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.