Alex Rackley (June 2, 1949 – May 20, 1969) was a member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s. Hostility between groups organizing political dissent and the Bureau was, by the time of the trials, at a fever pitch. Noted for their violent views, they also ran medical clinics and served free breakfasts to schoolchildren, among other programs. On this day in 1970, the stage was set for one of the most polarizing trials of the modern Civil Rights era as Bobby Seale, national chairman of the militant black power group Black Panthers, arrived in Connecticut to stand trial for ordering the murder of … The Hartford police arrived to break up the disruptive nonviolent action and threatened arrests, but the parents pledged to come back the next day. Natalie Belanger is the Adult Programs Manager at the Connecticut Historical Society. La Tanya S. Autry, Curator La Tanya is the Gund Curatorial Fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. “Black Panther Party Hartford, New Haven - Volume 2.” Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Further river inspection discovered a blockage downstream that should have been dismantled several years earlier. Jury selection began in May 1970. [3] After his speech, Seale briefly stopped by the headquarters where Rackley was being held captive, though it was never proven that he went inside or knew about Rackley's treatment. A string of violent confrontations with law-enforcement, along with the trials and convictions of national party leaders that followed, left the movement spent and adrift, and by the mid-1970s it was largely inactive. Broadside, 1970. New Haven (Connecticut) Field Division, 1978 1957. The Panthers who were tried, Warren Kimbro and Erica Huggins, escaped prosecution thanks, in part, to the defense of Hillary Clinton. In a 1984 settlement agreement, however, a jury awarded $1.75 million to 1,200 people who found their phones tapped by authorities. This epilogue was detailed in an article "After 37 Years, Spy Comes In From Cold" by Paul Bass, author of Murder In The Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale and the Redemption of a Killer. By 1970, he was working out of the Panthers' Central Headquarters in West Oakland, helping get the Party newsletter into the hands of community members. National Archives. Hartford officials promised the public housing tenants of Charter Oak Terrace in 1968 to fix the overflowing Park River. Leonard Tartaglia, an outspoken critic of institutional racism and a close ally of the Panthers. They did not have an underground cell, nor were they in touch with foreign governments. On May 21st, 1969, police found the body of 19-year-old Alex Rackley on a riverbank in Middlefield, CT. Rackley was a member of the Black Panther Party, a revolutionary Black Nationalist organization founded in 1966 in California. The Black Panther Manifesto. Both the Panthers and the FBI suffered damage to their reputations, after the public exposure of their most unsavory activities. Towards midnight on May 1, two bombs exploded in Yale's Ingalls Rink, where a concert was being held in conjunction with the protests. ... Connecticut for the May 1969 torture-murder of a Panther named Alex Rackley, who was falsely believed to be an informer. The Black Panther Party’s New Haven chapter began with Black Panther member Ericka Huggins’ arrival in the city. Born James Mott, Ned joined the Panthers as a teenager. This was not service for its own sake, but “survival programs” undertaken while the Panthers worked to raise the political consciousness of people of color and the urban poor. "[10], "Ericka Huggins and Bobby Seale would have to stand trial for their lives because they had been unyielding in their efforts to forge liberating actions for Black people. Black Panther. New Haven (Connecticut) Field Division, 1978 1957. Detective Nick Pastore, who arrested Seale and brought him to New Haven to stand trial, went on to become New Haven's Chief of Police, widely renowned for his successful policy of community policing, and now heads a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, DC named Criminal Justice Policy. A Black Panther trial in New Haven,", Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, Revolutionary Communist League (Internationalist), List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States, Black Panther Torture “Trial” Tape Surfaces, Harold M. Mulvey, Judge at Tense Black Panther Party Trials, "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Black Panthers and Hillary Clinton", "Hillary Clinton once supported Black Panthers on trial for murder-Truth! Within the year, Director Hoover declared that the centralized COINTELPRO was over.[11]. In the end, compromises between the administration and the students quashed the possibility of violence. 3.Jamie J. Wilson, The Black Panther Party of Connecticut (2014) 4.Interview with Paul Bass, Artspace, (November 22, 2019) About the Organizers. Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin stated, "All of us conspired to bring on this tragedy by law enforcement agencies by their illegal acts against the Panthers, and the rest of us by our immoral silence in front of these acts," while Yale President Kingman Brewster Jr. issued the statement, "I personally want to say that I'm appalled and ashamed that things should have come to such a pass that I am skeptical of the ability of Black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the U.S." Brewster's generally sympathetic tone enraged many of the university's older, more conservative alumni, heightening tensions within the school community. Under the Bureau's then-secret "Counter-Intelligence Program" (COINTELPRO), FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had ordered his agents to disrupt, discredit, or otherwise neutralize radical groups like the Panthers. His interrogation was tape recorded by the Panthers. Photograph by Einar G. Chindmark – The Hartford Times Collection, Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library, Were the Black Panthers heroes or villains? Sams also implicated Seale in the killing, telling his interrogators that while visiting the Panther headquarters on the night of his speech, Seale had directly ordered him to murder Rackley. Courtroom sketch of the murder trial in 1970. Specifically because of the Panthers’ involvement, the Bureau feared “possible racial violence” as a result of this peaceful protest. In the spring of 1966, Huey P. Newton turned his Oakland, California street gang into the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers argued that Route 34 brought suburbanites into the city but did nothing for the people already living there in desperate conditions. New Black Panther Party of Connecticut [12] Although both were much too junior to have had any role in the actual legal defense, according to John Elvin of the conservative newsmagazine Insight on the News, "Insight reviewed biographies of Hillary Clinton by Milton, [David] Brock and Roger Morris for this story and lengthy selections from such other biographies as Barbara Olson's Hell to Pay. In 1970 there was a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. This trial was an even larger undertaking, involving a full four months of jury selection. [15] The State Police discovered Rackley's body the next day. Sams and Kimbro confessed to the murder, and agreed to testify against McLucas in exchange for a reduction in sentence. Revolution on Trial: May Day and The People’s Art, New Haven’s Black Panthers @ 50 was slated to open at the Orange Street gallery next month in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the May 1 start to the 1970 New Haven Black Panthers trials. The Panthers also had other priorities. The case and trial were already a national cause célèbre among critics of the Nixon administration, and especially among those hostile to the actions of the FBI. NEW HAVEN, March 13— Bobby G. Seale, the national chairman of the Black Panther party, was flown from Cali fornia to Connecticut today to stand trial on charges of … In Connecticut, the Bureau used wiretapping and informers to prepare reports sent directly to Hoover. In 1970 there was a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut against various members of the Black Panther Party. In May 1969, after her Panther husband, John Huggins, was killed in a shoot-out with black nationalists, Huggins moved with her baby daughter to New … In May 1969, Rackley, 19, was suspected by other Panthers of being a police informant. [2] During that time, national party chairman Bobby Seale visited New Haven and spoke on the campus of Yale University for the Yale Black Ensemble Theater Company. Throughout its brief existence in Connecticut (1969–1972), the Black Panther Party prioritized community service. The BPP Reaches Its Peak. It won significant support from local grocery st… Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media George Edwards, who became well-known decades ago as a member of the Black Panther Party, is now keeping busy distributing masks, water bottles, gloves and condoms from his front porch on Sherman Avenue. In 1971, a group of left-wing radicals calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, which was found to be spying on Swarthmore College students and faculty. 25 of 36. All indictments stemmed from the murder of 19-year-old Alex Rackley in the early hours of May 21, 1969. Thirty one years later, when Seale returned to New Haven to speak at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Pastore decided to attend and even presented Seale with a pink porcelain pig and a hug, congratulating him for continuing "the struggle".