BLACK    SOCIAL   HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                             The FBI's War on the Black Panther Party's Southern California Chapter

The Black Panther Party (BPP) of the 1960s is remembered clearly by both its friends and its enemies. Both remember it as an organization that popularized the ideas of socialism and armed revolution in North America, particularly among Black people. Its friends also remember it for the challenges it posed to police brutality, hunger, disease, ignorance, and the oppression of Black people generally.(1) This article is not about these successes, however. Nor will it cover the exact course of either the West Coast BPP's degeneration - from its original revolutionary positions to its later reformist positions - or the ultraleft turn of the East Coast BPP (which became the Black Liberation Army). Instead, after providing some background, it will focus on the state repression of the Southern California chapter of the BPP. The reader should remember that the repression that the BPP faced in Southern California was only a fraction of the repression the entire Party faced.(2) The fact is that the U.S. government engaged in deceit, sabotage, and murder to crush and silence its political opponents. This is crucial to understand, because it strikes at the heart of the U.S. government's myths about itself regarding free speech, human rights, liberty and justice.

The BPP's fall from its position as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country" preceded its formal dissolution in the early 1980s.(3) It is perhaps impossible to pinpoint an exact moment at which the BPP abandoned its earlier positions, but clearly this degeneration took place. For instance, BPP founder and leader Huey Newton had once been clear in condemning liberal politicians:

"I don't believe that under the present system, under capitalism, that they will be able to solve these problems [of housing, unemployment, self-determination, justice, and imperialism]. I don't think Black people should be fooled by their come-ons, because everyone who gets in office promises the same thing. They promise full employment and decent housing; the Great Society, the New Frontier. All of these names, but no real benefits. Black people are tired of being deceived and duped. The people must have full control of the means of production."(4)

But by November 1974, Jerry Brown was elected governor of California with the help of a BPP endorsement.(5) Newton's former comrade, Geronimo Pratt, languished in a California jail cell on false charges throughout Brown's tenure as governor.(6) Nonetheless, in 1976, the BPP, under Elaine Brown's acting leadership, supported Jerry Brown for President.(7) Whereas BPP Chairperson Bobby Seale had been brought to trial - bound and gagged for his participation in the demonstrations against the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, in 1976 - Elaine Brown served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.(8) Former Panthers Kit Kim Holder and Safiya Bukhari suggest that the 1970-1971 split of the BPP into an Oakland faction under Newton's leadership and a New York faction under Eldridge Cleaver's initial leadership marked the degeneration of the BPP. Says Holder, "both factions began to overemphasize either the mass organizational or military aspect of the struggle."(9) While not the only factor, state repression was key in bringing about this destruction of the BPP.

Origins and Infiltrators

The Black Panther Party was formed in Oakland, Cal. in October 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, principally Huey Newton. Newton and his party had already made names for themselves by the time Newton was arrested on Oct. 28, 1967, for allegedly killing a police officer in self-defense. In response to this arrest, Earl Anthony of the BPP Central Committee moved to Los Angeles in November 1967 to raise support for the Huey P. Newton Legal Defense Fund.(10) This marked the start of Panther activity in Southern California. It marked the start of covert anti-Panther activity in Southern California as well. By his account, Anthony had agreed four months prior to become "an FBI informant-agent-provocateur inside the Black Panther Party."(11)

Furthermore, 1967 was also when the FBI's Richard Wallace Held "was assigned to the Bureau's Los Angeles field office, as a specialist in 'black extremist' matters and head of the local Cointelpro section."(12) Cointelpro, FBI short for "counterintelligence program," was first launched in 1956 against the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA). The Cointelpro against Black nationalists began in 1967, with the BPP as its main target.(13) On Aug. 25, 1967, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote an internal memorandum to all FBI offices which explained: "The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters."(14) Cointelpro first became publicly known on March 8, 1971, when a group called the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI's Media, Penn. office and removed thousands of pages of classified files.(15) Exposed, the state officially discontinued Cointelpro. In reality, however, the code name changed, but the operations continued.(16) For instance, Richard Held became the special agent in charge of the San Francisco office, where he may have been responsible for operations against the radical environmentalist group Earth First!, including a failed assassination attempt on and subsequent arrest of two Earth First! activists on May 24, 1990.(17)

