History of the Black Panther Party

Excerpted Timeline
1619 - first recorded enslaved Africans Virginia 1850 Fugitive Slave Act 1857 Dread Scott decision A Black person has no rights a white person is bound to respect 1861-1865 Civil War 1865 - slavery abolished 13th Amendment 1865 - Black Codes are passed/ prison growth begins 1865 -1877 - Reconstruction 1880s 1920s - height of lynching epidemic - approx. 3,000 blacks killed 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson legalized segregation (separate but equal) 1909 NAACP founded 1914- 1918 - World War I 1919 - Red Summer whites attack blacks in riots 26 different cities 1916 1930s - Great Migration - 500,000 blacks moving from south to urban centers in north 1920s massive railroad strikes by black workers (Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union) 1929 1939 - Great Depression 1928 1935 - Communist Party organizing among blacks (Scottsboro Boys 1931) 1939 1945 - World War II 1942 U.S. involvement in World War II 1951 - Libya wins independence from Italy 1954 - Brown V. the Board of Education segregation is illegal 1955 - Montgomery Bus Boycott 1956 Tunisia and Morocco win independence from France 1957 - Ghana wins independence 1957 Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded by MLK 1959 1975 Vietnam War 1959 George Jackson is sentenced to one year to life at the age of 18 for a 70 dollar robbery he will never leave prison Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington and MLKs I have a dream speech 1965 U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalates 1964 Huey Newton is found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to six months in prison Feb. 21,1965 - Malcolm X assassinated Aug. 11 Aug. 17, 1965 Watts Uprising/Rebellion Oct. 15, 1966 - Black Panthers founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale 1966 George Jackson founds Black Guerrilla Family in prison Jan. 1, 1967 First BPP patrol there were about 19 Panthers to 600 Oakland police officers at that time Feb. 1967 Provide security for Betty Shabazz, Malcolm Xs widow, while she gives the keynote at the Bayview Community Center Eldridge Cleaver joins Party soon after April 1967, Denzil Dowell is murdered by police Panthers respond with armed patrols around corner and do their own investigation

History of the Black Panther Party May 2, 1967 Bobby Seale leads armed Panther delegation to Sacramento, California capitol to protest legislation limiting their right to bear arms April 25 1967 Black Panther publishes first Black Panther Community News Service which refers to police as pigs August 1967 FBI instucts COINTELPRO to neutralize black nationalist hate groups BPP is on the list October 1967 Newton is arrested after Police Officer Heanes is shot dead October 1967 Free Huey Movement begins Feb. 1968 Huge Free Huey/birthday party revitalizing Panthers 1968 coalition between Peace and Freedom Party and the Panthers 1968 Coalition between Panthers and Student Nonviolent (later National) Coordinating Committee (SNCC) 1968 Bunch Carter joins LA chapter and brings the majority of the Slausons gang with him March 1968 Eldridge Cleaver publishes Soul on Ice April 4, 1968 - MLK assassinated uprisings in cities across the nation but not in Oakland, which is attributed to the Party April 6, 1968 Oakland police attack that murders 17 year old Lil Bobby Hutton 1968 Eldridge Cleaver, present at Bobby Huttons murder, flees the country and lives in exile, mostly in Algeria, setting up the first international panther office 1968 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover calls BPP The biggest threat to internal secutiry in this country and calls for a concerted law enforcement war Aug. 1968 Bobby Seale arrested with white defendants as part of The Chicago Seven for conspiracy charges from the demonstrations against the Democratic National Convention Sept. 8, 1968 - Newton found guilty of voluntary manslaughter of an Oakland police officer and is sentenced to two to 15 years; an appeals court reverses the conviction; two more trials end in mistrial 1968 American Indian Movement founded Nov. 29, 1968 FBI memo that reads in part The Los Angeles Office is currently preparing an anonymous letter which will be sent to the LA BPP supposedly from the US organization in which it will be stated that the youth group of the US organization is aware of the BPP contract to kill Ron Karenga, leader of Us, and they, US members, in retaliation, have made plans to ambush leaders of the BPP in LA Winter 1968 raids on BPP headquarters in LA 1969 Police across country bragged this would be the year of the dead Panthers from 1967-1969 19 Panthers killed, thousands arrested 1969 hundreds of raids on BPP, 27 Panthers killed by police, 749 jailed or arrested 1969 Weather Underground formed white youth who engaged in nonviolent bombings in opposition to racism Jan. 17, 1969 - UCLA shoot-out between Panthers and United Slaves (US) organization kills leaders John Huggins and Bunchy Carter Jan. 17, 1969 75 100 SWAT police go to John Huggins widows home, Ericka, point a gun at her six month old baby and say Youre next 1969 raid on LA office by 300 police officers held at bay by 18 Panthers for hours

