An Interview with former Weatherman Co-Founder Bill Ayers

From 2008. I got a lot of criticism for using the term "freedom fighters." Not the least from Ayers himself. I find this interesting given that he spent the better part of his twenties blowing things up. He later said,"''I don't regret setting bombs,'' Bill Ayers said. ''I feel we didn't do enough.''

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The "terrorist" and the Prez-elect: Bill Ayers on Obama, activism and Republican spin In a stump speech delivered one month before election day, the intellectually challenged Sarah Palin said of President-elect Barack Obama; "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. Turns out one of Barack's earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, and they are hardly ever wrong, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that quote, launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and US Capitol." The so-called "terrorist" in question is Bill Ayers, co-founder of the sixties radical Weather Underground, an organization the FBI labeled as a domestic terrorist group. The sixties became a time ripe for anti-government dissent and calls for revolution among young, radical activists in the U.S. Bill Ayers was one who answered this call. In time, he would rise to national prominence as a militant leader of the New Left. Already an anti-racist and anti-war activist, Ayers became involved with "Students for a Democratic Society" (SDS), a leftist organization that focused on direct action, radicalism, participatory democracy and student power. From1968-69 he rose in the ranks of SDS and went on to lead the "The Jesse James Gang," an SDS regional group. It was at this time that Ayers and like-minded members began to question the effectiveness of non-violent civil disobedience as mere symbolic activism while looking toward a more radical and militant form of response. As discussions of differing ideologies grew within SDS, so too did a lasting schism. The final split occurred at the 1969 SDS convention in Chicago where a document titled "You Don't Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows" was circulated. It outlined the position of the group that would become the Weathermen (and later the Weather Underground Organization, WUO). It was signed by 11 people, including Mark Rudd, Bernardine Dohrn, John Jacobs, Bill Ayers, Terry Robbins, Jeff Jones, Gerry Long, and Steve Tappis. After the murder of Chicago Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton in 1969, the WUO issued a "Declaration of War" against the United States government. As an investigation disclosed that Hampton was set up by the FBI to be assassinated by the Chicago Police Department under the umbrella of the illegal surveillance program COINTELPRO, Ayers and fellow comrades were moved to adopt fake identities, pursue covert activities only and go underground. As Bernadine Dohrn (wife of Bill Ayers) has stated, "We felt that the murder of Fred required us to be more grave, more serious, more determined to raise the stakes and not just be the white people who wrung their hands when black people were being murdered." Following through with urban guerrilla warfare that they felt would actually interfere with U.S. military and internal security apparatus and serve as a catalyst for revolution, the Weathermen proceeded with a series of bombings that targeted government buildings and several banks. The bombings were preceded by communiqués that provided evacuation warnings with statements regarding the particular matter that motivated the attack. The bombing of the United States Capitol in March of 1971 was accompanied with the statement saying it was done "in protest of the US invasion of Laos." The bombing of The Pentagon on May 19, 1972, was done "in retaliation for the US bombing raid in Hanoi," and the January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State Building was done in "response to escalation in Viet Nam." In 1973, the federal government actually requested the dismissal of the charges against Dorn and Ayers in the interest of national security following accusations of government misconduct. However state charges against Dohrn remained. Reluctant to turn herself in to authorities, the couple finally left the underground in 1980. Dohrn was fined $1,500 and given three years' probation for a misdemeanor dating back to a 1969 anti-war demonstration. In 1982, Dohrn did eight months in jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury about the 1981 Brink's robbery that involved fellow radicals David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin. Today Bill Ayers is a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. He is also the author of a number of groundbreaking books with a focus on teaching and civil rights. In the decades that have ensued since the WUO has fluttered and dissolved, various members have been quite candid in reexamining actions taken and words spoken in the hubris of youth and white privilege in a time when the sentiment of "all or nothing" appeared to be the most effective path to take. Former WUO members have gone on record to reveal a certain lingering of regret in relation to their militant past. As Mark Rudd has said: "These are things I am not proud of, and I find it hard to speak publicly about what was right from what was wrong... part of the Weatherman phenomenon that was right was our understanding of what the position of the United States is in the world. It was this knowledge that we just couldn't handle; it was too big. We didn't know what to do. In a way I still don't know what to do with this knowledge. I don't know what needs to be done now, and it's still eating away at me just as it did 30 years ago." In the following interview, Bill Ayers reflects on his resurfaced notoriety, Obama and