Overshadowed
Although generally not included in newspaper accounts or history books, a number of Asian Americans were heavily involved in the Black Panthers.
By Lydia Lum
Ask the average person what comes to mind at the mention of the Black Panther Party.
Odds are the answer involves armed African-Americans winding up in shootouts with police. Those images have overshadowed the Panthers’ free breakfast programs, medical clinics and other efforts to improve poor Black neighborhoods in the late 1960s .
Also overshadowed is the fact that a handful of Asian Americans were heavily involved in the Panthers. One of them, Richard Aoki, was a friend of BPP founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and influenced their ideology and the contents of the famous Ten Point Platform. Aoki was among the first dozen BPP members, rising to field marshal status. During the same period, at least two Asian Americans in Seattle became Panthers as well.