The Southern California chapter of the BPP was formed in 1968 by Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter. Carter was the former head of the 5,000-strong Slauson gang and its 'hardcore,' the Slauson Renegades, and was therefore known as "the Mayor of the Ghetto." While spending f our years in Soledad prison for armed robbery, he became a Muslim and a follower of Malcolm X. In 1967, Carter met BPP Minister of Defense Huey Newton and became a Panther on the spot. Carter formed and headed the Southern California chapter, taking position of Deputy Minister of Defense, announced in early 1968. (18)

Among the best-known members of the Southern California chapter besides Carter were Elaine Brown, Raymond "Masai" Hewitt, Vietnam veteran Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, Ericka Huggins, Angela Davis, and Captain (later Chairperson) John Huggins. Huggins, who had served in Vietnam, became the number-two-ranking member of the chapter. Davis joined briefly before being recruited away by the CPUSA. (19) In accordance with party-wide requirements, chapter members were required to attend political education classes regularly, read certain books including Marx, Ché, and Quotations from Chairman Mao (the "Red Book"), memorize and follow the rules of discipline, memorize the BPP program and platform, learn to use firearms (training was conducted in the Mojave desert), and learn to perform emergency medical techniques.(20) By April 1968, the Southern California chapter gained 50-100 new members each week, though not all stayed.(21)

Attacks on the party

As the chapter grew, so did the attacks against it. These initially took the form of random raids of party offices and homes and random arrests of Party members. On April 5, 1968, a day after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, San Diego police crashed down the door of Ken Denman, a Peace and Freedom Party leader and Panther organizer in San Diego - without a warrant.(22) On Aug. 5, 1968, police killed BPP Captains Little Tommy Lewis, Steve Bartholomew, and Robert Lawrence at Adams Boulevard and Montclair in Watts.(23) On Jan. 1, 1969, Captain Franco (Frank Diggs), the reputed leader of the BPP's local underground apparatus, was shot dead in an alley in Long Beach.(24) In 1969, the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) vice squad was transformed into its "metro squad." The metro squad was the LAPD's Panther unit, an "urban counterinsurgency task force."(25) In April 1969, hundreds of Panthers were meeting on the second floor of the BPP's Southern California chapter's headquarters at 4115 S. Central Avenue in Los Angeles. Hundreds of LAPD officers from the Newton Street Division surrounded the building. The chapter's leader at the time, Geronimo Pratt, turned off the lights and armed and organized the Panthers to defend themselves. Panthers Joan Kelley and Elaine Brown contacted the news media, ultimately prompting the LAPD to withdraw.(26) On May 1, 1969, the LAPD raided the L.A. BPP office. Nine Panthers were arrested in the raid, and two other L.A. Panthers were arrested the same day.(27) During a two-week period around this time, the LAPD made 56 arrests of 42 Panthers. (28) On June 16, 1969, the San Diego Police Department raided the San Diego Panthers' office at 2608 Imperial Avenue. (29)

On Sept. 8, 1969, armed police raided the Watts breakfast program.(30) This raid accorded with an early 1969 FBI directive to "eradicate [the BPP's] serve the people programs."(31) On May 15, 1969, in an internal memo, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wrote: "The Breakfast for Children Program represents the best and most influential activity going for the BPP and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for."(32) From September to December of 1969, Southern California's Panthers were arrested on a daily basis, with most of the charges dropped within a week.(33) On Oct. 10, 1969 the LAPD had a shoot-out with some Panthers. Panther Bruce Richards was wounded and charged with attempted murder, and Panther Walter Toure Poke was killed.(34) On October 18, the L.A. BPP office was raided yet again.(35) On November 22, the San Diego BPP office was raided. All seven Panthers present were arrested. (36)