what the future may hold under a new administration. ME: When the Right found itself floundering, the McCain/Palin campaign resorted to desperate tactics as both you and Rev. Jeremiah Wright became the men to hate. Interestingly, neither Fox nor other corporate networks mentioned the fact that in 1980 you turned yourself in and that many of the charges against you were dropped due to the illegality of COINTELPRO surveillance. What do you have to say about this? BA: Unable to challenge the content of the Obama campaign, his opponents chose instead to invent a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence, and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. He seemed to knock everyone out, but still the refrain played over and over: "What do we really know about this man?" Secondary characters in the narrative included an African-American preacher with a fiery style, an activist white minister identified with the black community, a Palestinian scholar, and an "unrepentant domestic terrorist." Linking the candidate with these supposedly shadowy characters, and ferreting out every imagined secret tie and suggested dark affiliation became big news. I was the person cast in the "unrepentant terrorist" role; I felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the "two minutes hate" scene from George Orwell's novel 1984, when the faithful gathered in a frenzy of fear and loathing, chanting "kill him!" It felt surreal. ME: On November 4, it became clear that the Republican inspired neo-McCarthyism and post 9/11 rhetoric of fear proved unsuccessful. Seven years after an attack by Muslim freedom fighters, the U.S. elected to the presidency a Black man who's middle name is Hussein. Did this surprise you? BA: I don't recall any "attacks by Muslim freedom fighters," but rather crimes against humanity carried out in the service of an arid and crypto-fascist ideology--- nothing nice. ME: For the record, what history do you have with Barack Obama? Do see anything at all revolutionary about his win? BA: President-elect Barack Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn't pal around, and I had nothing whatsoever to do with his platforms or positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others today, I wish I knew him better. The dishonesty of the original narrative about Obama assumes that if two people are in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation was, or shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together, or had any of 1000 other associations, then you have proven that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences, and especially responsibility for one another's behavior. There is a long and sad history of guilt-by-association in our political culture, and at crucial times we've been unable to rise above it. Election night in Grant Park, Chicago was electrifying--- a mass gathering powered by a sense of unity and hope for future accomplishments. The mood and the celebration echoed worldwide: what was unimaginable had become inevitable, and unforgettable. The power of rising expectations, of imaginations unleashed, of hope for something better than the politics of war and fear---all of it was in the air and on the move. Several initiatives are bubbling and rising today, drawing folks together to speak and to listen to one another, and to search for ways to name the moment as we inaugurate change from the grass roots. It's movement-building time. This is the moment of, "Yes, we can." Its time has come, and it's up to all of us. ME: Where do you see the country going after this in terms of domestic and foreign policy? Is there anything that you feel hopeful about? BA: This is the moment to rethink and reframe. We should organize and mobilize to break the stranglehold of a foreign policy based on military might in favor of foreign policy based on justice, and on learning to live in the world as a nation among nations. We should break with the idea that what's best for the rich is somehow good for all, and invest in people, their education and health and well-being. Yes we can... and let's make a commitment to working toward a world at peace and in balance. ME: Is there anything that you feel important for the next generation of radical activists to focus on at this time in history? And what do you feel is the task of alternative media at this point? BA: We need to act, and we need to doubt. If we only act we become self-righteous and dogmatic; if we only doubt we become paralyzed. If we open our eyes, make connections, act, doubt, act again... doubt again... then we're on the right track. And we need to always measure the success of the work pedagogically---did we learn something new? Did we teach another person? If we are teaching and learning, learning and teaching, then we'll be making our twisty ways toward a world in balance. This article also appears in the December 2008 issue of the Portland Alliance

They’re Trying to Break His Spirit: Leonard Peltier and the Government’s War on Dissent

They’re Trying to Break His Spirit : Leonard Peltier and the Government’s War on Dissent
August of 2005

Leonard is in middle row, 2nd from right

Photo used with kind permission of Michael Kuzma

2009

Since July 1 of this year, political prisoner and American Indian Movement (AIM) warrior Leonard Peltier (Lakota/Anishinabe) has been moved from three different correctional facilities. On August 15, Peltier was moved to the USP facility in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania where he is serving out his sentence of two consecutive life terms for the false charge and conviction of the killing of two FBI agents. Prison officials at Leavenworth have downgraded the facility from maximum to minimum security. As Peltier is classified as a maximum security prisoner, Leavenworth could no longer hold him.

