old, starts talking to these people, and all of the sudden, it's like a magnet. -

Male voiceover

The Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton! (applause and cheers) -

Fred

I just wanna tell you that the Chairman of the Black Panther Party is going to be ungagged, and they're going to have to take those chains off him. (applause) Bobby Seale's going through all kind of physical and mental torture, but that's all right. Because we said even before this happened. And we going to said after this, after I'm locked up, and after everybody's locked up, that you can jail revolutionaries, but you can't jail a revolution. (applause) You might run a liberator like Eldridge Cleaver out the country, but you can't run liberation out the country. You might murder a freedom fighter like Bobby Hutchins, but you can't murder a freedom fight. -

Michael

Whatever "it" was, Fred had it. When he got up in front of a group of people, the words just flowed. You were awash in the words, okay? It was like that, and I don't care how many people were there, it's like he was talking to you. That's a dangerous person. He wasn't above us, he was one of us. -

Fred

I'm the Deputy Chairman of the State of Illinois Black Panther Party. -

Dennis Cunningham

By the time he was 17 he was the head of the NAACP youth branch. He was already experienced by the time the Illinois chapter of the Panther party was formed, so he was a natural choice to lead it. -

Fred

We say all power to all people. (crowd responding) -

Jeffrey

Fred spoke in the People's Church in August of 1969, and I was in the crowd. Toward the end of his speech he said, "Everybody stand up", and we did. And he says, "Now raise your right hand." -

Fred

Say that, I am a revolutionary. (crowd repeating) And I couldn't say it because I thought of myself, I'm a lawyer for the movement, I'm not a revolutionary. And then he said it again, "I am a revolutionary", and by the third or fourth time, I was saying a revolutionary as loud as anybody else in the room. (applause) -

Fred

We say white power to white people. -

Crowd

White power to white people. Brown power to brown people. -

Crowd

Brown power to brown people. Yellow power to yellow people. -

Crowd

Yellow power to yellow people. Black power to the Black people. -

Crowd

Black power to Black people. -

Fred

We say Panther power to the vanguard party. -

Mike Klonsky

A lot of us thought that we were on the eve of a revolutionary situation here in the United States. We used to call the Panther party the Vanguard of the Movement. Because they were out in the forefront, they were kind of setting the pathway. The things that we would face some repression for, they would face it 10 times as great. They were sacrificing, often times their lives, in the struggle. -

Fred

These people in this class have divided themselves, they say, "I'm Black and I hate white people", "I'm white and I hate Black people." "I'm Latin American and I hate hillbillies." "I'm a hillbilly, I hate Indians." So we fighting amongst each other. -

Mike

Fred Hampton here in Chicago was the main voice for racial unity. -

Fred

Stood up and said, we don't care what anybody said, we don't make it fight fire with fire business, we make it fight fire with water business. We're gonna fight racism, not with racism, but we're gonna fight with solidarity. We worked with organizations such as the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican street gang that had become political. And the Young Patriots, hillbillies. Appalachian white boys. -

Michael

Bob Lee, who was our deputy field marshal, had a meeting with them, and he was explaining why we should work together. -

Landon

The coalition that Fred was building in Chicago, represented the Latinos, poor whites, and poor Blacks. But also because he had been in NAACP, he had linkages with folks who were in the congregations, church folks, and with working-class folks. So Fred was building a broad-based coalition in Chicago and that was the threat. soft, foreboding music J. Edgar Hoover most feared young whites uniting with the Blacks' struggle. And he was most afraid of a, what he called a "Black messiah", arising up out of this movement. -

Mike

Fred Hampton was very good at running an organization, he could delegate responsibility, he would spot talent. The one thing that he failed to spot, however, was, the FBI plant, who was of course, his personal bodyguard. -

William

I routinely supplied whatever floor plans or diagrams I could, to the FBI. That started in June, 1969, I mean, they had a floor plan and keys to the Black Panther headquarters. -

Michael

December 3rd, 1969, there was a rally, at the Peoples Church on the west side of Chicago. And it was one of those rallies where Fred gave one of those speeches. -

Fred

I don't believe I'm going to die in a car wreck. I don't believe I'm gonna die from slipping on a piece of ice. I don't believe I'm gonna die because I got a bad heart. Why aren't you here for me, why don't you struggle for me? Why don't you die with me? -

