After reading about plans to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense complete with comments by Bobby Seale it's Chairman, I decided to write my own views of it's demise on the Yahoo users News discussion BBS.  However my comments were so long, I decided instead to make it my next contribution to my blog here at Townhall.com.  So here it is:
     
         *****A number of factors led to the Panthers' demise, starting with government opposition, Jones says. In 1967, the FBI launched a counterintellige program against what it termed "black hate groups" as well as other activists.  -  from the AP story*****
     http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6146904,00.html

     The Black Panther Party (for Self-Defense) met it's demise by it's own "internal disagreements".  First of all, Huey Newton the Minister of Defense and his faction declared him "The Supreme Commander of the Revolution".  Bobby Seale as Chairman became less than a figurehead because even that would be a threat to Newton's internal coup.
     Secondly, two factions emerged one backing Newton and one backing Eldridge Cleaver, author of Soul On Ice (before the Panthers) and designer (after the Panthers) of trousers with a male genitalia pouch on the OUTSIDE of the pants!  It didn't take long for followers of one faction to kill followers of other factions in gunfights!
     After Newton took over as "Supreme Commander",  the White Panthers were taken over by "Pun" Plamondon while it's Chairman John Sinclair was serving a 9 and a half to 10 year prison sentence for giving a narc two joints of marijuana.   The White Panther Party then changed it's name to the Rainbow People Party. This was in keeping with Newtons theory of "Intercommunalism", i.e., all the "oppressed peoples" united against "the man" led of course by the black lumpen-proletariat (Newton himself and his gang of would-be pimps and pushers.)  Intercommunalism was in fact an unoriginal derivative of then Soviet boss Leonid Breshnev's "Theory of Limited Right of Self-Determination".  This meant essentially that nations had the right to self-determination so long as the Soviet Union approved of what they were self-determining to be!
     Under these circumstances, it didn't take long for the Panthers (both Black and Rainbow) to whither away.  It should be noted that in Marin County, the White Panthers there refused to change their name and follow Plamondon and Sinclair's Rainbow People's Party.  They didn't want to be "respectible hippies" in the words of Ann Arbor's Ollie Bishop (who will always remain a legend in my mind).  I and a few followers acted on Sinclair's original proposal for the White Panther Party and founded the Woodstock People's Party. Boy were we ever young and stupid.
     Huey Newton was a thug and his murder by a drug dealer was fitting to his lifestyle.  Bobby Seale (who I believe was at one time on the Oakland City Council) like an alcoholic fantasizing about the good times when he used to drink with his buddies, is now nostalgic for days gone by when he thinks he was relevant.  And who knows (or cares) whatever happened to Eldridge Cleaver?
       Pun Plamondon was wanted by the FBI in connection with the bombing of a CIA recruiting office in Ann Arbor, but was captured along with his alleged co-conspirator Jack Forrest after littering (tossing beer cans out of their car!) Ironic considering Plamondon was an "Earth-loving" ex-sandal maker! (The case was tossed out when the court ruled that the entire transcript of the telephone wire taps would have to be made available [read: made public] to the defense.  The Prosecution citing "national security" issues for not acquiesing, dropped the charges.  Back then, I thought they had evidence that a foreign power (USSR) was meddling and the Feds were afraid of striking fear in the public.  I was probably just a little paranoid!
       John Sinclair, another alledged co-conspirator in the CIA bombing case (who was a jazz critic for Downbeat magazine), founded Trans Love Energies which became the White Panther Party after hearing Bobby Seale talk at Eastern Michigan University.  Seale suggested to the mostly white audience  that "there be a White Panther Party" for young caucasian radicals.  Eventually, after John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band headlined a "FREE JOHN NOW!" rally at Ann Arbor's Chrysler Arena, the "Jesus Christ of Marijuana" was freed from prison.  Since then he continued to manage bands.  He managed the MC5 and got them and The Stooges (featuring Iggy Pop) their first major label record deals with Elektra Records.  He continued with his love of jazz and lived in New Orleans for a while.  I used run into him in Downtown Detroit from time to time a few years ago.  He is also known to be a big fan of the Detroit Tigers.  Although I have long discarded my leftism, we remained friends, probably because we both love the Detroit Tigers (more than any Panthers!)  GO TIGERS GO!