Biography
Bill Epton was a Harlem-born radical organizer associated with Maoist politics and leadership in the Progressive Labor Party. In the mid-1960s he became a visible figure in militant street-level politics, arguing that police violence and systemic racism required confrontational mass response rather than de-escalation or reliance on conventional channels.
His most consequential arrest followed the 1964 Harlem uprising. After a police killing triggered days of demonstrations and escalating conflict, Epton helped call for a rally and march despite a state-of-emergency ban on public demonstrations. He was arrested and then prosecuted under New York’s “criminal anarchy” statute—an exceptionally severe legal tool rarely used in that era. Convicted and sentenced to prison time (commonly reported as a one-year term), Epton’s case became a widely cited test of how far authorities would go to criminalize incendiary political speech and protest leadership.