[9]. Throughout its brief existence in Connecticut (1969–1972), the Black Panther Party prioritized community service. [1] The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to felony murder. New Haven Register Show More Show Less 2 of 3. The rally coincided with the start of the trial of the New Haven Nine. The New Haven Nine, as they were known, were Black Panthers accused of murdering another member, Alex Rackley, a suspected FBI informant. The Charter Oak neighbors met with Governor John Dempsey. In Hartford, activists served breakfast at St. Michael’s Church on Clark Street. National Museum of African American History and Culture Butch Lewis and Rap Bailey advised the parents as they picketed in the street, blocking traffic. Rackley was driven to his death in Moye's car. In the heated political rhetoric of the day, these defendants were referred to as the "New Haven Nine", a deliberate allusion to other cause-celebre defendants like the "Chicago Seven". A few months earlier, he told an NAACP audience that if he were not a cop, he would join the Black Panther Party. The FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover placed enormous emphasis on crushing the Black Panther Party and its programs. The Black Panther Party, formed in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, was a politically active and often militant group that promoted an agenda of radical socialism, anti … On May 1, 1969, Hartford’s Chamber of Commerce flanked Mayor Ann Uccello as she held up a broom on the city hall steps. This was not service for its own sake, but “survival programs” undertaken while the Panthers worked to raise the political consciousness of people of color and the urban poor. It won significant support from local grocery stores and individual donors. Just one block away, at the same moment, the Black Panther Party assembled dozens of young people at the Federal Building. 11, 1970 – From the exhibit Voices from the Underground: University of Connecticut Libraries, Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. Women's Liberation and the Black Panther Party of Connecticut in support of six female Black Panthers who were being held in Niantic Connecticut State Women's Prison. In 2006, Kelly Moye revealed that he was a police informant recruited to infiltrate the Panthers by Nick Pastore, head of New Haven Police's Intelligence Division. Members of the Black Panther Party stand behind tables and distribute free hot dogs to the public, New Haven, Connecticut, late 1960s or early 1970s. On May 19, 1969, members of the Black Panther Party kidnapped fellow Panther Alex Rackley, who had fallen under suspicion of informing for the FBI. Bobby Seale, national chairman of the militant black power organization Black Panthers, arrived in Connecticut to stand trial for allegedly ordering the murder of a New Haven man killed 10 months earlier. On Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m., the New Haven Museum, The Amistad Committee Inc., and the Connecticut Freedom Trail Committee will present a panel discussion on "The Black Panther … Teach-ins and other events were also held in the colleges themselves. In Hartford, Panthers provided security protection for Adam Clayton Powell Jr. when he visited the city. New Haven (Connecticut) Field Division, 1978 1957. Widely circulated mass e-mails erroneously ascribed to Clinton responsibility for "getting the defendants off," and also blamed the future head of the Clinton U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Bill Lann Lee, who was a Yale undergraduate at the time. Members like George Green (17), Gwen Rhodes (16), and Willie Ledbetter (14) of Hartford all faced harassment and arrest. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Party leadership required all members to distribute it, and when issues hit college campuses, sales proved brisk. As a cultural organizer in the visual arts, she places social justice and public memory at the nexus of her work. [2] The jury was unable to reach a verdict, deadlocked 11 to 1 for Seale's acquittal and 10 to 2 for Huggins' acquittal. NEW HAVEN — A planned Artspace exhibition recognizing living history has been modified in an effort to keep that history alive. This photo op for the press was the chamber’s annual Clean-Up Day: business and government united to inspire civic pride and personal responsibility among Hartford’s residents. One of the church’s resident priests was Fr. He says it’s his way of continuing to make a difference. Throughout its brief existence in Connecticut (1969–1972), the Black Panther Party prioritized community service. Produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan. In Bridgeport, New Haven, and Willimantic, school children also stopped by the Panthers’ kitchen before school for breakfast, and sometimes for clothing as well. As a co-founder of the Black Panther Party, the former Air Force member (from which he was discharged on bad conduct) played a big part in the Panthers movement in the 1960s. You can contact her at . On May 19, 1969, members of the Black Panther Party kidnapped fellow Panther Alex Rackley, who had fallen under suspicion of informing for the FBI. His two collaborators in the murder, who had pleaded to second degree murder, were released after four years. Pictured: Demonstrators dance at a rally in support of the Black Panther Party in New Haven, Connecticut, on May 1, 1970. One of the most important was their newspaper, The Black Panther. Return they did, and the attention they attracted increased their numbers. And there were innumberable other instances of frame-ups and similar political reprisals.". Learn more about the programs of CT Humanities! Ironically, today we know much more about Connecticut Panther activity thanks to FBI records. Spurred by fears of the