Panther 21 Trial (6 images)
Black Power
Roz Payne took these photos outside the Panther 21 trial in New York City.
Description
In April of 1969, after a lengthy, coordinated effort by local and federal law enforcement to infiltrate and disrupt the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party, District Attorney Frank Hogan indicted 21 members of the organization, claiming a widespread conspiracy to murder policemen and blow up four police stations, five department stores, railroad lines, the Queens Board of Education building, and the Bronx Botanical Gardens. Ultimately, 13 Panthers, including Afeni Shakur and Dhoruba Bin Wahad, stood trial in a case that became a cause celebre among black militants and the broader New Left. For ten months prior to the trial, the jailed Panthers were held in solitary confinement with lights on 24 hours a day and denied reading materials, recreational facilities and family visitation. Several were not given mattresses and the two female Panthers were limited to four sheets of toilet paper per day. It was also reported that prison officials harassed Panther attorneys. Famed composer, Leonard Bernstein, helped raise bail money for the “New York 21.” During the court proceedings, District Attorney Hogan referred to the Panthers as a “terrorist organization,” read from Mao Zedong’s “Little Red Book,” showed jurors the film, “The Battle of Algiers” and attempted to introduce political posters from one of the defendant’s apartment into evidence. In what was, at the time, the longest and most costly trial in New York state history, the Panthers were acquitted of all 156 charges on May 12, 1971. In the wake of the failed prosecution, local law enforcement and the FBI continued to target the New York Black Panther Party.
Roz Payne
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1970-1971
Liberated Guardian Supplement, April 15, 1971
New Left
The National Guardian was a radical, left newsweekly published out of New York City from 1948-1992. The paper was established by James Aronson, Cedric Belfrage, who were committed activists for the Progressive Party and Henry Wallace presidential campaign, as well as John McManus and Josiah Gitt, both liberal newspaper men, though Gitt quickly dropped out. In addition to the Progressive Party, the newspaper also held ties with American communists and the labor movement. The Cold War took a toll on the newspaper, with the decline of the Progressive Party and the rise of McCarthyism in the U.S. During the post-WWII era, the newspaper focused coverage on opposition to the Cold War and militarism, support for emerging anti-colonial struggles around the world, defense of those targeted by McCarthyism, advocacy for the black freedom movement. The newspaper continued to hold a cozy relationship with the Communist Party U.S.A., though it did break with the group over some issues, particularly support for independent political action beyond party control. The 1960s-era brought a new period of political rancor within the editorial ranks of the newspaper. In the end, the periodical changed leadership and renamed itself The Guardian. The Guardian took an increasingly Maoist line, supporting armed struggles against colonialism. During this period, the newspaper attempted to forge ties with SDS and SNCC, writing that "The duty of a radical newspaper is to build a radical movement.” "We are movement people acting as journalists," the Guardian′s staff now proudly declared. The Liberated Guardian formed out of a workers strike at The Guardian newspaper in New York City in the Spring of 1970. The Liberated Guardian was notable for it strong stand in favor of armed struggle. An ideological and political split within the ranks of the Liberated Guardian staff led to the newspaper’s demise in late-1973. The original Guardian pressed on and took on a more hard-line Marxist-Leninist ideology in the late-1970s, eroding that newspaper’s reputation for investigative journalism. Readership and support for The Guardian declined through the 1980s and the paper ceased publication in 1992.
These pages are from an 8-page supplement focused on revolutionary art, COINTELPRO and FBI files, and debate within the anti-war movement over strategy.
Liberated Guardian
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
April 15, 1971
underground press
Black Panther Newspaper Insert on People's Revolutionary Constitutional Convention, June 11, 1970
Black Power
This sub-set of pages from the June 11, 1970, issue of The Black Panther newspaper includes two pages on the proposed constitution emanating from the People's Revolutionary Constitutional Convention, as well as a petition to the U.S. government regarding political prisoners.
