Biography
LaSaunders Hudson was a Black dry-cleaning business owner (B.H.K. Cleaners) in Memphis, Tennessee. On June 7, 1972, when four armed IRS agents came to his shop demanding $197 in back taxes, Hudson — in a protest against the taxation of an oppressed people who had never been compensated for slavery — disarmed the agents, ordered three of them to strip and leave, and held one until the governor of Tennessee would come, as a crowd of some 2,000 Black supporters gathered outside. He was charged with assault with intent to commit murder and released on $2,000 bail; he was defended by attorney Walter Bailey. Documented in The Black Panther (July 1, 1972).