Akua

Close to 12 midnight, William O'Neal came and picked me up and brought me back to our apartment. Chairman Fred had been running 24/7 trying to organize. So he fell asleep. I was eight and a half months pregnant with our son. So I fell asleep too. -

News anchor

Police attached to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office raided a Chicago apartment shared by two high-ranking members of the Black Panther Party, before dawn today. The police were acting on a tip that a supply of weapons was in the apartment. -

Mike

The State's Attorney recreated the layout of the Panther apartment, and made arrangements, for them to produce his version of what happened. He stands up, I stepped over, and I put his foot out. We realized that there are still some people we- And before I could get past the threshold, there were three shots fired from the rear bedroom. The immediate, violent, criminal reaction of the occupants, in shooting at announced police officers, emphasizes the extreme viciousness of the Black Panther Party. So does their refusal to cease firing at the police officers when urged to do so several times. -

News anchor

When the 15-minute gun battle was over two Black Panthers were dead. Police and Panthers differ about what happened. In the apartment, we received no warning, no tear gas, nothing to offer us to surrender or come out. Bullets start coming through the walls. Plaster flying. The bullets coming from, it looked like the front of the apartment. From the kitchen area, they were, pigs were just shootin'. This cop stepped through the door with a submachine gun. And all you could see was a silhouette. And the muzzle flash as he fired, you know, a fully-automatic weapon into a room that was barely six feet wide. -

Akua

I laid on top of Chairman Fred, and I could feel even through him, the mattress vibrating. You could feel bullets going into him. I just knew we'd be dead, everybody in there. Cops stepped back in, and fired off another round, hit me in the hips. Everything was like this, it was just going so fast. We told 'em we were wounded, and they said, "Come out with your hands up." One of them grabbed my robe, and they swung it open and said, "Oh whaddya know, we got a broad here!" And then another one grabbed my hair, and slung me into the kitchen area. I heard a voice say, "He's barely alive, "he'll barely make it." He started shooting again, I heard his sister scream. They stopped shooting, the pigs said, "He's good and dead now." (sirens wailing) -

Dennis

The police made what must be a historic type of blunder in leaving the apartment open. So right away people went in there. -

Michael

I stepped into the living room. And there was blood, Fred's blood, pouring from all the way from the bedroom in the very back of the house, out into, from the kitchen, into the living room. -

Mike

It was like a slaughterhouse, and there was blood all over the place. When we lifted the mattress up to look underneath, three 45-caliber machine gun slugs fell out of the mattress. Only one shot came from a Panther weapon, because Mark Clark, the young kid who answered the door, was shot in the heart as he answered the door, and the gun dropped and went off through the ceiling. -

Renault Robinson

All of the splinters were coming into the apartment so we said, this was a shoot-in, it wasn't a shoot-out! There's gas that the police department uses as standard equipment that nobody can stand to stay in the room with it. They could have shot four canisters of gas in there, and waited outside for everybody to come out. -

Man offscreen

When this was a, this was planned, if this was a planned get Fred Hampton? All indications to me, personally, that this was obviously a political assassination. I don't think anybody would have expected the police to commit just murder. It takes a certain kind of guy to carry that out. They lied about what happened that night. Much of what they said happened, couldn't have happened the way they set it out. -

News anchor

Today, many Blacks came to the house where Fred Hampton was killed, to see for themselves. -

Voiceover

Don't touch nothin', don't move nothin', 'cause we wanna keep everything just the way it is. They fired through the door and licked the brother through the door. The brother was shot four or five times, so after they came through the door, they shot him again to make sure he was dead. This is where our chairman had his brains blown out, as he lay in his bed,

sleeping at 4

30 in the morning. I do not intend to quibble about that account. -

Reporter

sleeping at 4

You don't wanna get the truth? The account that we gave of the events is the truth. -

Dennis

sleeping at 4

It was a death squad that did this raid, it was a police death squad. And the whole thing was set up by the FBI. The FBI gave William O'Neal a $300 bonus, because of his information being so valuable, and not available from any other source. Internally, the FBI was bragging, and taking credit for the raid. Publicly they were denying any knowledge or participation. somber music -

News anchor

sleeping at 4

The funeral of the slain Panther leader was marked by angry eulogies, including one from Ralph Abernathy, head of the Nonviolent Southern Christian Leadership Conference. -

Ralph Abernathy

sleeping at 4

Enjoy your peace, Fred, because there will be no peace in this land until freedom becomes the law. We are going to trample these streets with our feet. (applause) -

