About Organizations
Black Panther Party
Black Liberation Army
American Indian Movement
FALN
Weather Underground
Earth Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
MOVE
Republic of New Afrika
Symbionese Liberation Army
Los Macheteros
United Freedom Front
May 19th Communist Organization
Young Lords
George Jackson Brigade
Students for a Democratic Society
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Industrial Workers of the World
Communist Party USA
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Brown Berets
Socialist Workers Party
African People's Socialist Party
Nation of Islam
About Black Panther Party
Founding of the Black Panther Party
Police Patrols in Oakland
Sacramento Capitol Protest
Huey Newton Arrest & the "Free Huey" Campaign
Killing of Bobby Hutton
Free Breakfast for Children Program
Bunchy Carter & John Huggins Killings
Panther 21 Arrests & Trial
New Haven Panther Trials
Fred Hampton & Mark Clark Raid
Oakland Community School
Elaine Brown Leadership Period
Decline & Dissolution
PANTHER 21 ARRESTS & TRIAL
In April 1969, twenty-one members of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party were arrested and charged with conspiring to bomb police stations, department stores, and other targets. Bail was set punishingly high, and many defendants were held for two years awaiting trial in what became the longest and most expensive trial in New York State history to that point.
The prosecution's case rested heavily on undercover police infiltrators. In May 1971, after deliberating less than an hour, the jury acquitted all the defendants on every count. The case exposed the use of infiltration and conspiracy charges against the party, but the years of pretrial detention had done severe damage to the New York chapter.