The Graying of the Black Panthers

David Montgomery

Thursday, April 25, 2002

WASHINGTON Pack this many Black Panthers into a room more than three decades ago and the pigs probably would have besieged the place. Then the shooting would have begun, with the Panthers trying to give as good as they got.

But last weekend's 35th reunion of what J. Edgar Hoover called "the single greatest threat to the internal security of the United States" is passing unremarked by the police. The only guns are in the vintage photos on the walls at the University of the District of Columbia, clutched by lean young men in black leather jackets, tight black pants, black boots and black berets cocked at a revolutionary angle. Huey P. Newton. Bobby Seale. Eldridge Cleaver.

Heads turn: Here comes a familiar face. His reunion name tag dangles from his neck. Beneath the once-notorious logo with the fierce crouching black cat, it says: "Bobby Seale, Chairman of the Black Panther Party."

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