Bobby Rush

sleeping at 4

Last message. That I think that Fred would have wanted everybody to hear, and that is I am. -

Attendees

sleeping at 4

I am. A revolutionary. -

Attendees

sleeping at 4

A revolutionary. I am. A revolutionary. I am a revolutionary. (foreboding music) (muffled police scanners) -

Mohammed

sleeping at 4

We didn't know when it was gonna happen. But we felt it was somethin' 'bout to happen. We were filling up sandbags, fortifying the headquarters, putting sand in the walls. Putting sandbags around the entrance to the office. We were actually trying to build a tunnel to the sewer line. If the police attacked us, we were gonna escape into the sewers, and we were gonna set charges on the building, and blow the building after we left. It seemed like it was more police presence around, we were getting stopped more, we were getting harassed more. -

Pat

sleeping at 4

I think they found out that it was a different climate for them here. We'd stop 'em, we'd search 'em, we'd shake 'em down, and I think we did establish that we were the dominating force. -

Ron

sleeping at 4

The special weapons and tactics concept was formed in 1966. The original SWAT team in the United States, or anywhere for that matter, was the LAPD SWAT team. And in this particular case, this was the first time, the SWAT team was activated to serve a high-risk warrant. It was decided that a no-knock warrant would be utilized, and surprise would be the element that you would use. Very close friend was working intelligence. And he told me, he said, "Pat, these guys think they're "going up against some street hoodlums." He said, "They're not, they're fighters and "they're shooters, don't be at the door." -

Gil

sleeping at 4

I'm on watch on the roof, and it's a real quiet night. Everything is just still, you don't hear anything. The access to that roof on the other side, pow, it breaks open. By the time I'm swinging around, I'm seeing the lights on me, they had a big light. And I'm hearing the whole, "Freeze, freeze! "Stay there, drop it!" -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

And the front door blew open, boom! (explosions booming) Well, Cotton had went in the gun room, he had a Thompson submachine gun. Put it down with that Thompson. (imitating machine gun sounds) (imitating machine gun sounds) And it sprays across the roof, you can see it in the light from the street. And I was seeing it was like, at the time man, I'm gonna tell ya, that instance, it was the best music I ever heard. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

And then all of the sudden, my gun just went off, I don't know what happened, gun just went off, and you know, so we had 'em in flank in front. And then Paul Red got down, he got busy, and we drove 'em out the front door. -

Ron

sleeping at 4

Three officers were down, and the gunfight continued as the officers were drug out of the way by other officers. Peaches and Tommye were two sisters that were there. They went into the communication room, just, you know, start calling the news media, and calling National Headquarters, and calling everybody they could call. -

Voiceover

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After 10, about four and a half hours after the original raid this morning. -

Reporter

sleeping at 4

All right, running down the street now, towards the building, see what's going on. We have police officers, look like they have been to combat, uniforms, automatic weapons, holding us back. Shotguns everywhere you could look. -

Mohammed

sleeping at 4

I looked at the TV, Channel 5 had it on live. So I'm feeling like, I can sneak in the back, and join 'em, some kind of way. Crazy as I'm thinking. -

Reporter

sleeping at 4

There's a large group of people right now. They're putting the pressure on police to allow us to stay so we can witness this. -

Roland

sleeping at 4

When the police was trying to creep up on the side, you could see 'em, the reflection, through the windows across the street. When they got close enough, they would tell me, "Okay throw it now, throw it now", then they'd throw the damn bomb out the window, and the police, we'd blow up, and they'd run back and ----. (explosions and gunfire) We see this little cloud of smoke come, and it just, whoosh, and that's the tear gas. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

Back in those days, everybody smoked all the time. So what we did was we put the cigarette butts in our nose, to filter out the fume. -

Reporter

sleeping at 4

We're looking right at the Panther headquarters. The devastation that's astounding, the whole front of the building's been shot up, bullet holes all over the place, front door smashed down, screens ripped out. -

Roland

sleeping at 4

I got shot here, got shot in the arm, they missed my head here, I got buckshot all in me, they shot that room up, you know? So this arm was dead, so now I'm up there with just one arm, bleeding all down the face and stuff. But I'm alive. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

I felt free. I felt absolutely free. I was a free negro. You know, I was making my own rules. You couldn't get in, I couldn't get out. But in my space, I was the king. And that little space I had, I was the king. And that's what I felt. You understand? That's what I felt. somber music -

