INTERVIEWS Black Panthers Today

Pirkle Jones, Black Panther Party National Headquarters window, shattered by the bullets of two Oakland policemen, September 10, 1968

That's the window of the office on Shattuck of the Black Panther National Headquarters. It was taken on September 10, 1968, after Huey Newton's trial. He'd been convicted of voluntary manslaughter. He was accused of murdering an Oakland policeman, but was not convicted of murder. A couple of Oakland policeman were so distraught at the verdict that they shot his poster. They also shot Eldridge Cleaver's poster. They also shot the "Newton for Congress" bumper sticker. This was the opinion of the Oakland police officers who disagreed with the verdict. But when you just look at this shattering, look at this violence — these are strips of people who are running for office in a democratic society, in an electoral system.

(Points to "Cleaver for President" bumper sticker and Black Panther logo) This Black Panther image, that's the very same drawing that we took from Laones County, Alabama. I refer to it privately as the "chunky panther" because there are others that are a different size. This one here comes from Alabama.

These images are of people who spoke out for radical alteration, radical transformation. You know, Eldridge used to say, "Ready or not, here we come." Or, other things that were less polite. You know, "Take your foot off my neck I'll blow your m-f- leg off." There was an attitude, a boldness, a bravado, that attracted young people from all over the country. I wanna be a Black Panther. We didn't ever have to "organize" the Black Panther Party — people organized it themselves. They saw the pictures. They saw the images and they said, I'm coming to the Bay Area. I wanna be one of those.

I have a friend who lived in Chicago. This tells you how divided Chicago was — she lived on the Southside, she didn't even know there were Panthers on the Westside. She came all the way to California to join the Black Panther Party. There were people who just put on berets, put on leather jackets, and announced they were Black Panthers. It was an extraordinarily exciting time. The excitement was, for somebody my age, and of my generation, exhilarating. For my parents' generation, it probably somewhat less than exhilarating. It was a little terrifying. But the impact of all that youth and excitement, and energy, and politics, fused in the Bay Area — which had such a history of radical labor and political organizing — we were blossoming in an area in which radicalism had sown a very, very fertile soil.

This is an image of violence, of intimidation. This is the response of the police to what we were doing.

Next »

Photo: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18