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<font size=3>John H. Bowman III, born December 6, 1947, passed on
to the ancestors December 23, 2006 after a courageous battle against
liver cancer. This well-loved and respected brother was a former member
of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a devoted family man and a
dedicated community organizer. He was a proud man who committed his
life to his people and the struggle for their liberation. A dear friend
and comrade to many of us, John will be deeply missed.<br><br>
Join us for a celebration of his transition 1/11/07 2:30 PM at True Vine
Church, 36th and Spencer Rd. Spencer, Oklahoma. <br><br>
We will also pay tribute to him on January 28th in San Francisco. Details
will follow. <br><br>
For more information call : 405 848-2594 or 405 816-6870<br>
Cdhr_right@hotmail.com<br><br>
or 415 863-9977<br>
info@freedomarchives.org<br><br>
<br><br>
<div align="center">Interview with John Bowman <br>
Published in the SF Bayview<br>
October 2005<br>
<br>
</div>
<br>
It was clear to me that the federal government tried to destroy and did
destroy the Black Panther Party, and tried to destroy me as a member of
the Black Panther Party. They used deceit, they used false information,
they also participated in overt assaults on people’s lives. I was
assaulted, and two other people were assaulted and shot and imprisoned in
Los Angeles. I was imprisoned for six years for assault with intent to
commit murder on police officers, when in fact it was the police who
initiated the assault - and eventually charges was dropped. It was clear
to me then that this was an attack to destroy us, and I survived. And in
2003, it became clear to me that they wanted to continue their campaign
to destroy me by visiting me, accusing me and wanting to talk to me about
things that happened in 1971. <br>
<br>
From 1968 to 1973, I experienced false arrests, I experienced
assassination attempts, I experienced being railroaded through the
courts, I experienced police brutality, experienced torture - because of
my association with this organization called the Black Panther Party for
Self Defense. So, how does it make me feel in 2005? I feel like
it’s something that’s never gonna end; that my commitment is being
challenged again by the United States government. Because of the
commitment that I made in 1967, I’m still being persecuted and punished
for that commitment and believing in the ten-point program of the Black
Panther Party and implementing some of the programs of the Black Panther
Party in some of the social programs that myself and my colleagues are
doing. So, I’m very concerned. I’m angry. I don’t feel like
it’s right, and I don’t feel like it’s something that should go
unnoticed, and I don’t feel like the government should be able to get
away with this continuous harassment. The same people who tried to kill
me in 1973 are the same people who are here today, in 2005, trying to
destroy me. I mean it literally. I mean there were people from the forces
of the San Francisco Police Department who participated in harassment,
torture, and my interrogation in 1973. And these same people I have to
come in contact with, I have to go before courts in front of, who are
asking me the same questions that they interrogated and tortured me for.
I have to be confronted with these people, and none of these people have
ever been brought to trial. None of these people have ever been charged
with anything. None of these people have ever been questioned about that.
So I think if they have to put me in court, I think they should be
brought to court and questioned about their behavior as it related to
John Bowman, Harold Taylor, and Ruben Scott, and dozens of other people
in New Orleans in 1973. So if I have to be brought before a grand jury
and questioned in secret, where no one is there but the grand jurors,
John Bowman, the US Attorney and the State’s Attorney, no lawyer for me,
why can’t there be some forum where some questions are put to the police
department from San Francisco about their behavior in 1973 which is the
basis of this grand jury investigation today. That’s what I’m asking for
is some justice.<br>
<br>
What makes John Bowman tick? Well, one of the things that makes me
tick is that I have two children. I have twenty-eight nephews and nieces
who I care quite a bit about. I’m a man [who thinks] that each one could
teach one, and that each person has an obligation to give something to
the community in which he dwells. I learned that concept and principle
through my parents. I learned that by growing up in what is now called
the Western Addition, but [which was] the Fillmore district of San
Francisco where I went to school and where I was raised. It took awhile
for me to understand who I was. In fact, I had dropped out of high
school. There was a program in the community called the Neighborhood
Youth Corps program, and I had a job counselor who gave me books,
Malcolm X’s autobiography, and James Baldwin’s book, <i>Go Tell It on the
Mountain.</i> So I read the books and that excited me quite a bit.
And then I heard about Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party.
So I was beginning to be socially conscious [when I was] 17 years
old. So, who am I right now? I’m 57 years old and still feel
like I need to contribute to my community and contribute to my family.
That’s what I try to do on a daily basis. One of the things that I was
able to do is to appreciate the programs that would give things to the
people, and one of the things that attracted me to the Black Panther
Party was their ten-point platform and program which spoke to the issues
of housing, education and employment, spoke to issues of social justice
and justice in the criminal justice system. And in my community, in the
Fillmore district, there was lots of social injustice, there were lots of
businesses that didn’t contribute anything, there was dilapidated
housing and absent landlords and all of that was just pressing me.