Pat

sleeping at 4

We had riflemen across the street, on the roofs across the street. They were shooting into the shooting ports of the building that the Panthers had created. Panthers on the other hand, were shooting back out. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

Tommye had come downstairs, and she was laying behind me, like in a T. -

Roland

sleeping at 4

You could see a sunbeam went across her legs like that, I was like, you know you need to move. And she didn't, she just kept talking, and next thing you hear a shot go off. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

Bullet went through both her legs like that. So you know, at this time, you know, we had pretty much got shot out. -

Roland

sleeping at 4

You know we were saving enough bullets that when they came in the door, we would have some bullets to shoot back with. You know. I mean it wasn't like it took no brain scientist to figure out, well this ---- is over with. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

We were talking about giving up and, you know, all the brothers say "Well man, hey, "go on out there man, I'm not giving up!" -

Roland

sleeping at 4

And for like 30 minutes it just went around of "I'm not going out first." You know, "I'm not going out first." "We can die in this mother------, "I'm not going out first." -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

Peaches said, "I'll go out there." And I said, "Peaches!" She said, "No, I'll go." -

Reporter

sleeping at 4

A white flag coming out the door. It's a woman, she's holding her hands up. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

And she went outside and Peaches gave up. And when they didn't shoot Peaches then we came out one at a time. That's how that went. It was a big glorious shootout, but after they raided us, they had all the players locked up. All the main players was in jail. -

Protesters

sleeping at 4

We want Huey off the pigs, we want Huey off the pigs! -

David Brinkley

sleeping at 4

For about three years, the Black Panthers have used Huey Newton's name for a rallying cry. Demanding that he be freed from jail, where he is held on a charge of killing a policeman. The words "Free Huey Newton" have been chalked and spray painted on a thousand fences and walls. This spring, the California Supreme Court found some errors in his trial, and ordered a new trial. -

Protesters

sleeping at 4

Let him out, let him out, free Huey! Let him out, let him out, let him out, free Huey. -

Lise

sleeping at 4

Then the case was given to the jury. They were sequestered for four days to deliberate. -

Tarika

sleeping at 4

It was extremely tense, you could feel the energy and the tension in the air. People were talking about doing all types of things, even that, you know, Oakland could explode. You know, matter of fact, every city across America could explode that day. -

Lise

sleeping at 4

The Panthers had been getting ready for guerrilla warfare. And they said, the sky's the limit if the jury convicted him. -

Protesters

sleeping at 4

We want Huey, we want Huey, we want Huey! We want Huey, we want Huey! -

News anchor

sleeping at 4

Shouting, "We want Huey now", the crowd got their wish. At this hour, Huey Newton is a free man. -

Man

sleeping at 4

There he is! (crowd screaming) -

Tarika

sleeping at 4

Everybody was just jubilant that day. Finally, he gets to walk out of that jail a free man. The sky was the limit, and the sky turned blue. The image that was mobilized to create the free Huey movement, gave Huey almost mythic status in the party. He'd become an image and not a man. And that gave him power that ultimately proved dangerous. -

Woman

sleeping at 4

Come to the clinic tomorrow for an appointment. -

Flores

sleeping at 4

He came out focusing on returning to the survival programs, the breakfast program, the free health clinics. Free food program, and the sickle cell anemia research program. I remember Huey P. Newton saying, the Black Panther Party was not going to last. He said the organization was going to get destroyed, based on the way we were, we were very aggressive and we kinda realized that this wasn't gonna last long. -

Huey

sleeping at 4

We know those are not revolutionary programs, they are at best, survival programs. We know that the people are in jeopardy of genocide, and if they do not survive, then it won't be possible to bring about revolution. We were really trying to connect more with the people in the community. And this was a big push and, there was probably some um, some people who were not happy. -

Eldridge

sleeping at 4

We have a breakfast for children program, you know? But that's not what the Black Panther Party's all about, you see? I don't agree with saying that the Black Panther Party supports breakfast for children that's all that we're about, don't talk about these other things. The Black Panther Party is for overthrowing the United States Government. Those people who were on the other side of this issue politically, did not see the Black Panther Party as a vehicle for social service. We saw it as a vehicle for political transformation, radical change, for revolution. So we couldn't get excited about survival. -

