Salim Muwakkil’s hagiography “Black Panthers reconsidered” (Commentary, Feb. 28) greatly romanticizes this controversial group. During the ’60s the Black Panthers were alleged to have obtained funds by extorting “street taxes” from struggling African-American small-business owners in Oakland, Calif.These funds paid for the Panther leadership’s luxury apartments instead of being used for the people, as they claimed. Huey Newton, one of their original founders, had a personal tailor on call to come to his apartment for fittings. This ended after Mr. Newton allegedly pistol-whipped the tailor for referring to him as baby (as in baby Huey). Eventually, Mr. Newton was killed in an altercation with his crack dealer when he couldn’t pay his drug debts.
During the cold war, another Panther co-founder, Eldridge Cleaver, traveled to communist-held North Korea, China, Russia and Cuba. Mr. Cleaver published pictures of his meetings with various communist dictators in his anti-American prison thesis, “Soul on Ice.”
The Black Panthers were a gun-carrying revolutionary group that associated with America’s enemies and preached violent overthrow of our freely elected government. Can Mr. Muwakkil honestly blame federal law enforcement authorities for investigating the Panthers’ activities?
