African American Connecticut Explored

48 Black Panthers: Interview with Butch Lewis

343 Butch Lewis co-founded the Hartford chapter of the Black Panther Party and was an activist in the late 1960s. He first came to Hartford from Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1956 at age twelve to live with his grandmother. Drafted into the army in January 1965, he served in Vietnam until December 1967. At the time of his release, he was in Oakland, California, birthplace of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. (The name was later shortened to the Black Panther Party.) Although he had no contact with the Panthers in California, he read and was inspired by news of their activities. Upon his return to Connecticut in 1968, he helped organize the Hartford chapter and became its leader. The Hartford group was involved in organizing and demonstrating for improvements in housing, education, and jobs for African Americans in Hartford. As leader of the Black Panther Party, Lewis was contacted by filmmakers from the Film Board of Canada and UCLA who were working on a documentary exploring Hartford as a model city during that era’s “War on Poverty.” When funding ran out, the filmmakers left all of the Hartford footage and equipment with Lewis. Renewed interest in the historic footage spawned a project, coordinated by Professor Susan Pennybacker at Hartford’s Trinity College, to complete the documentary. At the time of the interview, Lewis served as a sexton for the South Congregational Church of Hartford. I asked Butch to reflect on his experiences working to improve housing, education, and job opportunities for the African American community in the late 1960s. Jacobs: Take us back to 1968, and the early days of the Black Panther Party in Hartford. What drew people to the Party? Lewis: The Party was an organization that people wanted to join because we talked about politics and politicians, we demonstrated, Interview conducted by Joan Jacobs 48 Black Panthers Interview with Butch Lewis 344 WWII to Civil Rights and we helped people in the community. For example, we knew kids were going to school hungry so we started the breakfastbefore -school program. That involved getting a place—Father Lenny Tartaglia let us run it from St. Michael’s—and getting people to donate food. We never terrorized anybody; people came and gave us stuff. When the kids wanted to walk out at Weaver High School, we went up to help organize it, and we made sure no one got hurt. I think we became a big brother to a lot of people. Every time we went and did something, we got another member. It wasn’t that hard to get people to come into the Party then because we were more together as a community than we are now. We had meetings in the streets and in an apartment we had on Westland Street. Party membership wasn’t kept on paper. That way no one could raid us and say, “Well, this cat did this, and this person did that.” A lot of people were associated with the Party but didn’t do demonstrations and such. There were a lot of black professionals who helped us out but who didn’t want it known that they did because they were scared about losing their jobs. Jacobs: How was the Party regarded by outsiders? Lewis: I think a lot of people were scared of it. We didn’t back down from confrontation; we faced confrontation. Some ministers worried about us . . . pointed us out to the cops during the riots, told them where we lived. Jacobs: What were the Panthers doing during the riots [Hartford , like cities across the U.S., erupted in violent protest in the summers of 1968 and 1969]? Lewis: We were the ones who met with the fire department and made sure they could come into the neighborhood to put out the fires. People were cutting hoses, throwing rocks, taking axes off the trucks. We were the only ones allowed on the street at night without getting arrested Jacobs: Did you work with other groups in the community? Lewis: Yeah. You knew everybody, you knew all the different organizations, you worked with the different organizations, you demonstrated with the organizations, you did community work. If somebody was running for office and you felt that this was good for the community, you put your people out and did work for them, but still you were going by the rules of the Black Panther Party. Jacobs: What other significant organizations were in existence at the same...