Elaine

sleeping at 4

Eldridge Cleaver, who while sitting comfortably in Algeria, was assailing the Black Panther Party as being weak, and it didn't have any more muscle, and uh, it was a reform organization, a breakfast for children club, and he denounced the party, and he denounced the chief administrator of the party at that time, who was David Hilliard. He wanted to have even more blood shed, which was not endearing us to the community. -

Jamal

sleeping at 4

You also have problems with the Panther 21 case. There were legal fees, and there became questions about how much of the money that was raised for the Panther 21, was actually getting back to defend the Panther 21. We wrote an open letter, really criticizing national leadership and Huey P. Newton. And response of the national leadership, and in particular Huey P. Newton, was to kick out the Panther 21. They were expelled from the Panther party. Eldridge came to the defense of the Panther 21. -

Voiceover

sleeping at 4

The Black Panther Party has split into two factions, namely the Cleaver and Newton supporters. This dissension offers an exceptional opportunity to aggravate, and possibly neutralize through counterintelligence. -

Kathleen

sleeping at 4

The FBI was picking at Huey, and picking at Eldridge, and I don't know who else they were picking at to create this sense of distrust. -

Voiceover

sleeping at 4

In the future, submit counterintelligence proposals against the Cleaver faction in the Black Panther Party, designed to widen the existing rift, effectively driving a wedge between Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. Insure this mailing cannot be traced to the Bureau. -

Kathleen

sleeping at 4

What we thought the FBI wanted to do was kill us. Blow up our offices, shoot us. I don't think we understood exactly, how insidious their project was. -

Donna

sleeping at 4

They created a culture of paranoia, which was incredibly destructive. In this sense, it was the ultimate intelligence success, being able to pit the party against itself. And the Panthers' internal conflict would soon erupt in the mainstream media. Good morning, yes it's AM all right, and this is Jim Dunbar, with Nancy Ann Fleming... -

Jim Dunbar

sleeping at 4

We had become aware of some sort of a rift that had come to pass between Huey and Eldridge. We had booked Huey, and arranged a call from Eldridge, in Algeria, to take advantage of that. We've got lots of things coming up here on AM this morning. Lots of things that you'll like to see, and we're looking forward to them too, right here on AM. -

Jim

sleeping at 4

I'll not try to sugarcoat this, we thought this is a wonderful opportunity to build audience, and so we decided to go ahead and put the two of them together. -

Kathleen

sleeping at 4

Huey's goal in having Eldridge on the show, was to show people that he and Eldridge were on the same page and Eldridge sabotaged that, so Huey was livid, he was embarrassed, he was furious. And so, within 10 minutes or so he called back. (phone slamming) It was a split in the party, and within days, we began to feel just how bad it was. -

Huey

sleeping at 4

omeone has to be disciplined. And my recommendation is to discipline Eldridge Cleaver, not for the criticism itself, but the way in which it was presented. -

Bill

sleeping at 4

The word got back to us that Eldridge had put out the edict that the streets were not supposed to be safe for Panthers. Whether he said that or not, he was in Algeria, we were here, who knows, it was chaos. foreboding music -

Jamal

sleeping at 4

There were certain chapters that stayed with Huey. Many of the people who followed Eldridge, leave the party and go underground. And then some people just were confused and frustrated, and walked away. They don't know which faction of the Black Panther Party to follow, or if they should deal with Panthers at all. -

Clayborne

sleeping at 4

The Party had leaders who at that point, were not worthy of the dedication of their followers. And I think that that was probably the worst aspect of the party, is that I think some of the followers felt betrayed by their leaders. -

Jamal

sleeping at 4

The split becomes so deep, that it erupts, in some cases, into violence, into fights, and into shootings, between Panthers. -

Beverly

sleeping at 4

This is exactly what the Bureau in fact, wanted to see happen in the first place. This was part of what the COINTELPRO operations were really all about. J. Edgar Hoover in particular says, we've been pitting people against each other, that's all worked out really well, but you know, now we don't even have to worry about it anymore. Now they're just gonna keep it going on their own, and we can step back a little bit and just let them play it out. In the midst of all of this turmoil, the Panthers decide to go in a really radically new direction. Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader, has been in trouble with the law for many years. He's been in prison on some charges, acquitted on others. And now he's trying to make a new career for himself. He wants to be Mayor of Oakland California, where the Black Panther movement began. -