Peltier has been moved a vast number of times from one prison to another during his imprisonment which began in 1976. His latest move from USP Leavenworth in Lawrence, Kansas, to USP Terre Haute, and then to Lewisburg, via the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma was, according to Paula Ostrovsky, wife of Russell Redner, Executive Director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee sheer torture. Throughout his time in incarceration, Peltier has been the target of mistreatment which has included beatings, FBI and prison authority assassination attempts, denial of proper medical care and deliberate exposure to radiation. "They are trying to break his spirit," states Paula Ostrovsky. We have to get him out."

Following are the facts of this case (for detailed background on the unjust persecution of Leonard Peltier and the FBIs war on AIM, go to www.leonardpeltier.org.)

The FBI Indian Wars
By June of 1975, when FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler were shot and killed on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, life had become unbearable for the Natives who lived there. Under the rule of fraudulently elected tribal president Dick Wilson, the reservation had become a battleground as Wilsonite violence ruled supreme in its quest to silence grassroots activists who demanded a return of tribal decision making to traditional councils of elders. Under the Wilson government, tribal members had no voice in determining policy regarding sovereignty. Working in conjunction with corporate planners and under the protection and assistance of the federal government, Wilson imposed a reign of terror to ensure that his practice of misuse of tribal funds, ceding of tribal land for mining purposes and swift punishment against his opponents would all continue as business as usual. This reign of terror included rape, other physical assault and armed aggression that resulted in the murder of over 60 people between 1973 and 1976. Of these 60, the only cases ever fully investigated are those of Williams and Coler.

Long in the sights of FBI surveillance, AIM had been asked by Pine Ridge elders to set up camp and serve as an armed security force to counter acts of oppression perpetrated by a corrupt tribal government. With their militant stance corroborated by the 1972 takeover of the Washington D.C. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973, AIM accepted the invitation and set up camp on the Jumping Bull compound near the Pine Ridge village of Oglala. Leonard Peltier, along with Darrell Dino Butler and Bob Robideau were members of this armed security. It is precisely because of AIMs warrior culture as well as their presence at Oglala that the FBI, with full assistance from Wilson and his henchmen, stepped up their tactics to instill a full federal presence at Pine Ridge. It was in this climate of fear and oppression that Special Agents Williams and Coler drove onto the Jumping Bull property on June 26, 1975 to serve a warrant on Jimmy Eagle for the theft of a pair of cowboy boots.

That the FBI would use their resources to investigate a petty theft speaks volumes to the unprecedented attention given to AIM activity at Oglala. When the FBI agents without warning or provocation began shooting at the houses of residents on the compound, comprised largely of elders and children, members of the AIM camp returned fire. Within minutes agents Williams and Coler lay dead, as did AIM warrior Joseph Bedell Stuntz. No warrant was ever found on the agents. Understanding fully the concrete ramifications of what had occurred, Butler, Robideau and Peltier fled with the intent of going underground. Within days Butler and Robideau were apprehended and charged with the murder of the agents. Miraculously, their jury found them to have acted in self defense and therefore not guilty of the crime charged. Peltier was arrested 5 months later in Canada. He was brought back to the U.S. after unsuccessfully fighting extradition. The perjured testimony and manufactured evidence used in the affidavits to extradite him found their way into his trial. On April 18, 1977, Peltier was found guilty on two counts of 1st degree murder.

