Reginald Westley Forte (1949–1997) was one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party.

Background

Forte was born on March 31, 1949, in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

to Leavy II and Helen (Demand) Forte. He and his family relocated to

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 ...

in 1959. Later, the family moved to

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

where Forte attended Oakland Tech High School. He had two brothers, Sherwin and Leavy III. He had one daughter, Marcella Anne Forte, three grandsons, Anthony Narcisse, Dione and Darrell Narcisse, one niece, Tosha Forte, and one nephew, Leavy Forte IV.

Ancestors

Census records from the 1900s show that Reggie's forefather was one of three brothers, Caze, Washington, and Preston Forte. They owned their own land in a town called Eufaula, Alabama. Each brother raised 11 children. They lived as a "clan" to protect each other from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). One of Forte's forefathers seized the opportunity to emigrate to Liberia with his family. In 1868, Willis Forte sailed on the ''Golconda'', with his wife Paulina, son Wiley, daughter Catherine, and another son Charles. Later, as Wiley took a wife, he established a town called Forteville that still thrives today. An incident arose in the 1930s between the Ku Klux Klan and the family. The story is documented in the book ''Witness to Injustice'' by David Frost, Jr. One of the Forte men went to town and had a fight with a white man. A knife was involved and both men were injured. When Forte made it home to Eufaula, the women and children moved into the woods for protection, while the men prepared for a fight. The next day a group of klansmen came to seek revenge at the Forte compound. They stopped at a country store to load up on supplies. When asked by the store owner where they were headed, the Klan leader said, "to get those Forte's." The proprietor told them they'd need a lot more ammunition and supplies and a lunch because they were going to be gone for a long time. He explained that some of the Forte's could shoot the leaves off of trees from one hundred yards, and they would be ready to fight. The Klan reconsidered and went home.

Joining the Panthers

In 1963, Reginald's maternal step-grandmother was a victim of the

16th Street Baptist Church bombing The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a white supremacist terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted 19 sticks of dynami ...

in Birmingham. She survived, but never fully recovered from her wounds. While in high school, Reginald met

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", ...

and

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadershi ...

and with his older brother Sherwin, joined them to patrol neighbourhoods in Richmond, Oakland,

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

to monitor the police. They often followed the arrested to the police department, and would frequently pay their bail. The Panthers always (legally) displayed their weapons publicly. In 1967, Reginald, Sherwin, Lil' Bobbie Hutton, Big Man, Bobby Seale and others went to Sacramento, California's state capitol, to introduce their Ten Point Platform and to demonstrate their opposition to a law that made it illegal to bear firearms in public.

Death

Reginald died February 18, 1997, in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forte, Reggie Members of the Black Panther Party 1949 births 1997 deaths Activists from Birmingham, Alabama People from Emeryville, California People from Oakland, California Activists from California