Voiceover

sleeping at 4

Nice meeting you, okay nice meeting you. All right then, how ya'll doin'? laid-back music -

Yohuru

sleeping at 4

The Panthers decide to call members to Oakland, in an effort to run Bobby Seale for Mayor of Oakland, and Elaine Brown for city council. -

Steve McCutchen

sleeping at 4

John Seale, member of the Central Committee of the Black Panther Party, called me at the Baltimore chapter office, and told me to begin closing down all of our programs. So we were instructed to cease and desist all party operations. And to bring as many party members from Baltimore out to Oakland as possible. -

Yohuru

sleeping at 4

Ultimately they roll the die, they assume that, if they're successful in this campaign, this might help to transform one American city, this might be the blueprint for the future. But they do roll the die. The numbers were dwindling, and therefore the force of the party was dwindling. So it only made sense to consolidate everything, and to say, what can we do with what we have? We laid down the guns two years ago, we don't need guns, we said, because we knew we had the ability to really organize and educate the people, and show them really, some of the concrete things we can do in the community. -

Phyllis

sleeping at 4

Initially, the idea of Bobby running for mayor seemed ridiculous. -

News anchor

sleeping at 4

Black Panther leader Bobby Seale ran second in his race for Mayor of Oakland California. But Seale pulled just enough folks to force a run-off with the conservative incumbent, John Redding. -

Phyllis

sleeping at 4

I think we were shocked when he ended up in a run-off. But as we got into the campaign, and as he started doing his campaign runs, as Elaine started doing her campaign speeches, as people started getting, we started galvanizing people's enthusiasm, it started looking like he might win. Express yourself Express yourself -

Phyllis

sleeping at 4

Part of the strategy for the campaign was to increase the number of Black voters on the rolls in Oakland. We sent people out into the community, going door-to-door, walking the streets, registering people to vote en masse. -

Elaine

sleeping at 4

And we went to the churches, and we went to the dope houses, and we went to the streets, and we went everywhere where the people were. Trying to organize people to vote for Bobby and Elaine. -

Donna

sleeping at 4

They run an amazing campaign. Bobby Seale used to ride buses in Oakland and do stump speaking on the bus, and they really took it to the streets in a different way. -

Phyllis

sleeping at 4

Bobby had made a promise that he was gonna give away 10,000 bags of groceries, with a chicken in every bag. That was a take-off on FDR's "a chicken in every pot". Express yourself -

Bobby

sleeping at 4

We counted it up, we found out last night it was 6,882 bags we actually gave away last night. And I think that the voter registration is running neck and neck with it. I'm sure of that, 'cause a lot of, oh it blew our minds, so many Black people in the Black community's unregistered to vote. -

Donna

sleeping at 4

It was amazing because they were able to register between 20 and 50,000 people to vote. They basically turned their survival programs into a "get out the vote" apparatus. Express yourself Express yourself uh Express uh express uh Express yourself express yourself Express oh -

Donna

sleeping at 4

But in the end, it wasn't enough. -

News anchor

sleeping at 4

Mayor John Redding of Oakland, California, was re-elected yesterday in a run-off against Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader. Don Oliver has that story. upbeat music -

News anchor

sleeping at 4

Looking at the mood at Bobby Seale's headquarters, you would have thought he won. You know what somebody told me? -

woman

sleeping at 4

What it is? They say, "We don't care how the election goes. "Bobby Seale as far as we're concerned", and they told me this, it blew my mind, "You still our mayor, and we're gonna keep voting". (applause) (cheering) Power to the people! -

Flores

sleeping at 4

Weren't able for Bobby to win, Elaine to win, and our slate to win. There wasn't, as far as I could remember, a plan B. Once we lost the campaign, there was kind of a um... You know, there was a void. -

Yohuru

sleeping at 4

it was, in theory, a great idea, that you could marshal this army of organizers to come to Oakland, but for the most part, when all the chapters come back to Oakland, the Panthers as a national phenomena really ceased. soft, tense music -

Jeffrey Ogbar

sleeping at 4

After the elections in Oakland, Huey Newton is known to have some erratic behavior. People who were very close to him would say that, depends on the day you meet him. Some days, Huey Newton could be a brilliant, thoughtful political strategist, and committed to liberation of Black people, and another day he could be self-serving and thuggish. I was one of the folks who oriented new Panther members. And I oriented them by telling them about what a wonderful person Huey was. And about how he was the leader of our party, never knowing what the hell he was. We had created the cult of the personality around a ------- maniac. He surrounded himself with former prisoners, and they became his inner retinue. -