Peltier Update

I originally began this article in mid-July after learning that Leonard had suddenly and without warning been transferred from USP Leavenworth in Lawrence, Kansas, where he had served for 13 years, to the Indiana USP in Terre Haute. While awaiting his reply to a letter written to him (graciously accepted and passed on by Peltiers lead attorney Barry Bachrach) to include in the article, I learned that Leonard had been moved yet again to Lewisburg. The following update is culled from my first and second conversations with Peltiers lead attorney Barry Bachrach and Russell Redner.

Barry Bachrach: I've been involved in this case for three or four years now. Legally, we have a number of issues to work on. Two of these issues involve gathering information which could lead to further lawsuits and Leonard's immediate release. On June 15 we argued a motion to correct an illegal sentence. It is our position that the crimes for which Leonard was tried and convicted of were crimes that the US had no federal jurisdiction over. The only crimes that they could have charged him were crimes under the Indian Crimes Act. Were not saying that he could never have been tried but they didn't charge and try him or have him sentenced pursuant to statutes over which we contend the court had jurisdiction. We are awaiting a decision on this motion. The other case is pending in the District of Kansas and involves the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 in which Congress in a nutshell gave the parole commission five years to exist and by October 11 1989, the parole commission was required to give firm release dates for all in their custody. The parole commission didn't do that and that lawsuit contends that this violates the congressional mandate and there are constitutional violations also involved. We are also working with attorney Michael Kuzma on continuing our Freedom of Information Act requests because the government has still not produced over 140,000 documents on this case, 90,000 alone of which are at the Minneapolis [FBI] office. Leonard spent his entire time [six weeks] at Terre Haute in isolation. He was allowed only one phone call a month but was able to speak to me whenever I could set it up. He was given one hour a day to exercise which was basically him walking in a vented cage.

Leonard feels pretty strongly that if the FBI office releases over 140,000 documents that they are holding, we can use [the documents] to express our position regarding the factual evidence about this case. We can show a much different outcome with documents on this case, 90,000 alone of which are at the Minneapolis [FBI] office.

Leonard suffered a stroke awhile back, and has diabetes in addition to the wear and tear that 30 years in prison can put on a 60 year old man. Getting his medication to him was an issue at first. In beginning with the premise that no one in prison does well, Leonard seems to be doing as well as can be expected. He can now take part in traditional practices [sweat lodge] and has been placed in general population and it looks like he can get back to his painting [Peltier is an excellent self taught artist]. We had hoped that he could have stayed at Leavenworth by getting his security level lowered. I think this might be his last move for awhile. Leonard really appreciates every ones support and correspondence and wishes to thank everyone. We appreciate any support that will help Leonard get an appropriate placement. I have no doubt that the calls and letters of support for Leonard at Terre Haute were in large part a factor in his move to Lewisburg. Leonard's freedom is always the ultimate priority.

There is so much more to say about this case but right now there's not much else to say other than we are going to keep working until we get justice.

Russell Redner: The government has always placed an inordinate amount of attention on Leonard Peltier. During his trial, key evidence that exonerated him was withheld, witnesses were held and intimidated by the FBI, the FBI had exparte communications with a judge trying the case, Peltiers defense team was infiltrated and the prosecution was receiving first-hand information concerning the defense. We have reason to believe infiltration was still occurring as recently as June 2005.

The FBI has never demonstrated against the release or parole of any other person that they've interacted with or convicted as they have with Leonard. Lets not forget, when Leonard was seeking clemency from President Clinton in 1998, over 500 FBI agents marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to protest against his request. Former FBI agent Ed Woods has the No Parole for Peltier website which is basically a Peltier misinformation outlet. Several memorandum we recently obtained through the Freedom of Information Act describe FBI intervention against Leonards clemency bid, how they got their story out through FBI friendly media (Readers Digest, Life, Detective Magazine or other publications), a plan for a prompt and strong response if Leonard's side of the story was given press, and pressure put on public personalities like Robert Redford, Senator Daniel Inouye, and Judge Heaney to change their stance of public support for Leonard. This is a deliberate attempt to stifle the Indigenous voice in America. No other group has experienced this unwarranted attention in this fashion. COINTELPRO is still in effect for Leonard.

