Seize the Time/Bunchy Carter and Bobby Hutton

[Mosi Ngozi]

Bobby Hutton was the first member of our Party murdered by the police, and Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were among the latest. Between those murders there was a long line of black brothers gunned down by racist cops and black racist, cultural nationalists working with the power structure against the revolutionary program of the Black Panther Party.

Bobby Hutton loved Bunchy Carter. Bobby Hutton used to develop alter ego relationships with different Party leaders - Huey, Eldridge, myself, and Bunchy. His latest, at the time he was killed, was imitating Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter. He tried to become more politically educated like Bunchy was and he really dug brother Bunchy, because Bunchy had been in prison. It wasn't a boasting, kind of absurd, "I did this much time," and "I did that much time," thing that Bobby related to. Bobby related to Bunchy because Bunchy was the brother who had come from prison and was back in the community, working to serve the people.

Bunchy also had an air about him that was stylish in the manner and the environment of the black community that Little Bobby readily communicated with. This manner is in the poetry that Bunchy would write and recite, and also in the sharp way that Bunchy dressed - the clothes of the people. We all have some sharp clothes, but Bunchy was always sharp - clean, with a sharp suit, pimp socks, and shined knobs.1 Little Bobby would see Bunchy with a big natural, that was kept very neat, a big moustache, a sharp suit and some clean clothes on, and he really dug the way Bunchy looked.

At the same time, Bunchy wasn't a selfish person. Deep down inside he really loved his people and he loved them so much that when he saw them doing something wrong, he would cuss the brothers out to try to get them to understand the need to survive, to unify, to defend ourselves, and to be revolutionaries and work in the community to serve the people.

This is the thing that surprised Bobby. Little Bobby was only sixteen years old, and he wanted to be sharp. Living in poverty and seeing brother Bunchy somehow stay sharp, and at the same time be a service to his community, kind of showed Bobby that he didn't have to get out of the Party. He didn't have to say, "Well, I'm gonna give up the Party just to get me some sharp clothes," as some brothers would, out of selfishness. Bunchy had arranged it so that on his parole he was receiving a fair sum of money working at a poverty program as some kind of assistant director. That's how he kept himself sharp.

When one would first see Bunchy, one might think that Bunchy was a pimp or some kind of hustler off the block, but he wasn't. Not that he didn't know the pimps and hustlers; Bunchy was very well respected and well known throughout Watts and the black community in Los Angeles by many, many people. When he was murdered, the Party had to go down and try to talk to some of the brothers, because there were some five or six hundred brothers throughout Watts that put shotguns in their cars and were looking for anything that looked like a member of Ron Karenga's US organization that had murdered him. We tried to tell the brothers that we didn't want a jive war in the black community among black people, but at the same time we wanted to see to it that those cats who did the killing were prosecuted. We felt that if the power structure didn't prosecute them, or if they used some kind of trick to let them go after prosecution, in the long run this would prove to the people that the US organization, black racism, and cultural nationalism were ultimately the tools of the power structure, and that they stagnate the people's revolutionary struggle for needed change in the community.

One of the cleanest things about Bunchy was his deep seriousness and honesty about the need for revolutionary change. When Eldridge, I, or someone from Central Headquarters would give him an order to stop doing something, he would stop. If he thought he was right, he would come and sit down and argue with us, not in an antagonistic manner but in a manner that showed that he wanted us to show him where he was wrong, because he still felt that it should be done. But he would stop if ordered to. Bunchy also respected organization, which is another thing that Little Bobby picked up from him.

Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter was killed because a group of blacks - black racists and cultural nationalists from Ron Karenga's US organization - became the enemies of the people and, in essence, sided with the capitalist power structure. These pig, black racists really work with the power structure against their own people, and do it out of psychological need to hate white people just because of the color of their skin.

