The story of John Sinclair: poet, radio maker, activist, former manager of the notorious Detroit band 'the MC5' and co-founder of the legendary movement the 'White Panther Party' in the 1960's.
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 White Panthers WEre 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. When hearing the news of his indictment on the left-wing alternative radio station WABX, Plamondon 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. Sinclair 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.
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, even 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.
The story of John Sinclair: poet, radio maker, activist, former manager of the notorious Detroit band 'the MC5' and co-founder of the legendary movement the 'White Panther Party' in the 1960's.