Leonard was moved from Leavenworth without notification. The prison had not been cooperative in informing even Leonard's own attorney, Barry Bachrach. We only discovered that Leonard had been moved when we were notified by Cyrus Peltier, Leonard's grandson who has routinely visited for the last 13 years. He had gone to see his grandfather only to be told rather abruptly by prison officials, "Hes not here." After a series of maneuvers by Barry, we learned that Leonard was in transit but were given no idea as to where he would end up. A day or so later, Barry was able to track him to Terre Haute. The reason finally offered for the move from Leavenworth was that the prison had been downgraded to a minimum security institution. While Leonard is classified as a maximum security prisoner he was originally told that because of his record of exemplary behavior he wouldn't be moved. Then, lo and behold, on June 30 at 11:30 pm, he was taken to Terre Haute.

The reason finally offered for the move from Leavenworth was that the prison had been downgraded to a minimum security institution. While Leonard is classified as a maximum security prisoner he was originally told that because of his record of exemplary behavior he wouldn't be moved. Then, lo and behold, on June 30 at 11:30 pm, he was taken to Terre Haute. Leonard feels pretty strongly that if the FBI office releases over 140,000 documents that they are holding, we can use [the documents] to express our position regarding the factual evidence about this case. We can show a much different outcome. We have some unfinished business with the FBI specifically and the United States government in general. Its about neo-colonialism. Our appeal is to the consciousness of the nation, or whatever is left of it with their racist system. Were going to fight the good fight and this good fight will be what carries us. In 1975 at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation we were attacked by the U.S. military and we acted in self defense. We have to take this case before the American people. We have to get Leonard out.

The Lakota have a number of Akicita [warrior] societies, each with specific roles in war time and peace time. One of them is the Tokala (Kit Fox) society, to which I belong. Another society is the Strong Heart Society, these warriors are in the front line during battle. Some of the Strong Heart warriors when under attack by the enemy and upon the people fleeing; would stop, stick their lance in the ground and stake themselves to it. They would not run. They would take on the enemy.

And that’s what Leonard did: He took on the United States government, and what they've done to him is what they did to Sitting Bull; they put him in prison. Like Sitting Bull, Leonard’s only crime was that he defended his people. He was asked to be there [at Pine Ridge]. He put his lance in the ground. Leonard is a Strong Heart.

UPDATE 2016: From the Indigenous Rrights Center LLC, 202 Harvard SE, Albuquerque NM 87106

We received a message from Leonard this evening. An excerpt follows.

"For months, if not at least a year now, I have been complaining about 
medical problems and that something is wrong with me… For the last few 
days, I have been on call out to go see the doctor. Today, I was called 
again and had my blood pressure taken and gave more blood for more 
tests. Apparently, they found what's called Abdominal Aortic Aneurism 
(AAA) and it is at a very dangerous [stage]. If it bursts I can die. I 
will bleed to death. So they are going to rush me through some more 
tests, a MRI on Sunday, then find the right surgeon to do the operation. 
The good news is [this surgery] has a high success rate… if nothing goes 
wrong."

At this time, we have no further details. Suffice it to say that, at 
Leonard's age, any surgery is risky. Also a concern is that during his 
treatment at a federal prison medical center, Leonard will be held in 
isolation.

 
Make reference to Leonard Peltier #89637-132 and USP Coleman I. Voice 
your concern about Leonard's medical treatment, and let the federal 
Bureau of Prisons know that the world is watching. We demand that 
Leonard receive the best possible care.

Please also contact:

Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First St., NW
Washington, DC 20534
(202) 307-3198
info@bop.gov

In addition, when you make your call to the White House (as we know you 
often do) to voice your support for a grant of clemency, please mention 
Leonard's current health crisis. Mr. Obama must act now.

Leonard and the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee thank 
you for your support - in particular during this critical time.

We'll keep you informed of any developments.

Radical Women: Fredrika Newton

Fredrika was candidly honest throughout her presentation as well as afterward when we had dinner together with a small group of students.
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Widow of Dr. Huey P. Newton Continues Legacy of The Black Panther Party
March 2007

Fredrika Newton, widow of slain Black Panther Party (BPP) co-founder Dr. Huey P. Newton, brought the history of the Black Panther Party to PSU on February 27 as part of the celebration of Black History Month. Ms. Newton, who is also the President of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, gave a lecture and slide presentation and shared her experiences as young women in the Black Power Movement.

