List of former members of the Black Panther Party

The list of members of the Black Panther Party includes people who are famous ex-Panthers or who became famous for other reasons. The Black Panther Party existed from 1966 to 1982.

This list does not include outside supporters, sympathizers, or allies.

Mumia Abu-Jamal , Lieutenant Minister of Information , Philadelphia chapter, then at MOVE . He is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner .
Ashanti Alston , later in the Black Liberation Army
Richard Aoki , Field Marshall; early member of the BPP, interned with his parents in a Japanese camp as a child.
Charles Barron , former member of the Harlem chapter and now an important politician of the Democrats
William Lee Brant , hijacked a plane to Cuba in 1968 and lived there in exile until his death in 2006
Elaine Brown , party leader
H. Rap Brown , militant and theorist of the Black Power movement. Currently in prison.
Stokely Carmichael , student leader and civil rights activist. Black nationalist.
James Carr
Bunchy Carter , Deputy Minister of Defense, founded the Southern California chapter.
Mark Clark; shot together with Bobby Hutton
Eldridge Cleaver , writer and journalist at Ramparts , party information minister . Leader of the party's international wing in exile in Cuba, North Korea and Algeria. Newton broke with him and his followers (New York and Southern California counties).

Kathleen Neal Cleaver , like her husband Eldridge Cleaver, a propagandist for the rag proletariat .

James "Jim" Coleman

Aaron Dixon , chairman of the BPP in Seattle

Emory Douglas , graphic artist, working on the newspaper The Black Panther, the minister of culture of the BPP.

Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin

Larry J. Gaiters, Sr. , Columbus, Ohio chapter

Steve Green , founder of the Louisiana chapter

Jon Gwara

Fred Hampton , charismatic 2nd chairman of the Illinois chapter; he was shot dead in a sleep in a Chicago police and FBI raid.

Tina Harris

David Hilliard , Chief of Staff of the BPP

Darcus Howe

Bobby Hutton , early party member; got into a shootout with the police next to Cleaver, shot dead.

George Jackson , major Black Revolution propagandist in prison, shot dead while attempting to break out

Jamal Joseph

Timothy Lewis

David Lemieux

Chaka Khan , later pop star

Owen Midgley

Huey Newton , founder of the party and its head and Minister of Defense.

Pete O'Neal

Larry Pinkney

Geronimo Pratt , after Bunchy Carter's death he took over his position as deputy defense minister of the BPP. Party Chairman in Los Angeles, Southern California. Excluded as a supporter of the Cleaver line.

Malik Rahim

Nile Rodgers , musician in the group Chic

Bobby L. Rush , Assistant Secretary of Defense of the Black Panther of the Illinois chapter, Member of the United States Congress as Democrat for the district, Chicago , Illinois

Victor Cumberbatch

Kyle Sanders

Bobby Seale , chairman and, alongside Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party

Afeni Shakur , mother of the rapper Tupac Shakur , one of the accused panthers 21

Assata Shakur , aunt of Tupac Shakur, Black Liberation Army

Mutulu Shakur , brother of Assata Shakur and stepfather of Tupac Shakur

William "Billy" Garland, birth father of Tupac Shakur

Johnny Spain

Cetewayo Michael Tabor , Panthers 21, the Roter Stern publishing house published his text on heroin and genocide in Harlem.

Robert Trivers , evolutionary biologist, member since 1979.

Karen Tustin

Toni Watkins