The Black Panther Party (BPP) made inroads into the
Milwaukee community in January of 1969 by establishing an office at 829 West
Atkinson Avenue. By June of 1969, the BPP had moved to 2121 North 1st Street.
The Black Panthers in Milwaukee were a very nomadic organization because most white
landlords did not want to rent to armed black militants.
The Panther office was open 7 days a week, from noon until 8
pm, attempting to serve the black people of Milwaukee.
In April of 1972, Ronald Starks, a member of the original
Milwaukee Panthers, and Michael McGee, a radical black veteran and future
Milwaukee alderman, conceptualized an organization akin to the Black Panther
Party. On April 22, 1972, the two helped to form the People's Committee for
Survival, which was predicated on community service. The People's Committee for
Survival had also grown out of the People's Committee to Free Jan Starks, a
soldier in the military and Ron's brother, who had been imprisoned in Taiwan
for allegedly possessing opium
In August of 1973, a Panther branch was re- established in
Milwaukee under the leadership of Starks and McGee at 2470 North 3rd Street,
and from there they moved to 2750 North 16th Street.
The Milwaukee
Panthers believed that one of the first problems they had to address was the
rampant police brutality that pervaded the city. The Milwaukee Police
Department, and especially the Tactical Squad, was notorious for their
brutality. Members of the Tactical Squad drove around with three or four
officers to a car that was heavily armed with shotguns and rifles. Sergeant
Frank Miller of the Tactical Squad was regarded as one of the most ruthless
members of the Milwaukee Police Department
The brutality of
the Milwaukee Police Department against African Americans was a main causal
factor of the riot in 1967.
The Milwaukee Panthers also sought to remove "all these
fascist, racist storm troopers and, in turn, replace them with some respectable
new police officers." The Party also noted "the trend in law
enforcement by the Milwaukee Police Department has been toward arbitrary and
unequal enforcement of law to the detriment of the poor, the property-less,
minority groups, and especially Black persons."
The Milwaukee
Panthers also sought to remove "all these fascist, racist storm troopers
and, in turn, replace them with some respectable new police officers."
The Panthers also
placed great emphasis on police officers patrolling the area in which they
lived, therefore making them more accountable to the community, and making the
police force more ethnically diverse.
The Party set a goal of 30,000 signatures for a 1976
referendum that would request State Legislators to change the laws governing
police affairs. The Panthers were not successful in 1976, but their work paid
off with the passage of Assembly Bill 42 in July of 1977. Bill 42 limited the
terms of police and fire chiefs in Wisconsin to ten years, a vastly different
arrangement than the existing rule that had granted chief Breier a lifetime
appointment. Assembly Bill 42, passed the State Assembly and Senate in April of
1977, and acting Governor Martin Schreiber signed the Bill into law in July of
that year. The Black Panther Party was not directly credited with the passage
of Bill 42, but it is arguable that without the community organizing and the
attention that the Panthers brought to the issue, this bill would never have
passed.
In June of 1969, the Party protested the segregationist
policies of the Oasis Theater, located at 2626 West Center Street. The policy
of the Oasis was to make young African- Americans sit on aisle floors when
watching a movie because they were "troublemakers." The Party
responded to this segregation by demonstrating outside the theater at which time
three Panthers were arrested for supposedly blocking the entrance. The Party
did achieve a satisfactory agreement with the theater owner that called for the
Panthers to speak with the kids about behaving and in turn, they could sit in
seats.
The Party also picketed I & L Food Stores in late June
of 1969. A number of people in the community had complained that the store set
prices too high, knowing that people in the community had no other option for
grocery shopping.
By September of 1973, the BPP ran a childcare facility in
Milwaukee as well as an egg coop, where they sold eggs at wholesale out of
their office. The Party also attempted to set up a community blood bank that
would sell blood at a fraction of what it was sold for at hospitals.
Besides the decentralization plan, the Party served as a
watchdog of the Police Department. They participated in the Committee of 21, a
community organization that developed out of the slayings of John Starks, Mary
Pendleton and Jerry Brookshire, demanding an investigation and indictment of
the officers involved. Despite the efforts of the Panthers and the Committee, a
jury ruled that the killings were justifiable homicide.
By March of 1974, the survival programs of the Milwaukee
chapter were serving roughly 500 people a week. The programs were supported
through benefits, profits from newspaper and egg sales, donations from
individuals and businesses and their own financial resources.
Despite the short-lived existence of the Milwaukee BPP, they
created a durable legacy of community activism and service. Programs like the
Free Breakfast for Children were started with the hope that the community would
take it over. In providing the spark, the BPP hoped they could instigate social
change that would outlive their organizational existence. Like the old school
socialists, the BPP embraced bread and butter issues that could appear more
reformist than revolutionary, yet the style of their activism and the radical
context of their politics made it possible for them to credibly claim that they
served as the "Vanguard" in the city's movement for social justice.
The BPP of Milwaukee was outwardly confronting the power
structure in the name of oppressed Black people and the Party paid a heavy
price for doing so. Police vandalized the office on two separate occasions. In
March of 1969, Walter Chesser alleged that police for no apparent reason other
than being a Panther beat him. In June 1969, Nate Bellamy, Lieutenant of
Information, had his car rammed by the police, causing him to be hospitalized
and then arrested for allegedly carrying a concealed weapon.
The worst spell of persecution occurred in September of
1969, when within a span of 48 hours, six Panthers were incarcerated in two
separate incidents. Eyewitnesses said that three Panthers were viciously beaten
during their arrest. The other arrest was of the infamous Milwaukee Three,
Booker Collins, Jessie White and Earl Levrettes, who supposedly tried to murder
a police officer. The three contended that they were all brutally beaten six
separate times within 24 hours after their arrest. Collins and White were given
30-year sentences and Levrettes was given ten.
“Power to the
People”
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Sister, Herrera There is much more on the Milwaukee, Panthers!