Bunchy had been working in Los Angeles organizing the Black Panther Party throughout the city. In January of 1968, Bunchy had some arguments and small conflicts with the US organization. Bunchy was concerned about the fact that the US organization had been running around intimidating, threatening, and beating up a number of the people in the community, in the B.S.U. (Black Student Union), and other small factionalized black organizations. Bunchy and the Black Panther Party were not about to be intimidated by anybody. These other small groups asked Bunchy to stop Ron Karenga, and take over the Black Congress of Organizations that had been formed there and that Ron Karenga was in control of.

Bunchy called up and told us that he was going to go and corner Karenga and his boys and tell them they better stop their intimidation of those people. We told Bunchy to forget Ron Karenga because most organizations like his are bootlicking organizations, not representative of the community, and that, the people will choose the organization that serves them most. I told him on the phone, "What you should do is get out in the community, and forget Ron Karenga and the Black Congress too, and go and set up those community offices. You should have five, six, or seven offices set up down there, in all the different black community areas throughout Los Angeles. Work from there at serving the people and move to implement the Party's ten-point platform and program, and politically educate the masses of the people. That's what has to be done. Forget Ron Karenga."

Bunchy followed orders. He flew up on a plane a week later and wanted to argue his point, but Eldridge and I told him to forget Karenga and US. Bunchy felt that Karenga was going to cause some grave danger to the black community. Our argument was that if he attacked the black community, the black community would attack him and remove him.

Some months after that John Huggins was made Deputy Minister of Information of the Southern California chapter of the Party, to replace this jackanape Earl Anthony who wasn't relating to the duties of that area of work. John and Bunchy worked very closely to pull the Party together in Los Angeles. The incident that led to their murder was part of this work.

The Black Student Union of UCLA had been having problems with US for a long time. A $20,000-a-year job opened up, director of some kind of community and student program, and the US niggers wanted the job and wanted their puppet placed in control. The B.S.U. did not want them to control the program, and since the Black Panther Party had grown to be an integral part of the black community in Los Angeles, the Black Student Union asked Bunchy and John to come up to a meeting about it on the UCLA campus. The B.S.U. asked them what they thought about Karenga's attempts to control their group, and Bunchy and John just spoke for about five minutes. All they said at that meeting was that the students had a right to control their own destiny, and "Power to the Students!" Then they left. Two days later, on Friday, another meeting was called. John and Bunchy repeated the same five minute "Power to the Students" rap. That was the day they were killed, murdered right there in the meeting room by those racist, murderous pigs from US.

Of course Ron Karenga had no political power base with his cultural nationalism and black racism in Los Angeles. He runs around, and has a little jive office stuck up somewhere, but everybody is aware of his game and his capitalistic set of little jive businesses, mainly service stations. Those businesses are not cooperatives; they're not there to serve the people. From his past record and his meeting behind the scenes with the Rockefellers,2 we know that he got those little jive businesses as a handout, to trick the community on the concept of blackness and black is beautiful. Ron Karenga had no intention before and has no intention now of working in opposition to the power structure to change the system for the needs of black America.

All the murders of Party members, Bunchy, Little Bobby, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, Tommy Lewis, and the brothers who were gunned down prior to Bunchy, plus a host of other brothers who were shot up and killed by cops and racist cultural nationalists across the country, have not destroyed the Party. The arrests of our members have not destroyed the Party. We pay a tribute to these dead brothers of ours, and every Black Panther Party member and the people in the community honor them. We will fight against the racist pigs and the black racists who work together to try to destroy the Party.


Wikisource

[Mosi Ngozi]

We should make sure that we all say a few words for lil bobby hutton who was taken from us on April 6th marks the anniversary of 17 year old Black Panther, Lil' Bobby Hutton who was Assasinated by the notorious Oakland Pigs.May the ancestors bless us for not forgetting one of own.

[Sourakhata]

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[Langalibalele]

Not being in Oakland, an event was held there this past April 11 in honor of Lil Bobby Hutton, organized by his niece Kinara (Hutton) Zima. I apologize for not getting that info out to all the good sisters n brothers on this forum.