The BPP was founded as a grass roots community organization in Oakland, California in 1965. Dr. Newton and Bobby Seale created the organization on the foundation of Marxist internationalism. In October of 1966, Newton and Seale drafted the BPP Ten Point Platform and the Program of the BPP Party of Self-Defense. The Ten-Point Platform spoke to the needs and rights of the Black community and included the need for decent housing, education and full employment. It also included the exemption of all Black men from the military and freedom of Black political prisoners until tried by a jury of their peers. The seventh point spoke to the crisis in the Black community regarding police brutality and called for armed monitoring of police activity in Black neighborhoods. The Party also organized their Liberation Schools in which Black children were taught a curriculum of empowerment through Afro-centric teachings. There was also offered a free breakfast program for Black children, a free health clinic and community food giveaways.

Huey Newton was absent from the Party from 1967 to 1970 while he served a prison term for the killing of a police officer (this charge was overturned upon appeal). Upon returning to the community, he found difficulty in reestablishing his role. Internal conflict occurred regarding the direction of the Party. In 1973, Huey fled to Cuba rather than face new criminal charges. Upon his return, he found the party greatly lacking the prominence that it once had. Eventually, the Party dwindled significantly in its prominence. By the early 1980’s, the Party was all but extinct.

It was while a student at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, that Ms. Newton first became involved with the BPP. While visiting her mother in Oakland, California during the 1970 Christmas break, she went home to find Huey Newton chatting with her mother in the family dining room.

“My mother was operating as the real estate agent for the BPP and was helping party leaders get housing. Huey had recently been released from prison after serving four years for the murder of an Oakland police office (the conviction was overturned after 4 years). Huey was there in the dining room, and, I don’t know how many of you remember what he looked like—he was amazing looking and he was an amazing man. I was an eighteen-year-old girl and was totally swept off my feet. After speaking with him briefly, I went back to Oregon, packed my bags and went back. And, that’s how I got started with the organization.”

Ms. Newton began working at the BPP school (which became internationally know for its academic excellence) and was immediately taken by the degree of dedication by Party members. “There is nothing sexy about getting up at four in the morning to feed hungry children, folding up the BPP newspapers (The Black Panther) and going out on the street selling newspapers. It was just hard work. Originally, it was the children of Party members who sent their children to the school. As community members began to send their children to the school, many of the children came to live at the school, simply because their families were poor and had no other place to live. It’s been quite a journey and it’s just so very important that this history doesn’t get buried.”

Ms. Newton also worked to open the George Jackson People’s Free Health Clinic in Oakland, the first of the many free health clinics in the United States. The Party screened over 500,000 children nationally for Sickle Cell Anemia. All clinic doctors, nurses, techs and ambulance drivers volunteered their time to treat and serve community members. The clinics were open seven days a week. The BPP also operated a shoe factory whereby community members were able to get shoes for their families without cost. In addition, there was a legal education clinic that provided free legal services and workshops, a free bus service to bus elderly parents to visit their children to prisons (many prisoners were incarcerated many miles away from their families) and a free furniture store. A program for seniors called the S.A.F.E Program (Seniors Against a Fearful Environment) was staffed by Party members and volunteers to escort elders when leaving their homes. “Many older people are held hostage in their own homes because of the violence in their community,” stated Newton. “The S.A.F.E Program served as accompaniment for Seniors as they went out to attend to various errands.”

Of all of the incredible resources that the BPP provided, it was the free breakfast program for children that most raised the ire of then FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover. It was this program that was seen as the single most threat to national security. “It’s bizarre isn’t it?” asks Newton. “The reason why it was seen as the single most threat to United States security was because it was just a tremendous organizing mechanism for the Party. It really galvanized the community. Hoover saw that it worked. That was why he identified feeding children as this single most threat.” With this, Hoover repeatedly instructed personnel to destroy the BPP Free Breakfast for Children Program.