Most dramatically, on December 8, the LAPD deployed its new SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics, a militarized police unit) teams, a warrant, a battering ram, helicopters, a tank, trucks, dynamite, and 400 police officers to raid three L.A. BPP facilities including the Central Ave. headquarters.(37) The raid bore much similarity to the raid against the Chicago BPP led four days prior by the FBI and Chicago police.(38) For instance, the government's plan called for the police to focus gunfire at chapter leader Geronimo Pratt's bed; however, Pratt was sleeping on the floor at the time.(39) But whereas the Chicago raid ended with Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark murdered, the L.A. Panthers, under Geronimo Pratt's leadership, stood their ground. Only after exchanging fire with the police for five hours did the Panthers surrender, alive.(40) Participant Melvin Cotton Smith, security officer for the L.A. branch, was later identified by former government agent Louis Tackwood as a police informant.(41) Louis Tackwood, too, was a government infiltrator of the Southern California BPP.(42) Cotton provided the LAPD and FBI with detailed blueprints of party facilities before the raid. (43) The LAPD's warrant was obtained on the basis of false information provided by the FBI regarding stolen military weapons. The day after the raid, Angela Davis and others set up a vigil outside BPP's Southern California headquarters, during which LAPD attacked, forcing people to flee in all directions.(44)

The attacks on the rank and file continued. On Nov. 4, 1970, the LAPD raided the L.A. BPP's child care center, rounded up children, and held guns on them while officers beat up an adult Panther. Police claimed to be responding to a landlord complaint of children in the building.(45)

The rank and file of the BPP were not the only targets of Cointelpro-BPP. Special attention was given to the leadership. In Southern California, the FBI success in "neutralizing" the BPP was largely attributable to its success in neutralizing two layers of local leadership: first Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, who were killed, then Geronimo Pratt, who remains in jail today on bogus charges.

Hoover's agenda

In late 1968, Hoover openly announced that the BPP was, in his opinion, "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."(46) Cointelpro was massively expanded. In November 1968, Hoover ordered FBI offices "to exploit all avenues of creating dissension within the ranks of the BPP" and encouraged agents to "submit imaginative and hard-hitting counterintelligence measures aimed at crippling the BPP." (47)

In this context, the Los Angeles office of the FBI set the stage for the Jan. 17, 1969, "neutralization" by murder of the L.A. BPP's top two leaders, Bunchy Carter and John Huggins at UCLA's Campbell Hall. Because local Cointelpro head Richard W. Held took credit for the killings, there is no question that the FBI was responsible. Carter and Huggins' apparent killer was Claude "Chuchessa" Hubert, although George and Larry Stiner were arrested for the crime. All three were members of the cultural nationalist US organization led by Ron "Maulana" Karenga. It is unclear whether Hubert, the Stiners, and Karenga were knowing agents of FBI-Cointelpro, accidental agents, or some combination of the two.

Congressional investigators of Cointelpro put forward the most conservative plausible argument. Huey Newton summed up this argument: "The impression given from official investigations is that the FBI merely took advantage of an existing state of 'gang warfare' between the two organizations. This was supposedly accomplished by the sending of false death threats and derogatory cartoons in the name of one organization to another."(48) It is true that local Cointelpro head Richard W. Held "devised and released a series of cartoons and forged in the names of the Panthers and a nationalist organization known as United Slaves (US), in which the rival groups appeared to be viciously and publicly ridiculing one another."(49) And there were genuine differences between the two groups. The Panthers were Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries, while US was cultural nationalist.(50) US was highly patriarchal, while the Los Angeles Panthers were anti-sexist (though it is true that other BPP chapters were more like US in this regard).(51) Concretely, the two organizations competed for recruits. This rivalry grew as the two organizations found themselves competing on the same turf - UCLA.

