The White Panthers were a white American political
collective founded in 1968 by Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon
and Leni & John Sinclair. It was started in response
to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of
the Black Panther Party, was asked what white people
could do to support the Black Panthers. Newton replied
that they could form a White Panther Party. Thus, the
group took its name in emulation of the Black Panthers,
and dedicated its energies to "cultural revolution."
The group was most active in Detroit and Ann Arbor,
Michigan and included the proto-punk band MC5 which
Sinclair managed for several years before he was incarcerated.
Jon Landau took over managing the band and the group
disassociated with any overt support for the White Panther
Party by 1970. From a general ideological perspective,
Plamondon and Sinclair defined the White Panthers as
"fighting for a clean planet and the freeing of
political prisoners." The White Panthers added
other elements such as advocating "rock 'n roll,
dope, sex in the streets and the abolishing of capitalism."
Abbie Hoffman was also a part of the White Panthers
mentioning it in his book Steal This Book, for a free
world. The group emerged out of the Detroit Artists
Workshop, a radical arts collective founded in 1964
near Wayne State University. Among its primary concerns
was the legalization of marijuana, something that ultimately
cost Sinclair his freedom after several arrests for
possession. It also aligned itself with radical politics;
for example explaining the 12th Street Riot as justifiable
under current political and economic conditions in Detroit.
Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon was indicted as a co-conspirator
with Sinclair in connection with the bombing of the
CIA office in Ann Arbor a year after the founding of
the group. Upon hearing, on the left-wing alternative
radio station WABX, that he had been indicted, he fled
the U.S. for Europe and Africa, spending time in Algeria
with the self-exiled Huey Newton. After secretly reentering
the country, and on his way to a safe house in northern
Michigan, he was arrested in a routine traffic stop,
thus joining Sinclair in prison, who had been sentenced
to nine and half years in jail for serially violating
Michigan's marijuana possession laws. Plamondon was
convicted and was in prison when Sinclair was released
on bond in 1971 while appeals were being heard on his
case. Sinclair's unexpected release came two days after
a large "Free John" benefit concert held at
the University of Michigan's Crisler Arena headlined
by John Lennon and Yoko Ono as well as Stevie Wonder
and Alan Ginsberg.
Legal reforms
The group had a direct role in two important legal
decisions. A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in
1972 quashed Plamondon's conviction, and destroyed the
case against Sinclair. The court ruled warrantless wiretapping
was unlawful under the U.S. Constitution, ev'en in the
case where national security, as defined by the executive
branch, was in danger. The White Panthers had been charged
with conspiring to destroy government property and evidence
used to convict Plamondon was acquired through wiretaps
not submitted to judicial approval. The case U.S. vs.
U.S. District Court (Plamondon et al), 407 U.S. 297,
commonly known as the Keith Case, held that the Fourth
Amendment shielded private speech from surveillance
unless a warrant had been granted, and that the warrant
procedure would not frustrate the legitimate purposes
of domestic security searches. This case returned to
the news in 2006 regarding the Bush Administration's
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
The judgment freed Plamondon, yet Sinclair was free
only on bond fighting his possession conviction when
in 1972 the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in the People
v. Sinclair, 387 Mich. 91, 194 N.W.2d 878 (1972) that
Michigan's classification of marijuana was unconstitutional,
in effect decriminalizing possession until a new law
conforming to the ruling was passed by the Michigan
Legislature a week later. Sinclair was freed but the
cumulative effects of the imprisonment had marked the
end of the White Panther Party in Michigan, which renamed
itself while its leaders were still incarcerated, ultimately
choosing the Rainbow People's Party as a new name.