The FBI, in fact, waged a campaign of terror against the BPP that included infiltration and assassination. In 1969, Hoover ordered his Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to “destroy what the BPP stands for and eradicate its ‘serve the people’ programs.” That same year, Fred Hampton, Deputy Chairman of the Chicago, Illinois Chapter of the BPP, and Party member Mark Clark were assassinated by officers of the Chicago police force after planting an informant in the BPP inner circle. This informant, William O’Neal, provided Chicago police with the floor plan of the house that Hampton and other Party members lived. On the evening prior to the murder of Hampton and Clark, O’Neal slipped sedatives into their beverages (Hampton had in fact fallen asleep in mid-sentence during a phone call to his mother conducted from his bedroom.) In the early morning hours of December 4, 1969, police stormed the BPP apartment and shot Clark and Hampton to death. In 1979, investigators found evidence that the FBI was involved in a conspiracy to murder Hampton and obstruct justice. Sanctions were imposed on the FBI for its cover-up activities and an award of 1.85 million went to survivors and families of the police raid.

Fredrika Newton was witness to this history of oppression and terrorism. She continued in her work as a tireless and dedicated Party member throughout the campaign of misinformation directed at the BPP. Fredrika and Huey married in 1981 and worked side by side through many a struggle. After years of government sanctioned assassinations, harassment, legal prosecutions and internal conflicts, many BPP leaders and members succumbed to movement burn-out. Huey Newton himself became increasingly dependant on cocaine. In 1989, Huey was shot to death during a dispute by a drug dealer.

“This was a profound experience in my life...today I am so pleased to see the insurgence of interest in the BPP. Through the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation we provide information on the history of the Party, because as you know, there is very little information out there.

We provide bus tours (Ms. Newton coordinated the Black Panther Legacy Tour) of the eighteen BPP historical sights in Oakland and are in the process of digitizing thousands of pages of archives at Stanford University. Stanford was the only university that would pay to have it archived and housed there. We also have a record label called Black Panther Records. We use music as a way to get the message out. Through the Foundation, we try to make sure that our history remains pure. There are a lot of revisionists out there. We try to make sure that the Party history is there for anybody to study. If any of you come to Oakland, please come and take the history tour. The tour is now incorporated in the schools in the 9th grade curriculum in the Bay Area as a result of our efforts in Oakland.”

After Ms. Newton’s presentation and book signing (she brought copies of the pictorial The Legacy of the Panthers, a Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation publication as well as books authored by her late husband), I asked her about her life after Huey’s death. Huey’s death is still suspected by many to be just another in a long line of government assassinations, a cover-up clouded with muffled conspiracy. How did Fredrika survive the loss of a companion who, as a Black Power Movement icon, was larger than life?

ME: You have been very generous tonight in sharing your experience and your life with Huey Newton. Life with Huey Newton must have been some experience. The question that I have for you is, what was it like for you to be without him, to experience that loss? What revived you? What kept you committed to continuing the work?

FN: (Bursts into laughter) Hmmm…a lot of questions in that one question, Sista! Life with Huey was an experience. During the time that we were active in the Party and after the party was over, we tried to preserve a sense of normalcy in our household that never really was. Huey never escaped police presence. He was hounded by the police until the day died. Our house was raided a couple of times, so my life with Huey was never really easy. What kept me going afterwards? There was a bit total collapse after he died, although I tell you, I was really prepared for his death because I knew that it was inevitable. I was fairly reclusive for a year. After Huey died, I became involved in a relationship with David Hilliard (BPP leader and Executive Director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation) and he helped to really push me out there and accept the responsibility that I had as a result of being married to Huey. It hasn’t come easy because I’m a very private person. It’s a legacy that I’m proud of. Today I’m a nurse and work in chemical dependency programs. This came out of my life with Huey. He was addicted to drugs and alcohol when he died. This is a disease that affects every walk of life. I don’t think that it’s by accident that part of my life’s work is in addiction medicine. That’s half of my life. The other is keeping this history alive. I have a very rich life and strong support base of family and friends who have been there since the beginning.”

The Fredrika Newton presentation was brought to the PSU campus by the PSU Black Cultural Affairs Board, the Association of African Students and the Women’s Resource Center.