Picking Up the Gun: A Report on the Black Panthers
Earl Anthony
This is the author's personal account of his experience in the Black Panthers. He describes how members are recruited and trained; their alliance with the Peace and Freedom Party; and the factional strife between the Panthers and other cultural nationalist groups. He talks about Eldridge Cleaver, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale and gives an insider perspective on events such as the confrontation with the California State Legislature, the trial of Huey Newton, the shoot-out between Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Hutton and the Oakland police. --From dust jacket. He also served as an informant for the FBI--blackmailed into that role, he claims, by two FBI agents who falsely charged Anthony with a bombing, put a gun to his head, then cut a deal to let him off the hook in exchange for the inside story on the Panthers.