The Savage City (59 page)

Oakland police shoot-out with Cleaver et al.:
Ahmad,
We Will Return in the Whirlwind,
pp. 16–17; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 165–168; Pearson,
Shadow of the Panther,
pp. 154–156; Hilliard,
This Side of Glory,
pp. 181– 185, 188, 191–192; Cleaver,
Target Zero,
pp. 85–96. In the wake of the shoot-out in Oakland that resulted in the death of Bobby Hutton, a group of prominent writers published an open letter in the
New York Review of Books
(May 9, 1968) denouncing the actions of the police. The letter was signed by, among many others, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Gloria Steinem, and Susan Sontag.

“What We Want, What We Believe”:
The BPP Ten-Point Program was as follows: 1. We want freedom. We want the power to determine the destiny of our Black Community. 2. We want full employment for our people. 3. We want to end the robbery by the white man of our Black Community. 4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings. 5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society. 6. We want all black people to be exempt from military service. 7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of black people. 8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails. 9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States. 10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
And as our major political objective, a United Nations–supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national identity. Source:
Black Panther,
vol. 3, no. 2, May 4, 1969.

Influence of Frantz Fanon:
Both
Wretched of the Earth
and
Black Skin, White Masks
were essential texts for advocates of Black Power.

The Battle of Algiers:
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, the movie depicts the successful guerrilla uprising in Algeria in the early 1960s. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the movie became an international phenomenon and de rigueur viewing for would-be revolutionaries around the globe.

Detective Randy Jurgensen remembers going to a screening of the movie with his partner, Sonny Grosso. Jurgensen and Grosso would eventually become part of a squad investigating BLA cases.
The Battle of Algiers
had been described to them as a black militant training film. “After seeing that movie,” said Jurgensen, “I think for the first time we realized what we were up against. The movie opens with a revolutionary coming up behind a cop and putting a bullet through the back of his head. I said to Sonny, ‘You still think this is about drugs? It ain't about drugs. We represent the system to these people, and they want to bring down the system. They're out to hunt and kill cops.” Interview with Randy Jurgensen (February 12, 2010).

BPP political education (PE) classes:
Weekly PE classes were an important social as well as educational tool for the BPP. Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009); interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2010); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 58–69, 89–99; Hilliard,
This Side of Glory,
pp. 133, 201–202.

“Because of my studies in the joint”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

“Some people joined the party to feed children”:
Ibid.

Sudden national growth of the BPP:
Caldwell, Earl, “Black Panthers Growing, But Their Troubles Rise,”
New York Times,
December 7, 1968; Johnson, Thomas A., “Civil Rights Movement Facing Revolution Within a Revolution,”
New York Times,
July 21, 1968; Stearn, Gerald Emanuel, “Rapping with the Panthers in White Suburbia,”
New York Times Magazine,
March 8, 1970; “Review of Panther Growth and Harassment,”
Black Panther,
January 4, 1968; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 159–188, 273; Hilliard,
This Side of Glory,
pp. 150–175.

Emergence of the
Black Panther
newspaper:
Hilliard, David (ed.),
The Black Panther: Intercommunal News Service, 1967–1980
. This book includes
numerous essays from a variety of writers within the Panther universe on the role and development of the newspaper.

Use of the word
pig
to describe police:
Newton,
Revolutionary Suicide,
pp. 175–177. Newton takes full credit for instituting use of the term. In
The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas
, Amiri Baraka contributes an essay on the use of the word and the importance of Douglas's illustrations in communicating the message.

Confrontation between BPP and NYPD on Nostrand Avenue:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2009); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); McFadden, Robert D., “Police–Black Panther Scuffles Mark Brooklyn Street Rally,”
New York Times,
August 2, 1968.

“The Panther who had earlier stood”:
Bin Wahad, “The Future Past” (unpublished manuscript).

Incident at Brooklyn courthouse:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 16, 2010).

“A microphone was shoved in my face”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

Shooting of police on Eastern Parkway:
Seedman, Albert, and Peter Hellman,
Chief,
pp. 371–373, 411; Daley,
Target Blue,
pp. 84–86.

13. “OFF THE PIGS!”

Whitmore release from prison (June 15, 1968):
Interview with George Whitmore (April 3, 2009); interview with Myron Beldock (January 27, 2009).

Whitmore borrows money from Shapiro:
Shapiro,
Whitmore,
p. 228.

Whitmore employed by Nation of Islam:
Interview with George Whitmore (April 3, 2009).

Opening of new BPP office:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

“I think it was Lumumba who found the space”:
Ibid.

Ron Penniwell as liaison with West Coast Panthers:
Ibid.; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 274.

Cleo Silvers's background:
Interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009).

“The policies at the hospital were so misguided”:
Ibid.

“Somebody told me to go to the Panther office”:
Ibid.

“You can't sell the
Black Panther
newspaper”:
Ibid.

“To me, the PE classes were slow”:
Ibid.

“I became a green dog in karate”:
Ibid.

Statement by Joudon Ford:
Zion, Sidney E., “5 Black Panthers Held in Brooklyn,”
New York Times,
September 13, 1968; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 274.

Judge Furey responds to criticism by police spokesman:
Novitski, Joseph, “Judge Ouster Sought,”
New York Times,
August 5, 1968.

