Zag Davis was one of the founding
members of the Jersey City branch of the Black Panther Party. THe  Jersey City. branch was established by the late Bashir Ameed(Jimmy York) and the late Claire Muhammed(Vincent). Zag Davis was their first recruit. Similar to "lil" Bobby Hutton he was only sixteen years old at the time. Born and raised in the Lafayette section of Jersey City he had achieved ghetto legend status as a respected street  fighter at a time when a fair one was in deed the norm. He would achieve similar status in the Black Panther Party. He was a defender  of Panther offices in shoot outs with the police in two different cities- Jersey City and Detriot. He survived them both without a scratch. In the case of the Detriot shootout, he was arrested, tried and acquitted under the  name Shante Johnson. A name he took when he went underground after surviving the assault against the Summit Ave office of the Jersey City branch. The authorities never made the connection that there was no such person as Shante or that Shante was in actuality Zig Zag Davis of Jersey City. Zag has been paralyzed from the neck down for the pass three year and confined to his bed in a local nursing home. Five days after new years day, he was struck in the head from behind by an assailant with which he had a dispute over a inspection sticker for a car. He made the mistake of turning his back and the coward made his move. The attack broke his neck. While laying unconscious on the ground, his assailant with the help of his cohorts pushed him underneath a parked car leaving him for dead. To date no one has ever been arrested for assaulting him. It is widely believed by his family and friend alike that the police never made an ernest effort to find his attackers. There are those in the Jersey City Police Department with the institutional memory of Zag's warrior past who remain  totally indifferent to the assault against him. It  matters very little. He made his transition to be with the ancestors with the same courage that defined his life. A life of resistance and struggle against the forces of reaction until the very end. We love you and salute you comrade Zag.    All Power To The People.