I felt like it was time for me to do something besides just talk about
it. And that’s when I decided to pay attention to the ten-point program
of the Black Panther Party. So I joined their organization, and I began
to work with their programs – the breakfast programs, collecting medical
supplies, having a clinic and programs inside the housing projects,
working with tenants and families, organizing rent strikes. Those are the
kind of things that shaped and molded me to be a contributor to the
community. <br>
<br>
The Black Panther Party was educating people to some of the realities,
some of the criminal realities of the system that was governing
them. In the local communities and nationally, the Black Panther
Party was, through its newspaper, educating people to what is wrong about
the structure and the policies of housing. What is wrong about the
prison systems and about the criminal justice systems. And people
began to listen to the Black Panther Party, and they began to support the
Black Panther Party.<br>
<br>
The environment was very oppressive. The Tac squad that was created by
Joseph Alioto [former SF mayor], their task was to disrupt our function.
And we would get pulled over if we were driving, if we were walking. We
would get held up on the streets, we’d be laid down in the streets. We
would have AR-15s or machine guns pointed at us, that’s when I first
learned, got introduced to AR-15 automatic weapons through watching the
Tac Squad put them in my face and other members of the party. Wherever we
would go, they would come and disrupt, they would kick in our doors. Or
they would sit outside our houses waiting for us to come home. And when
we got home, before we got into our house, they would search us. So it
became very clear to me that not only was this a social service program
that they were attacking, they were attacking me as a person
because of my beliefs. This is when I began to feel that my life was in
danger, always. Because everywhere I went, I had to be confronted with
police. Organized harassment is what we came to realize was taking place
against us. And as a means to protect ourselves, we had to go out in
groups of threes and fours, even if just to sell newspapers or to go to
community meetings and set up community meetings. It was clear that
things had changed. And that on a national level, the Black Panther Party
was the focus of an organized attack against the leadership. In Chicago,
and in New York, in San Diego and in Los Angeles, there was people dying,
people being assassinated in their cars. Fred Hampton himself, who was a
member and a leader in Chicago, he was assassinated [as was Mark Clark].
And there was people assassinated in New York City and people arrested by
the dozens in New York City. So it was clear to us here in San Francisco
that something like that was gonna happen to us. And eventually it did
happen where our office got raided on Fillmore Street. And they shot tear
gas in our office. And they didn’t shoot anybody, but they destroyed
thousands of dollars of materials and food and medical supplies. And then
simultaneously they raided different homes that people were living
in. So it was clear to us that this is what it was gonna be about.
It was gonna be about us being violently attacked and unjustly shot and
put in jail. We knew it was the local police, but we didn’t know [at that
time] it was coordinated by the FBI and the CIA and the United States
government. So what we were going to do about it, we had no idea.<br>
<br>
The Black Panther Party built coalitions with people who were against the
Vietnam War, who were against the murders of citizens in El Salvador,
Honduras, and Guatemala, with people who were against apartheid in South
Africa. People who were on college campuses who wanted to protest the war
and protest exploitation of people of color all across the world. The
Black Panther Party even went as far as to communicate with other
governments – the Vietnamese government, the North Korean government, the
ANC government – the organization that Nelson Mandela was a part of which
is called the African National Congress. We all had one thing in
common - we all were being oppressed. And there was a need to stop war
and a need to stop oppressing and exploiting people. And the Black
Panther Party was a very vocal part of this movement on a worldwide
basis. This is why the Black Panther Party took the brunt of all the
murder of its membership and the jailing of all its membership, because
we were an organization that was very vocal. People embraced the
Black Panther Party, and that’s why the federal government created a
program called the Cointelpro program. And that’s why they had a senate
committee hearing, and people admitted that J. Edgar Hoover orchestrated
and created mass hysteria and mass murder, because of our relationships
with people all over the world. Eldridge Cleaver and Don Cox and Kathleen
Cleaver and other members of the organization who went into exile
traveled all over the globe internationally and were telling people what
this government was doing and giving them documented evidence, just like
Malcolm X did when he went to Africa - he talked to people all over the
African continent about this government and its treatment of people.
Well, the Black Panther Party did the same thing. They never talk about
the relationships between people all over the world and the Black Panther
Party. They only create criminal images of Black Panthers. So
it’s important that people take a broader look as to what it is when they
speak today of the Patriot Act and Homeland Security, and what does it do
to affect us today, us ordinary citizens. I think I’m a victim of the
Patriot Act. We all became victims of the Cointelpro program. <br>
<br>
In fact, it was the Black Panther Party that enabled me to grow as a man
and as a person, because it taught principles, it taught integrity. And
I’ve been doing this for, I can’t even count the years – 35, 40 years.
And I continue to give this example to my son, who is 19 years old, and
to my daughter who is 26. I am a community activist. I’m a social program
developer. I don’t consider myself a member of the Black Panther Party
today. But I do consider myself someone who have learnt from the
principles, the basic principles and ideology of the Black Panther Party,
which was to reform and revolutionize the social system so black people
and all people could benefit more from it.<br>
<br>
Interviewed and edited by Claude Marks<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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