History of the Black Panther Party 1969 Fred Hampton starts the first Rainbow Coalition in Chicago with the Young Lords, Brown Berets, Students for Democratic Society (SDS), Blackstone Rangers, Red Guard, Young Patriots 1969 - Panthers start free breakfast program for children. Other Survival Pending Revolution programs April 2, 1969 Panther 21 charged with 156 counts of arson, conspiracy and attempted murder (said they planned to blow up NY Botanical Gardens among other places) Sept. 4, 1969 - Opening of Chicago Eight trial. Bobby Seale and seven others are accused of crossing state lines to incite rioting at 1968 Democratic convention Dec. 4, 1969 Chicago police with support of the FBI murder Fred Hampton and Mark Clark as they sleep Jan. 16, 1970 George Jackson and two others charged with murdering a prison guard they become the Soledad Brothers. George is in solitary confinement for the rest of his life, and releases two books Blood in My Eye and Soledad Brother 1970 Black Panther Party stops officially accepting new members because of COINTELPRO infiltration 1970 Longest prison strike in U.S. Folsom Prison, California 1970 Geronimo ji Jaga (Pratt) charged with a murder in Santa Monica while FBI had phone taps that prove he was at a meeting during the time. He will serve 27 years in prison for this crime July 4, 1970 BPP holds Consitutional Convention to draft a new constitution Aug. 7, 1970 Jonathan Jackson, George Jacksons younger brother takes hostages and demands freedom for Soledad Brothers. Police killed two prisoners, Jackson and the judge, and wounded the prosecutor August 1970 Angela Davis goes underground stemming from Jonathan Jackson incident August 1970 Angela Davis placed on FBIs ten most wanted list shes arrested two months later 1970ish Black Liberation Army (BLA) is founded 1971 BPP split occurs on a radio show that Newton and Cleaver call into Cleaver expels Newton and sets up the true BPP with a headquarters in Algiers. Newton expels Cleaver in response, and begins a purge of the organizaiton March 1971 Panther Robert Webb, Cleaver supporter, was shot and killed by other Panthers 1971 Panther and BPP Newspaper editor Samuel Napier was abducted, tortured and murdered by Panthers (Cleaver followers) Aug. 23, 1971 George Jackson shot to death by prison guard Sept 9 - 13, 1971 Attica Prison Rebellion Sept. 13, 1971 violent retaking of Attica, state troopers murdered 39 people including 10 guards/staff May 1971 Chicago Seven charges against Seale were dropped for lack of sufficient evidence May 13, 1971 Panther 21 acquitted on all 156 counts in the longest trial in NYC history: the jury took less than a half an hour to decide 1971 President Richard Nixon first uses the term war on drugs (soldiers returning from Vietnam heavily addicted to heroin)

History of the Black Panther Party 1971 COINTELPRO exposed by breakin in Media, Pennsylvania 1972 Huey centralizes the Party and orders all branches to shut down and all panthers to come to Oakland to work on electoral campaigns of Elaine Brown and Bobby Seale 1972 Angela Davis is acquitted of all charges 1972 Walpole prisoners run the prison 1970s immense growth in the prison population 1973 Bobby Seale runs (and loses)for Oakland mayor through the Party Elaine Brown runs (and loses) for City Council My 1973 BLA members Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli are arrested and charged with murder of state trooper; Zayd Shakur is killed 1974 Bobby Seale leaves the Party under mysterious circumstances Aug. 17, 1974 Newton is charged with murdering a prostitute and pistol-whipping a tailor and flees to Cuba, Aug. 17, 1974 Elaine Brown becomes the Chairperson of the Black Panther Party early 1970s the beginning of the CRIPs (which started as a community organization by youth who looked up to the Panthers) and later the Bloods November 1975 Cleaver returns from exile and was acquitted Jan. 4, 1976 - A Senate Intelligence Committee reveals the contents of an FBI report that shows that the FBI encouraged warfare between Black groups in California in late 1960s 1976 Elaine Brown is Governor Jerry Browns delegate to the Democratic National Convention 1977 Newton returns to United States and is in out and out of prison for his original charges and others for next 15 years 1977 Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli convicted of state trooper murder 1979 Assata Shakur escapes to Cuba where she receives political asylum and lives to this day Dec. 9, 1981 former BPP Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer he was given the death sentence 1980s Nicaraguan Contras, with awareness and complicity of the CIA, ship cocaine into the country 1982 The Black Panther Party ends 1982 - Mutulu Shakur, Silvia Baraldini, former Panther Sekou Odinga, and Marylin Buck were convicted of numerous RICO charges, one of them breaking Assata Shakur out of prison they were given 40 plus years in prison 1984 1990 Crack epidemic disproportionately affects inner city people of color affected all major American cities 1984 Nancy Reagan launches the Just Say No campaign 1987 Reagan signs the Anti Drug Abuse Act creates mandatory minimums and 1.7 billion for fighting drug crisis disparities in sentencing crack versus cocaine Aug. 22, 1989 - Huey Newton is killed in West Oakland 2003 U.S. prison population surpassed 2 million for the first time