Judge Cecil F. Poole: Panthers do some good

KPIX Eyewitness news footage from January 13th, 1970 featuring a press conference by prominent African American lawyer and federal judge Cecil F. Poole discussing the Black Panther Party. Poole says that he believes that the Department of Justice thinks that the Black Panther Party represents a threat to the security United States, and answers questons about whether it would be inappropriate for a black attorney to prosecute cases involving Panther members. Discussing how the Panthers are perceived by the black community, Poole says, "if you strip the rhetoric, if you strip the nonsense talk, if you strip the ridiculous Marxist jargon that lately has been espoused by [the Black Panther Party's] leaders, you can find a real feeling in black communities about the Black Panthers. And when a feeling like that exists you ignore it at your peril. The Panthers may represent fear in the black community too, ... but beyond that there's a feeling in the black community that they do some good." Note: the original news camera was out of focus when shooting this report. Also see KPIX report reference number 101114. Remastered, edited and catalogued for the web by Shira Peltzman.