“Deep shades of Blue Are within my reach. Where I first tasted life I mean the purest life Not to be despised dehumanized Or crucified. There I shall be a man again And above our voice we’ll cry anew Ya hoo ru-Ya hoo run (Liberation)” Ecerpted from”Green Dolphin Street” -

lprentice “Bunchy” Carter was the • October 1966: Huey Newton and founder of the Southern California Chap- write the first draft of the for Self-Defense ter of the Black Panther Party, and led (BPP) 10-Point Program. the Chapter until his assassination on the • August 1967: Cointelpro, FBI short campus of UCLA in January 1969. Bunchy had been for “counterintelligence program,” is A launched against organiza- a leader of the Slausons, a street organization which tions, with the BPP as its main target. had, at that time, over 5,000 members. Like so many, • January 1968: Bunchy Carter organiz- Bunchy was incarcerated and spent four years in es the Southern California Chapter of prison at Soledad. While there, he studied the teach- the BPP (which stretches to San Diego). ings of , and he and his friend Eldridge • March 1968: Arthur Glen Morris, Cleaver decided that when they were released they brother of Bunchy Carter, is shot and killed by “agents” of the U.S. govern- would start a west coast chapter of Malcolm’s Organization of Afro-American ment. He is the first member of the BPP Unity. On his release in 1967, he found that Eldridge had joined the Black to be killed. Panther Party and later that year Bunchy began organizing the Southern • August 1968: Police kill BPP Captains California Chapter of the BPP. Little Tommy Lewis, Steve Bar- tholomew, and Robert Lawrence at a service station in Watts. • September 1968: Bunchy Carter, “A Revolutionary Memorial to Alprentice ‘Bunchy’ Carter” , and Excerpted from the Black Panther Party Newspaper all register as students in UCLA’s High Potential Program.

“From the Slausons, from Soledad Prison, from the day to day confrontation • January 1969: Two Black Panther leaders, John Huggins and with street life, Bunchy Carter brought with him all of his experiences, all the Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, are gunned knowledge and love for the people that a man could give. He delivered a clear down by members of the US organiza- tion on the UCLA campus. In internal understanding of the situation that caused the oppression of Black people, and memoranda, the FBI take credit for the the subsequent need for the Black Panther Party. incident. “Bunchy was insistent that we understand the importance of unity—not the • April 1969: The L.A. Panthers begin false unity proposed by government agents—but that unity that would be a their Free Breakfast for Children program in honor of John Huggins. key to the liberation of oppressed people. So a few months after the Chapter “The Breakfast for Children Program,” was formed, Bunchy issued a directive stressing the importance of unity in the wrote Hoover in an internal FBI memo in May 1969, “represents the best and most influential activity going for the continued on back... community; it read: “The Black Panther Party must never be the enemy of the BPP and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities people. The Black Panther Party must never put itself in the position that other to neutralize the BPP and destroy what organizations can make it seem to be the enemy of Black organizations and it stands for.” thereby, the enemy of Black people….Therefore, we do the people’s thing!… • May 1969: The Party office on 41st and The people will relate to the Party which relates to them. Therefore, we must Central is raided by the police. During a two-week period around this time, the continue to relate to the people.…” LAPD makes 56 arrests of 42 Panthers. “In keeping with the Party’s goal of becoming more and more one with the • July 1969: Two are people, to better understand and serve their needs, Bunchy participated in a wounded and a third, Sylvester Bell, special educational program for Black students at UCLA in the fall of 1968. is killed in San Diego. The FBI again congratulates itself for its “success.” He felt that there, he would be able to recruit and educate other Black students around the need to serve the Black community. On January 17, 1969, after a • December 1969: The LAPD deploys its new SWAT (Special Weapons and Black Students Union meeting, Alprentice Bunchy Carter, Deputy Minister of Tactics, a militarized police unit) Defense and John Huggins, Deputy Minister of Information of the Southern teams and 400 police officers to raid three L.A. BPP facilities including the California Chapter of the Black Panther Party, were shot down and murdered Central Ave. headquarters. Only after by members of US organization. Alprentice Bunchy Carter and John Huggins holding off the police for five hours do represented that force, that emerging unity that would someday flourish, the the Panthers surrender, alive. unity of all oppressed communities—Black, poor, and student alike. • December 1969: The Bunchy Carter Free Health Clinic opens in L.A. By “The spirit and wisdom of Bunchy’s leadership made the Chapter forge 1970, People’s Free Medical Clinics ahead, continuing and improving its service to the community. Like other had become a requirement for every Chapters of the Black Panther Party across the U.S. empire, the Southern Cali- BPP chapter. fornia Chapter has implemented survival programs to serve the basic needs and desires of the people. “And so we salute him, commemorate him, honor him, through our daily service to the people and the programs for their survival—the survival he believed in, lived and died for.”

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

The Bunchy Carter tribute stamp features the artwork of Emory Doulas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party. For many, their understanding of the Black Panther Party and its ideas was shaped by access to Emory’s art—which appeared every week on the pages of the Black Panther Party newspaper and was widely circulated in the , Europe, and the Third World. His powerful visual images illustrated the conditions oppressing, particularly, poor Black people, while at the same time portraying a vision of hope for everyone. SCL extends its thanks to Emory for use of this image.

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