In September 1968, Bunchy Carter, John Huggins, Geronimo Pratt and Elaine Brown all registered as students in UCLA's High Potential Program.(52) Huggins seized the opportunity to become a student organizer.(53) On Nov. 25, 1968, J. Edgar Hoover told 14 FBI field offices that "an aura of gang warfare with attendant threats of murder and reprisals" existed between the BPP and the US organization and said they should exploit the situation.(54)

UCLA killings

Around this time, US leader Ron Karenga had suggested Dr. Charles Thomas as head of a proposed Black Studies program at UCLA. UCLA Chancellor Charles Young authorized funding for Karenga's program. The rank and file of the Black Student Union (BSU) were upset at having been uninvolved in the decision-making process. They called a meeting. Fearing the US organization, the BSU asked the BPP to act as security for the meeting. The BPP refused to take sides, but agreed to back up the BSU's majority decision regarding the program. On January 15, the BSU voted against Karenga's program.(55) At a follow-up meeting two days later, Carter and Huggins were shot and killed. (56)

"[Local Cointelpro head Richard] Held quickly took 'credit' for the killings [of Carter and Huggins], and recommended sending more cartoons. This was duly approved and resulted in the wounding of several more Panthers and the death of yet another, Sylvester Bell. In the aftermath, Held again patted himself on the back for such 'success' via internal memoranda."(57)

In 1969, Panther Ronald Freeman was shot by US organization members while selling BPP newspapers.(58) BPP member John Savage was killed by US members in San Diego on May 23. The BPP claimed that Savage had witnessed the Carter and Huggins murders and was killed to prevent him from testifying at the US members' trial.(59) In all, four Panthers were shot and one wounded by US members in 1969.(60)

The theory outlined above suggests that genuine rivalries between two genuine organizations were exacerbated by the FBI to create war between them. On the other end of the spectrum of plausible theories, some suggest that the US organization was not a genuine part of the Black power movement at all, but was in fact an anti-Panther death squad financed by the FBI. Elaine Brown suggests that she believes this was the case, at least after the Campbell Hall killings.(61) Former FBI infiltrator and agent-provocateur Earl Anthony alleges that he knows this to be true:

"When I met with [FBI Agents Robert] O'Connor and [Ron] Kizenski at our designated time [Aug. 6, 1968],...[t]hey said they were tired of the 'Panther shit,' and the FBI had worked out a deal with Karenga where they would supply US with weapons and a master plan to destroy the LA Black Panther Party; and they were hoping to get something like that going in New York."(62)

Anthony's words have proven in the past to be untrustworthy, so this allegation is not worth very much. It is quite possible that he is continuing to spread slanderous disinformation on behalf of the FBI.

What gives some credence, though not proof, to the theory held by Brown and Anthony is that while the more conservative theory holds that the FBI was using each group against the other, the repression faced by the BPP was much more severe than that faced by the US organization. The pattern of killings described above is a case in point. Another is that the FBI opened a conspiracy investigation for Panther Geronimo Pratt for a bank robbery that the FBI knew had been committed by US members.(63)

Another example of police favoritism towards US is the initial police response to the killings of Carter and Huggins, which was not to go after the US organization or any other suspects in the murder, but instead to deploy over 150 police officers to raid a Panther apartment and arrest 75 Panthers, including the remaining Panther leadership, on charges of intending to murder US members in retaliation!(64) Later, the police arrested US's Stiner brothers, Larry and George. The Stiners were given life terms and sent to San Quentin, but, adding to suspicions that US members were deliberately given light treatment, they "walked away from a minimum security area on March 30, 1974."(65) Larry Stiner turned himself in on Feb. 5, 1994, while George Stiner remained a fugitive.(66)

FBI killers?

Another theory holds that, whatever the role of the US organization as a whole, those who shot Carter and Huggins were knowing FBI agents. This theory, put forward by Huey Newton, relies on the testimony of a Black former FBI informant named D'Arthard Perry, also known as Ed Riggs and, according to him, the FBI code name "Othello."(67) Perry claims he reported directly to L.A. FBI agents Brandon Cleary, Will Heaton, and Michael Quinn.(68) Perry's testimony is more plausible than Anthony's (although it is possible that both are true), and is worth quoting at length:

"Shortly after my arrival in the parking lot I heard shots from the direction of Campbell Hall.

