Reggie Forte
Reginald Westley Forte (1949–1997) was one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party.[1]
Background
Forte was born on March 31, 1949, in Birmingham, Alabama to Leavy II and Helen (Demand) Forte.[2] He and his family relocated to Emeryville, California in 1959. Later, the family moved to Oakland, California where Forte attended Oakland Tech High School. He had two brothers, Sherwin and Leavy III. He had one daughter, Marcella Anne Forte, three grandsons, Anthony Narcisse, Dione and Darrell Narcisse, one niece, Tosha Forte, and one nephew, Leavy Forte IV.
Ancestors
Census records from the 1900s show that Reggie's forefather was one of three brothers, Caze, Washington, and Preston Forte. They owned their own land in a town called Eufaula, Alabama. Each brother raised 11 children. They lived as a "clan" to protect each other from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
One of Forte's forefathers seized the opportunity to emigrate to Liberia with his family. In 1868, Willis Forte sailed on the Golconda, with his wife Paulina, son Wiley, daughter Catherine, and another son Charles. Later, as Wiley took a wife, he established a town called Forteville that still thrives today.
An incident arose in the 1930s between the Ku Klux Klan and the family. The story is documented in the book Witness to Injustice by David Frost, Jr. One of the Forte men went to town and had a fight with a white man. A knife was involved and both men were injured. When Forte made it home to Eufaula, the women and children moved into the woods for protection, while the men prepared for a fight. The next day a group of klansmen came to seek revenge at the Forte compound. They stopped at a country store to load up on supplies. When asked by the store owner where they were headed, the Klan leader said, "to get those Forte's." The proprietor told them they'd need a lot more ammunition and supplies and a lunch because they were going to be gone for a long time. He explained that some of the Forte's could shoot the leaves off of trees from one hundred yards, and they would be ready to fight. The Klan reconsidered and went home.
Joining the Panthers
In 1963, Reginald's maternal step-grandmother was a victim of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. She survived, but never fully recovered from her wounds. While in high school, Reginald met Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton and with his older brother Sherwin, joined them to patrol neighbourhoods in Richmond, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco to monitor the police. They often followed the arrested to the police department, and would frequently pay their bail. The Panthers always (legally) displayed their weapons publicly.[2]
In 1967, Reginald, Sherwin, Lil' Bobbie Hutton, Big Man, Bobby Seale and others went to Sacramento, California's state capitol, to introduce their Ten Point Platform and to demonstrate their opposition to a law that made it illegal to bear firearms in public.
Death
Reginald died February 18, 1997, in San Jose, California.[2]
- v
- t
- e
- Huey P. Newton
- Bobby Seale
- Elaine Brown
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Kathleen Cleaver
- Donald Cox
- Fred Hampton
- David Hilliard
West Coast based |
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East Coast based |
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Southern based | |
Chicago based |
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Others |
- Ten-Point Program
- Free Breakfast for Children
- The Black Panther (newspaper)
- Rainbow Coalition
- United Front Against Fascism
- Black Power, We're Goin' Survive America (1968)
- Black Panthers: A Report (1968)
- Black Panthers (1968)
- Mayday (1969)
- Interview with Bobby Seale (1969)
- Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther (1969)
- Finally Got the News (1970)
- The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)
- Teach Our Children (1973)
- In the Event Anyone Disappears (1974)
- Charles Garry: Streetfighter in the Courtroom (1992)
- Panther (1995)
- All Power to the People (1996)
- Public Enemy (1999)
- A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
- Night Catches Us (2010)
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)
- Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
- The Big Cigar (2024)
- Soul on Ice (1968)
- Seize the Time (1970)
- Blood in My Eye (1972)
- Revolutionary Suicide (1973)
- A Taste of Power (1992)
- Black Against Empire (2013)
- 1968 Olympics Black Power salute
- COINTELPRO
- Intercommunalism
- Murder of Betty Van Patter
- New Haven Black Panther trials
- Panther 21
- Rice–Poindexter case
- Robert Templeton
- Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
- "Panther Power" (2000)
- Black power movement
- Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention
- Category|Black Panther Party
References
- ^ "Reginald Westley Forte - One of the Original Members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense". The Black Panther. February 2014. p. 5.
- ^ a b c "Reginald Westley Forte: One of the Original Members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense" (PDF). itsabouttimebpp.com. February 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, March 31, 1949, Reginald was the second of three sons.