SENTINEL: Yeah.
BS: So, here is the Counter-Intelligence Program of the FBI (COINTELPRO) doing everything it can to distort and stereotype us. They don't tell you that I was an engineer on the Gemini missile program, and an archi tect, and a stand-up comedian. All they said was that I was a hoodlum and a thug. They never said that Huey Newton had finished two years of law school by the time that we created the Black Panthers. They don't say that I was actually employed by the City of Oakland when we created the Black Panther Party.

SENTINEL: Do you think the Panther 10-Point Program is as relevant today as it was then?
BS: Yes, as profoundly relevant. In fact, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who worked with my organization for five years back then, says that the Black Panther Party's 10-Point Program is just as relevant today as it was years ago. And we could add some points to this son of a gun.

SENTINEL: The big sister of a friend of mine was married to one of the Panther 21 arrested in NYC in 1969. I remember him telling me they had all been framed on bogus charges. Did you ever determine exactly when the FBI began infiltrating the Panthers and to what lengths it went to bring down the organiz ation?
BS: First of all, let's say it this way. The FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program would work hand-in-hand with police departments, literally planning attacks on Black Panther Party offices throughout the United States of America. They did this over a period of time. They also used provocateurs, and had agents infiltrating the organization. And they would issue press releases every month or so which they would send to politicians and the press in cities where we were operating. But the most profound thing the FBI did was being complicit in the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago, working with a special police division. The FBI was complicit in setting up that operation in December of 1969. A former FBI Agent named Wesley Swearingen even admitted it in a book published by South End Press called “FBI Secrets.” He also shows how the FBI was involved in the killings of Black Panthers John Huggins and Bunchy Carter at UCLA in January of 1969. COINTELPRO was trying to terrorize us out of existence. They didn't say you're under arrest on a bullhorn and ask for us to surrender. They just came in shooting. By the end of '69, every Black Panther Party office in this country had been attacked.

SENTINEL: In 1969, there was also a lot of tension in L.A. between the Panthers and Ron Karenga's black nationalist organization, US.
BS: It was half generated by COINTELPRO. The FBI admitted it in the Senate investigation hearings.

SENTINEL: Would you say the FBI succeeded in bringing you down?
BS: No, we weathered everything they threw at us. At a certain point, the U.S. Senate started investigating their attacks on us. When the FBI couldn't give a good explanation as to why they were attacking all our offices, the raids finally stopped.

SENTINEL: Meanwhile, how were you holding up behind bars?
BS: In the end, I won all my cases. They had to let me out after holding me for tw o years in jail without bail. Lots of people think I went to prison. I never went to prison. I was in jail without bail. After I won all the cases, they had to release me. And from 1971 to 1974 there were no shootouts. We maintained our programs and ran for political office. So, the Black Panther Party was not destroyed in that sense, but our Constitutional, democratic, civil, human, and life rights had been violated.

SENTINEL: What would you have done differently, had you known the government was going to come down on you like that?
BS: What would I have done differently? I don't know. I've tried to assess that. You know that racists are going to attack you. When we started out, we accept the fact that sooner or later they were going to try to kill us. But we decided not to let that deter us. We chose to stand on the right to self-defense as best we could. And it just so happened that they came down on us. Ultimately, 28 of my Black Panther Party members were killed in various attacks by or shootouts with the police. And in those confrontations, at least a dozen bl ack police officers were killed. I still have 10 political prisoners in jail to this day behind some of those dead cops, when they were just defending themselves against those policemen. They were convicted of first-degree murder, but they were really only defending themselves. I wish I could get amnesty for them, and get my political prisoner friends out. At any rate, I can't obsess about what I would have done if I knew they were going to come down on me, because I did kinda know they were going to come down on us. They were coming down on the black community in the first place via institutional racism, rampant police brutality and so on.

SENTINEL: What do you think of the New Black Panthers? Their philosophy strikes me as being totally different from yours.
BS: Thumbs down! They hijacked our name. They do not represent what we represent. Our program was about all power to all the people. We had a progressive program… a relevant humanistic program… a true human liberation program. I have no time for the so-called New Black Panthers. We have invited them to three different Black Panther reunions, and every time they20act stupider and stupider. I'm tired of them and have not time for them. It's gotten to the point where we believe that their leadership is nothing but government operatives. They spout stuff that we were not about. The rank-and-file New Black Panthers probably don't even know this. It's like a COINTELPRO operation. I think the leadership is working for the government to spout a bunch of black racist remarks and attitudes, saying they support Al-Qaeda and that sort of crap. I'm very skeptical. I feel for the young brothers who don't know this is what's happening. They should get out of that group. They act so silly and stupid. For instance, they took that famous picture of me and Huey standing in front of the original Black Panther Party office, and cut my head off and replaced it with Brother Khalid Muhammad's. In other words, they want to hijack our reunions. They're arrogant, and I have no time for that. So, I told them, “Don't talk to me. And don't try to act bad, just because you've got some little pistols under your coats there, because if you jump up in people's faces here, they will defend themselves.” In fact, I said, “Your damn leadership ain't nothing but a bunch of CIA a-holes.” That's what I believe.

Last update: 07-31-2008 11:11

Published in : Entertainment, Personalities

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