"Within a few minutes I observed George Stiner, Larry Stiner, and Claude Hubert also known as Chuchessa, jump into a 1967 or 1968 light tan or white, four-door Chevrolet driven by Brandon Cleary of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I saw this car drive away from the parking lot of Campbell Hall. I left the campus on foot and immediately went to FBI headquarters by bus. I inquired as to the whereabouts of Brandon Cleary at this time, and, was told he was not available. I am informed and believe that the four-door Chevrolet described above was the property of a man called 'Jomo,' a known member of the US organization, now deceased.

"I recognized George Stiner, Larry Stiner, and Claude Hubert from seeing them prior to this date on the 14th floor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation building on several occasions in the company of Brandon Cleary, the man I had seen drive them away from the Campbell Hall area.

"I had been told to give a report within twenty-four hours of the incident to my supervising agent, Will Heaton, on the 14th floor of the Wilshire Blvd. Federal Investigation building.

"A few hours later, I went to the building and met with my supervising agent, Will Heaton. While in his company, I observed George Stiner, Larry Stiner, and Claude Hubert in the company of Brandon Cleary on the 14th floor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation building. I asked Cleary, 'what was happening' and was told that there had been a 'fuck up' - no one was to be killed by 'our' people. I also learned that the car that had been driven by Cleary was taken from the place Jomo Shambulia had parked it and returned to the same parking space after the incident. I also learned that it was Claude Hubert who fired the shot that killed John Jerome Huggins and the same Claude Hubert who fired the shot that killed Alprentice 'Bunchy' Carter and not George or Larry Stiner.

"Through information and belief, I have knowledge that George Stiner and Larry Stiner were Intelligence Gatherers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and were working for Brandon Cleary and others when John Jerome Huggins and Alprentice 'Bunchy' Carter were murdered. I am informed and believe that Claude Hubert was on January 17, 1969 at the time he reportedly executed John Jerome Huggins and Alprentice 'Bunchy' Carter, an agent in the service of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles office. I am further informed that this same Claude Hubert was subsequently transferred to an east coast office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, specifically New York, New York."(69)

White former FBI agent M. Wesley Swearingen relates a similar account:

"Soon after I had been assigned to the Los Angeles racial squad, I was told by a fellow agent that another agent on the squad had arranged for [his] informers in the United Slaves to assassinate Alprentice Carter and John Huggins. Following [the agent's] instructions, informants George Stiner and Larry Stiner shot them to death on the UCLA campus on January 17, 1969.

"I later reviewed the Los Angeles files and verified that the Stiner brothers were FBI informants. I know that D'arthard Perry was an FBI informant and that he is telling the truth about the FBI."(70)

Again, while the details are disputed, the basic fact is not. Regardless of how direct or indirect the FBI's role was in the murders of Carter and Huggins, clearly at the very least the FBI encouraged the hostilities that culminated in the murders, then claimed credit after the murders took place.

Target: Geronimo Pratt

Following these murders, Carter's former bodyguard, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, rose to fill the local leadership vacuum, and became the next local Cointelpro target for "neutralization."(71) As noted, LAPD officers fired at Pratt's bed during the December 1969 FBI-planned raid on L.A. Panther headquarters.(72) The FBI also took actions to isolate Pratt from the rest of the Party, leaving him vulnerable to state attack.(73) In September 1970, the LAPD's Criminal Conspiracy Section (CCS) was working to indict Pratt on false murder charges, although "according to both [former informants] Tackwood and Cotton Smith, there had been considerable controversy in CCS and the FBI over exactly what murder to use in preparing a case against Pratt."(74)

They arrested Pratt on Dec. 4, 1970.(75) He stood trial in the spring of 1972 at Los Angeles Superior Court on charges of murdering Caroline Olsen, a white schoolteacher, on a Santa Monica tennis court on Dec. 18, 1968.(76) The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of LAPD and FBI informant Julius Carl "Julio" Butler, who at the trial denied being an informant.(77) Butler to this day denies that he was ever an informant, no doubt in part because such an admission would jeopardize his position as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Los Angeles' oldest and most prominent Black church, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (First A.M.E.).(78) Pratt argued, and maintains today, that he was at a BPP meeting in Oakland, 400 miles away from Santa Monica, on the evening of the murder.(79) The FBI's success in isolating Pratt from the BPP prevented Party members, except for Kathleen Cleaver, from testifying on his behalf and corroborating his alibi.(80) Then-FBI agent Wesley Swearingen reports:

"My supervisor and several agents on the racial squad knew that Pratt was innocent because the FBI had wiretap logs proving that Pratt was in the San Francisco area several hours before the shooting of Caroline Olsen and that he was there the day after the murder.

