Revolution in Our Time: Chapters 11–17

Within the space of two years, the Party went from being a local cadre of half a dozen sisters and brothers policing the police to a national organization with thousands of members nationwide.

Black activists had been among the first to denounce the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but the movement gained significant traction once white people picked up the mantle.

Many leaders of the city’s small economic and political activism groups brought their constituencies over to the Panthers, due to an “emerging consensus that the Panthers epitomized Black Power.”

Many leaders of the city’s small economic and political activism groups brought their constituencies over to the Panthers, due to an “emerging consensus that the Panthers epitomized Black Power.”

There is no single, national Panther history but rather myriad Panther histories.

Every Panther was expected to memorize these rules and the Ten-Point Platform and be able to recite them verbatim—exactly as written—anytime they were asked.

Everyone in a leadership position must read no less than two hours per day to keep abreast of the changing political situation.

Many Panther members lived on the proceeds from newspaper sales because they didn’t have another job.

For everyone, the Panther office itself became a second home, full of food, affection, and camaraderie.

The prevailing views of the Party by media and outsiders reinforced how some members viewed the gender dynamics.

“We used criticism and self-criticism to beat back the various levels of male chauvinist activity,” Bobby explained.

The love, meaning, and connection to be found within the Panther sphere was constantly juxtaposed against the challenge of moving through the world as Panthers, and by the fact that the country’s law enforcement agencies were not prepared to let a Black revolutionary movement stand unopposed.

The Panther program encouraged store owners to “lower their prices in order to maintain their businesses in the community, and as a result...become unified with the people in the fight against economic exploitation.”

The aggressive and violent police response to even the most humane Panther programs lent credence to the Panthers’ accusation of genocide.

This structure results in a social class system in which wealthy owners (also called the bourgeoisie) form the upper class while poor workers (also called the proletariat) form the lower classes.

This structure results in a social class system in which wealthy owners (also called the bourgeoisie) form the upper class while poor workers (also called the proletariat) form the lower classes.

In the first place, there was social stratification even among Black people.

The Blackstone Rangers were the largest and most feared group operating on Chicago’s South Side, and Fred met with their leader, Jeff Fort, a number of times, trying to reach an agreement or partnership. For almost a year, Jeff rebuffed Fred’s advances. He did not want to give up any power or any territory to the Panthers.

With all the talk of coalitions and strength in numbers, it became more and more important for the Panthers to address gender discrimination and misogyny (ingrained prejudice against women), especially in Black communities.

Black women were left to contend with a particular intersection of invisibility, with the white woman at one extreme and the Black man at the other.

Those outcomes had been celebrated, despite the fact that the manner of victory revealed a lot about how flawed and how racist the system was: white-owned businesses were not motivated to change out of a desire for actual justice or a moral recognition that all races should be treated equally; they were solely motivated by a desire to mitigate damage and loss of profits.

“Consideration has been given to a similar letter to the BPP alleging a Ranger plot against the BPP leadership; however, it is not felt this would be productive, principally because the BPP...is not believed to be as violence prone.”

Yet despite their own assessment, COINTELPRO agents and police around the country continued to attack the Panthers, treating them as if they were volatile and violent criminals.

They sent false letters between SNCC leaders Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown, seeking to exacerbate conflicts within the SNCC ranks and drive a wedge between SNCC and the Panthers.

Amid the fray, two US members shot John and Bunchy.

On March 20, 1969, Bobby Seale was indicted, along with seven white anti-war protestors, on charges related to the chaos that had occurred outside the Democratic National Convention the previous summer.

The Chicago 8 indictments made big headlines. For the white students in the anti-war movement, it was among the first and most tangible consequences for their acts of protest and rebellion against the establishment.

The police and prosecutors seemed to believe that the barest of evidence would be enough to convict, but their machinations proved extremely transparent.

On June 4, police raided the Chicago Panther office, possibly on the pretext of searching for Sams.

Lining the walls with sandbags and replacing window glass with plywood were two common approaches to fortification. Sandbags offered a layer of protection because they would slow or stop bullets, and also make it harder for tear gas canisters to get through to reach the people inside.

Many wondered, how much longer would they have to endure this blatant disregard for their rights and their humanity?

The white defendants also made multiple dramatic outbursts and created disruptions in the courtroom, but none of them were bound and gagged, even though all of the seven, and even their attorneys, were charged with contempt for their behavior during the trial.

“Those who knew Fred Hampton knew intuitively that he was the next great Black leader...the most unselfish, the most principled, most prolific Panther around.”

The Panthers had addressed these issues from the start, as two key tenets of the Ten-Point Platform: calling for all Black people to be released from prison, and calling for all Black people to be able to be tried by a jury of peers from the Black community.

She worked hard to get their case examined by legal experts, and to draw attention to the plight of other prisoners like them.

One journalist at the time wrote that it was difficult to imagine white activists ever being treated the way the New York 21 were, being “rounded up in the middle of the night, thrown into jails, dispersed around the city, kept under maximum security and even solitary confinement, detained in prison on exorbitant bail...and charged with plotting irrational actions.”

Freeing these political prisoners was paramount for the Panthers.

In the long term, the Party advocated for massive prison reform and a complete overhaul of the so-called justice system.

White people often had money, and inspiring them to support the cause was the only way the Panthers could see to survive. However, this put the organization in a tough spot with their Black communities because the Panthers began changing the way they protested in order to make themselves more palatable to these white audiences.

This dichotomy was quickly becoming the new fault line that would shake the entire Black Panther Party.