These are part 1 and 2 of one of my former teachers talking about the F.B.I. and their attempts to destroy the BPP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdUCGVIVL8o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAsy_0NzAsU

In 1973, the Black Panthers left Baltimore. The only place it was still going was Oakland, California. “Several community leaders in Baltimore said the Black Panthers’ failure here was primarily due to the unacceptability of its original gospel of armed struggle and the publicity it received in its confrontations with police” (The Baltimore Sun, April 14, 1973). The former members are reluctant to talk.

Afro-American Newspaper

The headquarters moved to 1209 N. Eden Street and even later to a house on 1248 N. Gay Street. In June of 1970, Paul Coates became the defense captain. His first priority was to get the people out of jail that were unjustly sitting in there. This meant sitting in on trials, rallying for release and change, and talking back and forth to the lawyers that were handling the cases. Coates worked hard for the party and their programs were flourishing. They even started a free health clinic on Greenmount Ave. Things wouldn’t be great for long. Coates was called to California in November of 1971 and then was no longer the defense captain for the Baltimore chapter.

Paul Coates in 2006

1209 N. Eden Street citypaper.com

John Clark came from California to be the new defense captain. In April of 1970, there was a police shooting and a homicide and Marshall “Eddie” Conway, Jackie Powell, and Jack Johnson were arrested. Eddie Conway’s story is briefly told in an earlier post and Jack Johnson recently had a review at the Clarence T. Mitchell Courthouse. After 39 years in prison, it was decided that Johnson will be released in 2011. Eddie Conway is still in prison and is waiting to get his break. They both maintain their innocence in this case.

Zeke Boyd and Charles Butler were field lieutenants and Reeva White was the secretary. Warren Hart usually led weekly political rallies and/or classes. A free breakfast program was started in 1969 at St. Vincent’s D. Poore’s church at Valley and Eager Street. Shortly after, a free lunch program and liberation school were started. These programs helped the community to come together and maybe change their opinions of the BPP. Some BPP leaders from New York, Don Cox and Henry Mitchell, visited the Baltimore branch on July 4, 1969 to see how it was running. Warren Hart and several others were asked to leave for not following rules. Mahonney Kebe became acting defense captain until someone filled the position. He was also the lieutenant of finance and Reeva White stayed the secretary. Larry Wallace was officer of the day and Steve McCutchen was lieutenant of information.
This is Don Cox who was one of the leaders to let many Panthers go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjOSNwPIqI8

The Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party was started in the summer of 1968. Some people that had heard and agreed with Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which was based in Oakland, California, decided to start their own branch in Baltimore. Warren Hart was the principal leader in the beginning. The first office was on Eager Street near the Maryland State Penitentiary. Warren Hart went to Berkeley National Headquarters for orientation and to try and get Baltimore’s branch to be sanctioned. By the end of 1968 the Baltimore chapter of the BPP was recognized.

Warren Hart serving free breakfast. mdcivilrights.org

http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/COINTELPRO/coloring.html

I found this BPP coloring book and I almost couldn't believe it. I can't imagine that kids should be exposed to this violence in pictures and words.

These pictures were not taken in Baltimore, but I thought they were good pictures.

novoscene.wordpress.com and aperture.org

When I started this research I thought that I was going to blog about the Black Panther Party and the Baltimore riots. As I got deeper and deeper into the research, I realized that there is way too much information about the riots and many others in the class also chose the topic. So I decided to just focus on the BPP within Baltimore. I found a lot of information on the BPP in general and plenty on the Baltimore chapter.

Radio Interview

This is a 13 part interview of Marshall Eddie Conway. You should take the time and listen to it. It is quite interesting and very informative.

http://www.freeeddieconway.org/radio.htm

I have found an interesting case involving the Minister of Defense of the Baltimore chapter of the Black Panther Party. His name is Marshall Eddie Conway. In 1970, a Baltimore Police officer was shot and killed and later the same night another officer was fired upon. Eddie Conway was apprehended when the officer that was almost shot pointed him out in a picture. He was charged with homicide and attempted homicide. Many believe that he was targeted because he was a well-known member of the BPP. The court denied Conway the right to use either of the lawyers he had picked out. He maintains his innocence, but has still been incarcerated for almost 40 years. He was in a prison in Jessup, MD for many years, but now I believe he is in Hagerstown. There are many people fighting for his freedom. If you want to read more or want to try and help his website is www.freeeddieconway.org. His address is there too if anyone would like to write to him. I am going to write him a letter and ask him some questions, but I don’t know if I will get a response in time for my blog. I will keep my fingers crossed!

Hope!

So, everyone in my house has been sick for a while. It has slowed me down some in the school department, but I got a big surprise this week. While searching through endless pages on the internet about the BPP, I found an email address for WARREN HART JR! He is the son of Warren Hart Sr, the FOUNDER of the Baltimore section of the BPP. I sent him an email explaining that I am doing a research project and asked him if he would be willing to talk with me about his father. He responded very quickly with a "yes," and his cell phone number, and said that he would love to give me any information that I needed. I am very excited and I am working on some questions that I may ask him. I want to be very prepared before I call him. I am hoping that he is still in the area so that maybe I could meet with him in person. This Saturday I am going to Langsdale and hopefully Enoch Pratt to find some interesting stuff. I also found an audio driving tour that guides you through Baltimore explaining where these awful events took place. That would be a great thing for me to take photographs of.

This week has been interesting, to say the least. My husband is writing a play about Bobby Hutton, a teenaged Black Panther that was tragically killed by the Oakland Police Department in 1968. He has been researching the Black Panther Party within Oakland, CA, which made me curious about the BPP within Baltimore. There is much controversy surrounding Hutton’s death and many people believe that he was murdered by the police, rather than shot justly in self-defense. My husband contacted the Oakland PD to get a copy of the police report and he was told that the report was “permanently lost,” which is what he has decided to tentatively title his play. Then he contacted the court in Oakland to get transcripts of the case and the man he spoke with told him that he did not know how to access the transcripts. I found the whole thing to be very strange and it seems to me that something is being covered up. Either way, I searched for interesting cases in Baltimore involving the Panthers and I found more than one. This should be an exciting topic for me to research! The picture above is of Bobby Hutton and I borrowed it from mindfully.org.

Research Proposal

I have decided that I would like to research the riots that took place in Baltimore in April of 1968. I know that there is so much information pertaining to these riots, so I will be focusing on the reasons the riots started and the reactions of some people that experienced them. I am also interested in The Black Panther Party within Baltimore. Maybe I can find some interesting information regarding these two things that will somehow intertwine. I know that the University of Baltimore has an extensive collection of information and even a website devoted to the 1968 riots. Perhaps if I am not able to find much more information than the UB website contains, I can focus more on The Black Panther Party. I am sure that the Enoch Pratt and Langsdale libraries will have plenty of collections and pictures that will be helpful for researching. I am trying to think of places and things that I may photograph that pertain to these topics.