The Baltimore Black Panther Party was founded in 1968 by Warren Hart, a figure who would later be revealed as an informant for the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency. He not only surveled them, he also encouraged them to commit crimes. His exposure began as Marshall “Eddie” Conway” and other Panthers began to notice discrepancies. Hart was the first of many informants. Baltimore’s Panthers operated under intense scrutiny from the outset. When Hart fled, he was replaced by John Clark, who was regularly harassed and jailed. Steve McCutchen, who was about 19 at the time of joining the Panthers, was lieutenant of information and supported efforts to get Clark released, until he himself was jailed.
Because Maryland law prohibited the open carrying of firearms, the Baltimore chapter never adopted the armed police patrols that became synonymous with the Panthers elsewhere. Instead, they turned inward, embedding themselves deeply in neighborhood life. They organized free breakfast and lunch programs at Martin de Porres Catholic Church, feeding up to two hundred children a day. They opened a free medical clinic staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses from Johns Hopkins. They escorted sick residents to social-services offices, intervened in eviction cases, and even offered a free dry-cleaning service.
The Baltimore Panthers built an organization that looked less like a paramilitary outfit and more like a mutual-aid society under siege. The membership was overwhelmingly working class—high-school graduates employed in the city’s service and industrial sectors. Paul Coates, who started off as a community volunteer at the age of 22, after serving nineteen months in Vietnam – later became a member and co-founded the George Jackson Prison Movement…