Black Panther Party
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
June 11, 1970
underground press
The Black Panther, August 15, 1970
Black Power
Inside this issue of The Black Panther are multiple articles that speak to the harassment by law enforcement against party members selling the Newspaper in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. This issue also highlights how the Federal Bureau of Investigation infiltrated the Black Panthers with trained informants and created a fake newspaper called the "Bay State Banner." Other items include an article on “revolutionary suicide”; short pieces on the Soledad Brother; Alabama Liberation Front; Chicago Liberation School; National Chicano Moratorium Committee; police brutality in Hartford; Joan Kelley; Bobby Seale’s appeal; a call for justice for the "Los Siete de la Raza”; a two page spread of letters written to Huey Newton from children at the Black Panther Party Liberation School in San Francisco thanking him and the Panthers for the school; a critique of the American Constitution explaining institutional racism, particularly in the prison system; a message from Huey Newton to the People’s Revolutionary Constitutional Convention; a critique off integration; the N.C.C.F.; and, artwork by Emory Douglas.
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
August, 15, 1970
underground press
The Black Panther, December 14, 1970
Black Power
Published on December 14, 1970, this issue of the The Black Panther includes articles on: housing discrimination and poor sanitation conditions in New York City; a garbage dump in Rockford, Illinois; a message to black entertainers; the Cabrini Green housing project; a police attack in Berkeley; a letter to the Black Student Union at Laney College; resolutions and declarations from the People’s Revolutionary Constitutional Convention; a message to black G.I.’s; anti-colonialism in Korea; updates on the cases of Bobby Seale, Ericka Huggins and Lonnie McLucas; the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark just 10 days earlier in Chicago; anti-Imperialism and a war crimes tribunal that took place at the University of California; the case of Raymond Brooks and Katherine Robinson; Community Survival Programs; , the ten point program; Revolutionary Greeting Cards; and, artwork by Emory Douglas.
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
December 14, 1970
underground press
The Black Panther Party and the Case of the New York 21
Black Panther Party
Published at the height of the Cold War, this booklet links the anticommunist politics of local, state, and federal authorities on the political oppression of U.S. citizens, specifically among radical leftist groups such as the White Panthers and the Black Panthers. Detailing the trial of the New York 21, or Panther 21, this booklet seeks to raise public awareness of police and federal government corruption and the ways law enforcement tried to link the twenty-one Black Panther Party members to domestic terrorism. The Panther 21 trial resulted in a mass acquittal with the trial lasting between the years 1969 and 1971. Themes discussed in this booklet include the ghettoization of U.S. cities in the North, black militant ideology, political imprisonment, and the legacies of McCarthyism in FBI surveillance and suppression of organizations perceived as radical in the late-1960s and early-1970s.
Members of the Charter Group for a Pledge of Conscience
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1969
booklet
The Glass Onion
New Left
This April and May issue of The Glass Onion, an underground newsletter published by the New York High School Free Press, centers on events and organizational news impacting New Left activists such as the Black Power movement, the Young Lords Organization, the Free All Political Prisoners movement, Puerto Rican Nationalism, and the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. This issue includes a particular focus on Bobby Seale’s imprisonment, the 1967 grape boycott, and Latin American revolutions.
The High School Free Press
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. 1968
underground press
Frente Unido - Marcha a Washington de Octobre 30
Puerto Rican Nationalism
This leaflet encourages New Yorkers to participate in an upcoming march in Washington, D.C., to support Puerto Rican Nationalism, as well as "political prisoners" in the U.S. associated with the cause. The flyer features five imprisoned nationalists. Four - Lolita Lebrón, Irvin Flores, Andrés Figueroa Cordero, and Rafael Cancel Miranda - had been imprisoned after entering the U.S. Capitol Building on March 1, 1954, and opening fire with automatic pistols, wounding five congressmen. The fifth, Oscar Collazo, attempted to assassinate President Harry S Truman on November 1, 1950. The 1950s were a time of insurgent Puerto Rican nationalism, with a variety of actions on the island and in the U.S. On October 30, 1950, the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party organized a series of uprisings in various Puerto Rican cities. The date for the 1954 attack on the U.S. Capitol was chosen because it coincided with the inauguration of the Conferencia Interamericana (Interamerican Conference) in Caracas. The activists hoped to call attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause, particularly among the Latin American countries participating in that conference. During the late-1960s, Puerto Rican nationalism saw a resurgence along with other struggles for self-determination and liberation.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. late-1960s or early-1970s
mimeograph
leaflet
Stay in the Streets, Free the Panthers
Black Power
This Black Panther Party button addresses the effort to free Black Panther members imprisoned by the state and federal government during the Black Power era. The Panthers were subjected to widespread repression and a particular target of the FBI's COINTELPRO programs, which categorized the organization as a domestic terrorist group. To movement activists and allies, these prisoners were more accurately described as political prisoners.
