Destroying the Panther Myth
Related Articles
Black Panther Robert Webb, 22, moved from San Francisco to New York about a year ago. In the growing Panther schism between supporters of Huey Newton, the party's Oakland-based minister of defense, and Eldridge Cleaver, now exiled in Algiers, Webb sided with Cleaver. Last week Webb and two friends were walking along a Harlem street when they encountered several other blacks who were selling the party newspaper; since the publication is Newton-controlled, the Cleaver wing has proscribed it. Webb tried to stop the men from hawking it, but three of them drew guns and fired at him. Within moments, Webb lay dead on the sidewalk. In his pocket was a card identifying him as a "deputy field marshal" of the Black Panther party.
Cleaver's man in New York, Zayd Malik Shakur, promptly charged that Newton and his associate David Hilliard were behind the murder. "We have documented evidence," he said, "that these two madmen gave the orders to have Brother Robert Webb killed." Police have their doubts, but they suspect that the intraparty dispute is the key to the killing. They think the killers came from a dissident Panther group in Queens that remains loyal to Newton at a time when many of the New York Panthers are part of the Cleaver following. They also believe that Webb's death marks the start of a time of violence and terror within what remains of the Panther party. "Whether or not Newton gave the order, this is the beginning of something big," says one law-enforcement official who follows the Panthers closely. "All our undercover guys are scared to death."
$650 a Month. The party split has ideological overtones: the Cleaver wing denounces the Newtonites as insufficiently revolutionary. Among other things, Newton has worked to disassociate the Panthers from Weatherman, a move the Cleaver faction views with dismay. But behind the argument is a personality clash and a power struggle between Newton and Cleaver. Newton has a middle-class background and a preference for working within the System; Cleaver came to the Panthers from years of brutalizing experience in prison. Newton's approach is much more theoretical and intellectual than Cleaver's petulant activism. It was after Newton's release from jail last year—he moved into a $650-a-month apartment—that the strains inside the party began to show.
A month ago, two of the Panthers on trial in New York, Michael Tabor and Richard Moore, jumped bail and disappeared. With them went Tabor's wife, Connie Matthews, who had been Newton's secretary. Newton reacted by reading them out of the party as "enemies of the people." Last week Tabor and his wife surfaced in Algeria with Cleaver, and the New York pro-Cleaver faction produced a video tape in which the Tabors joined Kathleen Cleaver in attacking Newton. Mrs. Cleaver also took the occasion to deny charges in a recent issue of the Black Panther that her husband was holding her prisoner after having murdered her lover, Clinton Smith. Cleaver told TIME Correspondent Bill Marmon by telephone from Algiers: "I wouldn't bother to deny that stuff. It's absurd." Smith's present whereabouts are unknown.
Will Smith Gets Lost in His 
Confessions of Juiced Journo
Cartoons of the Week
Romney's Conservative Counterattack
Ringo Starr
Vaccine Recall: What Parents Need to Know
The Kite Runner Flies
Preemptive Terror Trials: Strike Two
Democrats Debate: Prepping for Finals
After the Mitchell Report