Fundraising Letter for Black Panther Party Members' Legal Defense
- Single letter measuring 8 x 10.5 inches, one single-sided sheet
- New York City , 1970
New York City, 1970. Single letter measuring 8 x 10.5 inches, one single-sided sheet. Fine. In March of 1969, eight members of the Black Panther Party (BPP) were arrested in Chicago, accused of conspiracy to incite a riot. In April, twenty-one BPP members were arrested in New York City and charged with a conspiracy to murder NYPD officers and bomb several buildings, including two police stations and the Bronx Botanical Gardens. The following year, BPP co-founder and former “Chicago Eight” co-defendant Bobby Seale was charged with ordering the 1969 murder of suspected FBI informant Alex Rackley. Offered here is a letter signed in facsimile by African-American activists and actors Ossie Davis and Dick Gregory seeking to raise funds for the Panthers’ legal defense in these trials.
The trials became a favored cause for the American New Left – cultural figures from comic actress Peggy Cass and film director Robert Downey Sr. to author Norman Mailer and feminist icon Gloria Steinem appear as “sponsors” of the Committee to Defend the Panthers, which itself was formed by musician and composer Leonard Bernstein. Donations raised by the Committee would go to paying for “legal research, travel to interview and transport witnesses, court transcripts and other trial-related essentials.”
The letter warns:
“Today the Panthers – tomorrow it could be any of us. Our country cannot – must not – tolerate government vendettas against ANY group. Unless the tide of repression is turned, and fast, we had all better run for our lives. […] Unless these men and women can be assured of a fair trial, with a JURY OF THEIR PEERS, no man or woman in the United States can be sure of justice in court.”
In 1971, all members of the Panther 21 were acquitted;in 1972, all criminal convictions against the Chicago Seven were reversed, and Bobby Seale was released from prison with his charges dropped.
The trials became a favored cause for the American New Left – cultural figures from comic actress Peggy Cass and film director Robert Downey Sr. to author Norman Mailer and feminist icon Gloria Steinem appear as “sponsors” of the Committee to Defend the Panthers, which itself was formed by musician and composer Leonard Bernstein. Donations raised by the Committee would go to paying for “legal research, travel to interview and transport witnesses, court transcripts and other trial-related essentials.”
The letter warns:
“Today the Panthers – tomorrow it could be any of us. Our country cannot – must not – tolerate government vendettas against ANY group. Unless the tide of repression is turned, and fast, we had all better run for our lives. […] Unless these men and women can be assured of a fair trial, with a JURY OF THEIR PEERS, no man or woman in the United States can be sure of justice in court.”
In 1971, all members of the Panther 21 were acquitted;in 1972, all criminal convictions against the Chicago Seven were reversed, and Bobby Seale was released from prison with his charges dropped.