militant Panthers, the New Haven police department illegally wiretapped 3,000 citizens and small businesses. Hostility from the left was also directed at the two Panthers cooperating with the prosecutors. During that time, national party chairman Bobby Seale visited New Haven and spoke on the campus of Yale Universityfor the Yale Black Ensemble Thea… The army had a secret office in the Hartford Federal Building and shared its findings with other government agencies. Classes were made "voluntarily optional" for the time and students were graded "Pass/Fail" for the work done up to then. Photograph by Ellery G. Kington - Hartford Times Collection, Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library. The music of Black Panther opened new doors, introducing authentic African sounds into an action-packed Marvel-movie score. The first trial was that of Lonnie McLucas, the only person who physically took part in the killing who refused to plead guilty. In 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the founders of the Black Panther Party, met as students at Merritt College in Oakland, according to … National Archives. McLucas's trial set new records for the scale of judicial proceedings in Connecticut. Early the next day, three Panthers – Warren Kimbro, Lonnie McLucas, and national Panther "Field Marshal" George Sams, Jr. – drove Rackley to the nearby town of Middlefield, Connecticut. Among the materials stolen in this break-in were documents revealing the nature of the COINTELPRO program. "No Haven: Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven," hosted by the Connecticut Historical Society, will be streamed live on Crowdcast and available after for re-watch. Kimbro shot Rackley once in the head and McLucas shot him once in the chest. “The FBI’s Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party.” In, A Life Lived in a Rapidly Changing World: Samuel L. Clemens, Early Anti-slavery Advocates in 18th-century Connecticut, Marian Anderson’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement, Bridge Ornaments Help Tell the Legend of the Windham Frog Fight, Land Purchase Becomes Bushnell Park – Today in History: January 5, Paleontologist Othniel Marsh dies – Today in History: March 18, Looking Back: Tempest Tossed, the Story of Isabella Beecher Hooker, Over Time: Mansfield’s Historical Population, James Lindsey Smith Takes the Underground Railroad to Connecticut. It was the first in Connecticut to have metal detectors installed at the courtroom doors; jury selection took six weeks, a Connecticut record, and the jury deliberated for six days, another Connecticut record. David Fenton/Getty Images. “Black Panther Party Hartford, New Haven - Volume 1.” Department of Justice. ", Urban Legend Zeitgeist: Hillary Clinton and the Black Panthers, After 37 Years, Spy Comes In From Cold, by Paul Bass, New Haven Independent, Aug 4, 2006, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Haven_Black_Panther_trials&oldid=1008572747, Political repression in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 February 2021, at 00:32. National Archives. Huggins's voice was heard on a tape recording of the victim's interrogation, played for the jury. Protesters met daily en masse on the New Haven Green across the street from the Courthouse (and one hundred yards from Yale's main gate) to hear protest speakers. One of the most successful outreach efforts was the Panthers’ breakfast program for children. Hilliard, David, and Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. His defense attorney declared, "The judge was fair, the jury was fair, and, in this case, a black revolutionary was given a fair trial. According to the eRumor, in the late 1960's, two Black Panthers were tried for murder in the death of a fellow Black Panther, Alex Rackley. The effort was part of his secret (and often illegal) COINTELPRO program, which a US Senate investigation exposed as “a sophisticated vigilante operation.”. They were housed and fed by community organizations and by sympathetic Yale students in their dormitory rooms. Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Black Panther Party Hartford, New Haven - Volume 3.” Department of Justice. Activist John Barber Jr. is in the striped hat, the third man from the right. They demanded “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.” The statement ended with the Declaration of Independence. He was held captive at the New Haven Panther headquarters on Orchard Street, where he was tortured and interrogated for two days until he confessed. Their weapon of choice was a manifesto, the ten-point program entitled, “What We Want, What We Believe.”, Protestors on May 1, 1969, in Hartford carried signs bearing a photograph of Huey P. Newton, a founder of the Black Panther party.  Photograph by Ellery G. Kington – The Hartford Times Collection, Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library. “Black Panther Party Hartford, New Haven - Volume 4.” Department of Justice. Vol. Seale's attorney emphasized that it was only Sams' testimony that tied Seale to Rackley's murder. A 1977 lawsuit uncovered the surveillance, which the department said the FBI approved.