Formation of Law Enforcement Group (LEG):
Novitski, Joseph, “Brooklyn Police Set Up Group to Back ‘Vigorous' Enforcement,”
New York Times,
August 8, 1968; Spiegel, Irving, “P.B.A. Will Issue ‘Get Tough' Advice,”
New York Times,
August 12, 1968; Fox, Sylvan, “Many Police in City Leaning to the Right,”
New York Times,
September 6, 1968; Grutzner, Charles, “Law Enforcement Group Is Creation of Protest,”
New York Times,
September 7, 1968.

“We're sick and tired of taking it on the chin”:
Spiegel, “P.B.A. Will Issue ‘Get Tough' Advice,”
New York Times,
August 12, 1968.

Kunstler becomes Panthers' attorney:
Interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Kunstler, William,
My Life as a Radical Lawyer,
pp. 58–59, 65–68, 183, 211; Burnham, David, “3 in Black Panther Party Win Hearing Over Bail,”
New York Times,
August 24, 1968.

Lefcourt at arraignment court:
Interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010).

Beat-down by off-duty cops at Brooklyn courthouse:
Ibid.; interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); Burnham, David, “Off-Duty Police Here Join in Beating Black Panthers,”
New York Times,
September 5, 1968; “Brutality, New York Style,”
New York Times,
September 5, 1968.

Meeting with Lindsay's Urban Task Force:
Interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Burnham, David, “Mayor and Leary Warn Policemen in Panther Melee,”
New York Times,
September 6, 1968; Burnham, David, “Black Panthers Give Grievances,”
New York Times,
September 7, 1968; Perlmutter, Emanuel, “N.A.A.C.P. Urges Inquiry on Police,”
New York Times,
September 8, 1968; Fox, Sylvan, “Leary Says Police Reflect Community in a Swing to Right,”
New York Times,
September 11, 1968; Burnham, David, “Panthers to Seek Voice Over Police,”
New York Times,
September 11, 1968.

Statement by John Birch Society:
Cannato,
The Ungovernable City,
pp. 166–167.

Background on BOSS:
Red Squad,
1971 documentary; Churchill and Vander Wall,
The COINTELPRO Papers,
pp. 361, 363; Lardner and Reppetto,
NYPD,
pp. 189, 259.

Infiltration of BPP by BOSS:
FBI COINTELPRO files; BOSS
files; O'Reilly,
Racial Matters,
p. 344; Kempton, Murray,
The Briar Patch,
pp. 34–35, 87, 110–111; Zimroth, Peter L.,
Perversions of Justice,
pp. 47–52, 128– 130, 201–203, 381–386; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 284–286; interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2009); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010).

J. Edgar Hoover on BPP:
Hoover's public statement regarding the BPP set the tone for much of what followed.

“The information we are receiving”
: FBI COINTELPRO files.

“If you accept the definition of a Negro”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

Cleaver comes to NYC:
Fraser, Gerald C., “Cleaver Aims to Unite Black and White Radicals,”
New York Times,
October 12, 1968; Austin,
Up Against the Wall
.

Cleaver runs for president:
“Imprisoned Black Panther Enters Race for President,”
New York Times,
May 14, 1968; “Cleaver Loses Appeal to Get on State Ballot,”
New York Times,
October 18, 1968; Kifner, John, “Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther Who Became G.O.P. Conservative, Is Dead at 62,”
New York Times,
May 2, 1998.

“Certain people…had an aura about them”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

Cleaver press conference at Algonquin Hotel:
Fraser, “Cleaver Aims to Unite Black and White Radicals,”
New York Times,
October 12, 1968.

Joseph “Jazz” Hayden background:
Interview with Joseph “Jazz” Hayden (December 19, 2008).

Shooting of two police officers (September 28, 1968):
“2 Policemen in a Car Are Injured in Unprovoked Harlem Shooting,”
New York Times,
September 29, 1968; “Suspect, 26, Seized in Harlem Shooting of Two Policemen,”
New York Times,
October 24, 1968.

“You come outside in the morning”:
Interview with Joseph “Jazz” Hayden (December 19, 2009).

“You could start a nickel-and-dime crap game”:
Ibid.

“My uncle used to take me around”:
Ibid.

“Growing up in Harlem”:
Ibid.

“I observed them in the neighborhood”:
Ibid.

“My friend who was with me, he didn't hesitate”:
Ibid.

“They hunted me throughout Harlem”
: Ibid.

“I was hiding out with my girl”
: Ibid.

“I don't know how I survived that”:
Ibid.

“They shipped me off to prison”:
Ibid.

14. WHITMORE'S LAST STAND

Police attitudes toward the Panthers:
Interview with Sonny Grosso (April 13, 2009); interview with Randy Jurgensen (February 12, 2010); interview with Robert Daley (January 21, 2010); interview with Robert Leuci (February 12, 2009); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); “Police and Panthers at War,”
Time,
December 12, 1969; Epstein, Edward Jay, “The Black Panthers and the Police: A Pattern of Genocide?”
The New Yorker,
February 13, 1971; Arnold, Martin, “Police and Panthers: Urban Conflict in Mutual Fear,”
New York Times,
October 26, 1970; Alex,
New York Cops Talk Back,
pp. 101, 130; Daley,
Target Blue,
pp. 75–86, 170–183; Jurgensen, Randy, and Robert Cea,
Circle of Six,
pp. 44, 61, 87; Tanenbaum, Robert K., and Philip Rosenberg,
Badge of the Assassin,
pp. 15–21.