By 1970, a number of leaders within the Black Panther Party, including Lawrence S. Bell, Bobby Rush, Bobby Seale, George W. Sams, Jr., Geronimo Pratt, Eddie Conway, William Lee Brent, Chip Fitzgerald, Cinque Magee, Albert Nuh Washington, Anthony Bottom, Pete O’Neal, Ed Poindexter, David Rice, Russell Shoatz, the Panther 21, and Angela Davis, were behind bars or facing criminal charges ranging from robbery and inciting a riot to illegal weapons possession, conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder.