Flores

sleeping at 4

Around 1973, we created a special unit, that would protect our leaders, and do other kinds of activities, related to what Huey Newton called "the sterner stuff of politics". We're gonna take over the underworld, the underground apparatus, of the City of Oakland. We were shaking down the drug dealers, pimps. Some people were like, stickup men. It was bringing in revenue. -

Ericka

sleeping at 4

As he became more and more addicted to multiple substances, I don't think he wanted to live, and I don't think he wanted the Party to live anymore. From there on, you know, he was less and less, the Huey I knew, and more and more, listening to his demons. -

Landon

sleeping at 4

If Huey wanted to see you or you wanted to see Huey, you had to come to his penthouse, which meant that you went up in his elevator, which meant that you were searched before you got up there And when you got up there, then you were confronted by this maniac, in his penthouse, who did all kinds of things to people. Physical assault, sexual assault. Pistol whipping, threatening to kill. He also became very abusive to the people around him. He abused people like Bobby. -

Flores

sleeping at 4

There were changes in the organization. Bobby Seale left. There were a lot of people who had been in the organization from the beginning. And they left. -

Ericka

sleeping at 4

Then there was a time when he was violent with me. And that was why I left the Black Panther Party. I said goodbye as I left, but I left. -

Female voiceover

sleeping at 4

Dear Huey, I've been in the Party for nine and a half years. But I've come to a crossroads in my life. One path is the party, and the other path is my personal happiness. I know you're busy, but I see a party falling apart, and nothing is being done to stop this from happening. -

Elaine

sleeping at 4

It was absolutely devastating for me to leave the Black Panther Party. I felt guilty that I hadn't, you know, stayed to do something, I wasn't sure what. There was no other life, there was no other thing greater. Then I learned to live in a world where there was no Black Panther Party. -

Female voiceover

sleeping at 4

Our children are growing up. Half the children don't know their parents, or their parents don't know their children. I want to spend more time with my son. -

Male voiceover

sleeping at 4

So many are on the verge of leaving, because we suffer from loneliness, lack of personal lives and extreme poverty. -

Wayne

sleeping at 4

Everybody that wanted this gun-totin' image of the big Black, big bad, Black Shaft guy, jumping through the window and then, you know, beating everybody up. I refute that. That's the image that was put upon us. I'm not Shaft. You know, as a Black man, that's all I am. I'm just a Black man. -

Male voiceover

sleeping at 4

Dear Huey, you know I trust that I have felt a virtually infinite respect for, belief in, support of the Black Panther Party. I meant well, God knows I meant well, and tried. Then too, haven't we all, one way or another? -

William

sleeping at 4

The great strength of the Black Panther Party was its ideals, and its youthful vigor and enthusiasm. The great weakness of the party was its ideals, and its youthful vigor and its enthusiasm. That sometimes can be very dangerous, especially when you're up against the United States government. Just like the cities Staggered on the coastline Living in a nation That just can't take much more Like the forest buried beneath the highway I never had a chance to grow -

Male voiceover

sleeping at 4

If there's anything I can do that would truly progress the people, let me know. I may not be a member of the Black Panther Party, but I will always be a Black Panther. All power to the people, peace and freedom to the world. -

Jamal

sleeping at 4

We made mistakes. We charged ahead too fast, were too arrogant sometimes. We certainly underestimated the police, and the government, in terms of the response to the Black Panther Party. But I think what remains true, the central guiding principle was, an undying love for the people. And now it's winter Feel like winter in America Yeah it's a time when all of the healer Brothers who could help us done been killed They put 'em in jails Yeah, people know it's something wrong Everybody oughta know winter -

Male voiceover

sleeping at 4

The Black Panther Party platform and program, what we want, what we believe. -

Ericka

sleeping at 4

We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings. -

Elaine

sleeping at 4

We want education for our people. -

Jamal

sleeping at 4

We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people. -

Phyllis

sleeping at 4

We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace... Nobody fighting because Well nobody knows what to save Feel like winter in America The truth is there ain't a Nobody fighting because Well nobody knows what to save Truth is there ain't nobody fighting because Well nobody knows nobody knows What to what to do Truth is there ain't nobody fighting because Nobody knows what to say (upbeat music)