Black Panther Party
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. late-1960s
Button
Physical Object
Huey P. Newton Birthday Rally
Black Power
This poster promotes a rally at Stanford University in celebration of Huey P. Newton's birthday and as a fundraiser for political prisoners.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. late-1960s or early-1970s
poster
Free Ruchell Magee
Black Power
Ruchell Magee was born in 1939. In 1963, Magee was convicted of aggravated kidnapping over a dispute involving $10 of marijuana. While in prison, Magee learned about African American history, the black liberation struggle and became politicized, joining the Black Panther Party.
While imprisoned during the 1960s, Magee dedicated much of his time to studying law and petitioning the court to challenge his conviction, stating the the U.S. criminal justice system “used fraud to hide fraud” to convict African Americans and other political activists. He was able to overturn his initial conviction and earn a new trial based on a falsified transcript. In essence, Magee argued that his conviction was based on fraudulent grounds, denying him his constitutional rights and holding him involuntarily, making him a slave. As such, he claimed, he and others had a legal right to do everything in their power to escape enslavement. “My fight is to expose the entire system, judicial and prison system, a system of slavery,” he wrote. “This will cause benefit not just to myself but to all those who at this time are being criminally oppressed or enslaved by this system.” During this period, Magee took the middle name “Cinque,” in honor of a slave who escaped the slave ship, Amistad, and won his freedom in a Connecticut court. Magee also hoped his case might draw attention to the broader injustices within the American legal system.
On August 7, 1970, just a few months before Magee was eligible for parole, 17-year old Jonathan Jackson, the younger brother of black radical, George Jackson, burst into the Marin County courtroom of Superior Court Judge Harold Haley, where James McClain was on trial for assaulting a guard in the wake of Black prisoner Fred Billingsley’s murder by prison officials in San Quentin Prison in February of 1970. Carrying three guns registered to Angela Davis, Jackson, with the help of McClain and Ruchell Cinque Magee, who was set to testify as a witness in McClain's trial, seized Judge Haley and ordered attorneys, jurors and court officials to lie on the floor. Magee freed another testifying witness, Black Panther William A. Christmas, who also aided in the escape attempt. In addition to their own freedom, the group sought a trade -- the release of Judge Haley for the “Soledad Brothers,” George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and John Clutchette, who were charged with killing a white prison guard at California’s Soledad Prison. During an effort to flee the courthouse in a van, a shoot-out with police took place, killing Jackson, McClain, Christmas and Judge Haley. Two other hostages, Prosecutor Gary Thomas and juror Maria Elena Graham, were also injured, but survived. Ruchell Magee was the only abductor to survive.
In the legal proceeding that followed the incident, prosecutors attempted to get Magee to testify against Angela Davis, but he refused. Ultimately, he pled guilty to aggravated kidnapping in exchange for the Attorney General requesting a charge of murder be dropped. Magee later tried to withdraw his guilty plea, but was unsuccessful. In 1975, he was sentenced to life in prison. Over the years, Magee has continued to petition the court for his release and to help other prisoners with legal challenges.
unknown
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
ca. early-1970s
poster
Free All Political Prisoners
Political Prisoners
This poster was created by designer Rafael Morante in 1971 to support political prisoners across the global Third World liberation movement. The poster was published by OSPAAAL, the Organisation in Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the main publisher of international solidarity posters in Cuba. Notably, these colorful propaganda posters were not designed to be posted on walls within Cuba, as others were. Instead, they were folded and stapled inside the magazine, Tri-Continental, where they were then distributed internationally.
Rafael Morante
Roz Payne
Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
1971
poster