The Political Repression of the Black Panther Party 1966-1971: The Case of the Oakland Bay Area Author(s): Charles E. Jones Source: Journal of Black Studies , Jun., 1988, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Jun., 1988), pp. 415-434 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784371 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Black Studies This content downloaded from 64.106.42.43 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 01:00:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms THE POLITICAL REPRESSION OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY 1966-1971 The Case of the Oakland Bay Area CHARLES E. JONES Old Dominion University Throughout American history, certain organizations have been pulled into the maelstrom of political repression. Repression is "government action which grossly discriminates against persons or organizations viewed as presenting a fundamental challenge to existing power relationships or key governmental policies, because of their perceived political beliefs" (Goldstein, 1978: xvi). These events are generally perceived as aberrations in America despite their reoccurrence (Levin, 1971; Wolfe, 1973; Goldstein, 1978). In the late 1960s, the Black Panther Party was one of several or- ganizations claiming repression at the hands of government offi- cials.