Eyes on the Prize; Interview with William O'Neal, Part 6

I'm not a hero, no I don't think of myself as a hero for what I've done but at the same time I don't feel ashamed, it was my role during that time, there were a lot of different roles, a lot of different positions, there were actually a lot of blacks fighting in Vietnam that felt like they should have been there, it was proud to be there, fight for the country, I felt like there was a war in the street and I was recruited early and I joined sides early and I didn't straddle the fence, I gave it all I could as long as I could and then when I felt like I couldn't give anymore I left, I excused myself, do I feel like I betrayed someone? Absolutely not, I had no allegiance to the panzers, I didn't even know what they were about when I

joined, I joined at the instigation of the FBI where I had scant knowledge of, so no I don't feel like I betrayed anybody and I feel like I'm a hero, am I proud? I'm proud of some of the things that we that I've done, there were certain things that we've done that prevented a lot of violence, it could have been more shootouts between the gang members, every now and then suspected informant inside the Black Panther Party would be unearthed or detected and we passed on information to get that informant out of the game and so we avoided some violence there, I don't think members of the Black community at that very bit have perceived what you're going to do. Well those members of the Black Panther Party, those members of the community that

they weren't informed, I'm sure that they would understand but it was quite a few informants break then, quite a few, I mean what am I supposed to do, feel guilty right now about it? I didn't feel guilty then, I was hurt because Fred Hampton died, I was hurt because a lot of other people died in the panzers, there were a lot of panzers that died in Chicago, they got killed needlessly and senselessly, at this point I question the whole purpose of the Black Panther Party, it got a lot of people hurt and they did very little else, I mean if you associate the Black Panther Party with the civil rights movement that's a mistake, in my thinking they were necessary, it was a shock treatment for quite America to see Black men running around with guns, just like Black men and so white men running around with guns, yeah that was a shock treatment,

it was good in that extent, but it got a lot of Black people hurt. The personal cost was a personal cost during that period in terms of relationship with all men or friends? No because the Black Panthers were communistic and basically everything we had was within the party, when I joined the Black Panther Party I developed friendships, I developed new friends within the party, I was closely aligned with what they were doing, it was only certain individuals that were of any interest to the FBI, the FBI never asked me about the breakfast for children program, they never asked me about the free medical program, they never said anything other than ridicule the Black Panther newspaper, they never questioned their right to have firearms, they were only interested in Panthers that were doing other things, Panthers aligned to SDS and the

weathermen back then, Panthers that were smuggling guns into the city, every now and then I'd pick up a locker full of composition C4 and the FBI was interested in tracking that type of weapon to find out where it was destined to, they were only interested in basically the communications we had with other militant divisions, plenty of groups outside of the city, they never asked me about free clothes for children and stuff like that, no. Well the Panthers had a public coalition with SDS, but the underground was a different ballgame, but then I knew Bernadine Dorn and those people before they became weathermen when they were just SDSers, and I knew the relationships

we had then, and the relationships were pretty tight, there was always no hard proof, but who needed proof, I didn't need it, FBI didn't need it, I think I'll let you documentary, you know, put a cap on that story, I don't know, I don't know what I'd tell them other than I was part of the struggle, that's the bottom line, I wasn't one of those armchair revolutionaries, one of those people that want to sit back now and judge the actions or in actions of people when they sit back on the side line and did nothing, at least I had a point of view, I was dedicated, and then I had the courage to get out there and put it on the line, and I did,

I think I'll let history speak for me, yeah, no, no, we weren't worried about the Chicago Police parade, like I said, we had guns, they knew we had guns, we had guns every since we were there in the office, and nobody expected the Chicago Police just to blatantly come up in there, sure, if we were to shoot out the window or something or somebody run up in there and they're in hot pursuit, yeah, but we didn't expect the police department to come at 4 o'clock in the morning and raid the apartment, I mean they

knew guns were there, Hampton was out on appeal, and I think they were suspecting that he would probably try to flee the state or something, so they had cars on him constantly, I mean he was tailed constantly, but like I said it was a game, it was a game we were playing, the leather jackets, the beret, the military, the format, the guns, it was all to impress the people really, we never intended to take on the police department to overthrow the government, the Black Panthers wasn't all about that, it was rhetoric, it was, like I said, it was shock treatment for white America, well I knew that it was kind of serious, well the game turned into reality when I saw him, when I saw Fred Hampton's body, yeah, when I walked through that house and saw those bullet holes

in that blood laying on his mattress, yeah, it hit home then, I knew we were in the real world, and that there were people out there that was going to kill us, that was the bottom line, it was real, but before that time it was, you know, we used to walk around packed, I mean I carried two guns every day for seven, eight months, we used to walk in the University of Illinois Circle campus man on the speaking engagement, the Black Panthers.