"The Los Angeles office had a wiretap on Panther headquarters in Los Angeles for a two-week period covering the date of December 18, 1968. These wiretap logs could prove that Elmer Pratt was in the San Francisco area on the day Caroline Olsen was shot to death.

"I reviewed the Black Panther Party file that showed that the Los Angeles FBI office had had a wiretap on the Panther office at 4115 South Central Avenue from November 15, 1968 through 2:00 P.M., December 20, 1968. I had worked with wiretap information since 1952, and this was the first time in my twenty-five-year career that I could not find the Panther wiretap logs for the period November 15 through December 20, 1968. Someone had destroyed those logs so there would be no proof that Elmer Pratt had been in the San Francisco area on December 18, 1968.

"A wiretap by the San Francisco FBI office placed Pratt in the Bay area just hours before the shooting. An illegal wiretap in Oakland placed Pratt in Oakland the day after the murder. "This is a total of three wiretaps known to the FBI with information that placed Pratt in the San Francisco area before, during, and after the murder of Caroline Olsen, and yet the FBI withheld this information from the court and the jury." (81)

Pratt was convicted of first degree murder on July 28, 1972.(82)

"At present, Geronimo Pratt remains in prison after nearly two decades in California, a state in which the average time served on a first degree murder conviction is 4.5 years. During a 1988 parole hearing, Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney Dianne Vianni went before the board to explain why: Pratt should not be released, she stated, because 'he is still a revolutionary man.'"(83)

Cointelpro-BPP was not limited to attacks on BPP leaders or even members. Outside supporters, too, were subject to "neutralization."

"Held also assumed a leading role in destroying the Panthers' white supporters, and is known to have written the false accusation that actress Jean Seberg, an outspoken advocate and fundraiser for the BPP, had been sexually unfaithful to her husband and was pregnant by 'a prominent Panther leader.' This bit of poison pen prose found its way into print on May 19, 1970 in the syndicated column of a 'cooperating journalist,' Carol Haber, and caused predictable complications in Seberg's marriage. The actress, whom Bureau profiles had already described as being 'mentally unstable,' became very emotionally distraught at such disinformation, suffered a spontaneous abortion, and subsequently attempted suicide on the anniversary of this event each year. After several tries, she was successful [in June 1970]. According to former agents, who were there, Held was gleeful at the 'effectiveness' of the Seberg gambit."(84)

Learn our lessons

To those who seek to emulate the BPP, it is not enough to know that the state smashed the BPP. To these activists, the important question is what the BPP could have done differently to ensure its own survival. Briefly, the internal problems of the BPP that led to its demise all have to do with a failure to adequately prepare for state repression. For instance, the short-term gains of being above-ground - having public offices and having publicly known membership - do not look worthwhile in hindsight, 40 martyrs later.(85) Flashing guns in front of news cameras popularized the BPP and made a political point asserting the right to self-defense, but it also made it easier for the FBI to paint the BPP as a dangerous group that had to be crushed by any means. The BPP could also have benefited from tighter discipline on questions of study and theoretical work, and from a greater emphasis on the importance of political theory. Finally, the BPP tolerated illegal drug use in its ranks, and Huey Newton's cocaine use in particular hastened the demise of his leadership.(86)

Repression, while not the only aspect, was a key factor in the decline of both the Black Panther Party and its Southern California chapter. Believers in the illusion that the U.S. government supports free speech, freedom of assembly, human rights, liberty, justice, and democracy - or that the government is invincible - will tend to be complicit in America's crimes, often without even knowing that the crimes exist or that they are criminal. Thus, it is of the utmost importance to build public awareness of domestic repression. Building public opinion against domestic repression is a necessary prerequisite to its eradication.