The Revolutionary Years of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and Those Who Destroyed It

CREATING REVOLUTION AS WE ADVANCE: THE REVOLUTIONARY YEARS OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF-DEFENSE AND THOSE WHO DESTROYED IT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By James Thomas Jones III, B.A., M.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2005 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Warren Van Tine, Adviser Professor William E. Nelson, Jr. Professor James N. Upton ________________________ Adviser History Graduate Program Copyright by James Thomas Jones III 2005 ABSTRACT “Creating Revolution as We Advance” studies the Black Panther Party’s rise during the mid-sixties. The Nationalist aesthetic was contextualized by the non- violent civil disobedience theory of Dr. King, and Malcolm X’s rhetoric. The movement’s genesis was the majority community’s incessant attacks upon African- Americans Civil and Human rights. Additionally, the failure of the Civil and Voting Rights Acts to affect Black lives in a tangible manner was felt by all. The Bay Area of California was the epicenter for American radicalism. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, two veterans of the bourgeoning Oakland Black protest movement, created an activist alternative. Unbeknownst to Newton and Seale, the problems they were addressing were universal to Black urbanites. The Black Panther Party possessed unprecedented revolutionary potential for this latest generation of activists. By assuming the vanguard position, Newton and Seale advanced a politic that transgressed against Nationalist parochialism. Deriving their notoriety as a result of the gun, the co-founders were revolutionary to emasculated Black urbanites. Not until their attempt to replicate the Panther program did admirers become aware of Panther politics peculiarities. The Panther’s adoption of class was debated by all. Ironically, such sophistication set the stage for their. ii The Panthers public embrace of left-leaning groups and individuals shocked all. Said alliances made the Black Panther Party the “greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.” Although initial adversarial attacks emanated from the local level, the Panthers were targeted by the federal government. “Creating Revolution as We Advance” focuses upon FBI attacks. iii Dedicated to my parents James Thomas Jones, Jr., and Kathryn V. Jones iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank first of all, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I wish to thank Dr. Warren Van Tine for his unconditional support and encouragement during this unprecedented intellectual adventure. In a word, thanks. I thank Dr. James Upton for displaying on a daily basis the true essence of a “scholar and a gentleman” from the moment I was fortunate enough to become his student. I must send praise to Professor William E. Nelson, Jr., for simultaneously displaying the courage to “speak truth to power” while simultaneously serving as the most reliable safety net an aspiring scholar could ever wish for. I wish to acknowledge Dr. Maurice Shipley for offering unconditional support via private conversations and helping to pave my path with every exchange of ideas. To Dr. Marshall Stevenson, I am grateful to have been given the privilege of being your student. Your existence let me know that I could find my niche as an academician, while also teaching me to never seek validation from hostile forces. To Dr. Paulette Pierce, the scholar that I consider my intellectual mother, thank you immeasurably for challenging and pushing me way past anything that I considered at the time reasonable. Your shining example of intellectual inquiry and v the presentation of such facts in a form that was accessible to the masses is one that I still strive to approach. To Dr. Stephanie Shaw thank you for your encouraging words, you will never know how sorely they were needed and re-used at critical moments. To my wife, Yvette S. Jones, you should know that none of this would have been possible without your support. Your presence in my life is the greatest example of that age old lesson that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is “an on-time God”. I love you. Last but not least I would like to acknowledge a group of individuals who have impacted my life in ways that ensured that I would never be the same person. I would like to thank the following individuals for helping me to become who I am: Damon Thomas, Tony Quinn, John Calhoun, Ed Williams, Mario Martin, Jose Diaz, Marcus Allen, Mark Seay, Larry Beechum, Damon Butts, Eric Morris, the Vickers Family, the Jones family, the Youngs, and last but definitely not least James Thomas Jones IV. My love, respect, and adoration for you all stretches beyond the grave. vi VITA April 30, 1970………………………………………Born – Mansfield, Ohio 1994…………………………………………………B.A. Black Studies, The Ohio State University. 1995…………………………………………………M.A. Black Studies, The Ohio State University. 2000…………………………………………………M.A. History, The Ohio State University 2001 - 2004………………………………………… Assistant Professor, History Columbus State Community College 2004 - Present………………………………………Assistant Professor, History Prairie View A & M University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Minor Fields: African-American and African Studies Modern American History Black Power Era Black Nationalism Labor History African History vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract………………...………………………………………………………………...ii Dedication……..………………………………………………………………………….v Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………….vi Vita……..…………………………………………………………………………….....viii Chapters: 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 2. The River Swells………………………………………………………………...12 3. The Founders…………………………………………………………………...34 4. The Founding………………….………………………………………………..48 5. Patrols, Guns, and Harassment…...………………………………………...…72 6. Gaining Fame By Getting Lost.………………………………..……………....94 7. Free Huey…………………………………………………………………..…..113 8. Division and Repression…………..………………………………………...…….138 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..172 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...214 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The struggle of African-Americans to first obtain and then ensure first-class citizenship has been long and arduous. Historian Vincent Harding has analogized this epic struggle as a river. Harding’s analogy expressed in an illuminating DuBoisian poetic verse, likens the African-American struggle for rights and citizenship to an always-existing river with unpredictable ebbs and flows, twists and turns. Regardless of the historical period examined, African-Americans have displayed unprecedented resilience and strength to both advance their collective agenda, and to protect previous and contemporary advances against unceasing external attacks. The struggle Harding illuminates was indisputably in a flow stage during the two decades that bookend the Civil Rights movement and Black Power era. This dissertation focuses upon the latter portion of this revolutionary episode. On the heels of the nation celebrating its victory over the evils of state-sanctioned segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement, African-Americans were forced to realize the fallaciousness of the idea that the nation’s laws guaranteeing the franchise and legislative equality would invariably translate into the exercise of equality for African-Americans. After realizing that liberty and justice for all was nowhere on the horizon, African-Americans continued to struggle against lingering impediments within American politico-economic institutions. Largely because of broken promises and the stark reality that the 1964 Civil Rights 1 and 1965 Voting Rights Acts were incapable of producing racial equality, segments of the African-American movement sought strategic alternatives. In direct opposition to popular constructions, the rise of alternative strategies and tactics, particularly the Nationalist strains, signaled the transformation of the Civil Rights movement into a new stage of struggle. This change frames this story. Although this transformation serves as the context for this narrative, this study focuses upon the organization that activists, scholars, and theoreticians acknowledge was the vanguard of late-1960s African-American struggle: the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). Only by examining the genesis, ascent, decline, and ideological underpinnings of the BPP will scholars garner a greater understanding of African-American protest history, particularly its post-Voting Rights Act era. This study is chronologically structured, yet thematically driven. It depicts both the transformation of the African-American freedom struggle’s ideological underpinnings and the genesis and destruction of the BPP as a revolutionary vehicle. Academics have not sufficiently considered the BPP genesis, ascent, and decline as a revolutionary vehicle. The seminal piece of scholarly work upon the BPP is Charles Jones’ The Black Panther Party Reconsidered , a work that although impressive in its contents is an edited volume of essays. Other scholarly published work has been scant at best including Smith’s An International History of the Black Panther Party and Jeffries’ Huey P. Newton: The Radical Theorist , volumes which fall far short of offering anything substantial to current understanding of the Panthers. This work is an initial step toward understanding the BPP historical legacy in its totality as a revolutionary vehicle. Toward achieving such a goal, the initial chapter of this study re-creates the larger historical context and culture that birthed African-American

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