Tame Panthers?

For much of their six-year history, the Black Panthers wandered in a wilderness of violence, both rhetorical and real. They packed guns and often sounded eager to use them. Yet that fractious history was nowhere evident recently in Oakland, Calif., as a neatly dressed candidate for mayor listened intently to an integrated group of elderly voters. They were complaining about muggers and purse snatchers. "I know the roughness in this community," the candidate replied. "My own mother's purse has been stolen. I plan to offer a program to stop muggings and prevent this constant preying on the elderly."

The tableau was familiar, but the unlikely candidate was Bobby Scale, 36, co-founder and chairman of the Black Panthers. Panther Defense Minister Huey P. Newton, 30, who founded the party with Scale in 1966, and now plays Mao to Scale's Chou, has explained the shift toward moderation--"The Black Panther Party is not a separatist party. We believe that it's a natural law of the universe that everything is interconnected and becoming more so because of the advancements in technology. As victims of racism, we won't take up that banner."

Gaining Access. By this reasoning, conventional politics has become a central activity. Scale seven months ago started putting together his mayoral campaign in the city that gave birth to the Panthers. His chances are at present uncertain, but other Bay Area Panthers have already proved that they can gain access to political power. Ericka Muggins, 24, who only 19 months ago stood trial in Connecticut with Scale for murder, is today an elected member of the Berkeley community development council, the city's antipoverty agency. Other Panthers have won six of the 18 positions on the West Oakland Model Cities governing board and four of the 14 seats on the Berkeley antipoverty board. Elaine Brown is now running for the Oakland city council.

Scale says that he plans a $50,000 campaign. Emphasizing racial cooperation, expanded local services and ghetto-improvement programs, he speaks to diverse audiences, including the Voice of Christ Revival, the National Association of Accountants and the San Francisco Lions Club. "I'm running to represent the total city of Oakland," he says. "The excessive rhetoric of three years ago just wasn't conducive to our revolutionary struggle. We're not dogmatic; we want change, not anarchy."

Many whites are unimpressed. Incumbent Mayor John Reading had earlier planned to retire after 6 1/2 years in office, but now may run in the April election for another term. "Scale doesn't stand much of a chance," Reading says. "The Panthers have a lot of sympathizers, but responsible minority citizens with jobs and property don't want anything to do with them." Oakland Police Chief Charles Gain also predicts a Panther loss at the polls, but admires Scale's new attitude and strategy: "I don't think they'll accomplish all their goals in this election, but they may be able to establish a political base so they can try again."

More than politicking is going into the effort. Neatly dressed workers in the Panthers' East 14th Street Oakland headquarters direct an impressive list of projects: breakfasts for children of the poor, a free clinic, sickle-cell-anemia tests and a once-a-week prison bus service for relatives of convicts. During the past year the Oakland Panthers have given away more than 50,000 15-lb. bags of food, registered 18,000 new voters and tested 35,000 local blacks for sickle-cell. They have also opened a Wednesday night legal clinic staffed by four volunteer lawyers. They now plan to provide free ambulance, dental and optometry services.

The programs are expensive, though some of the money is contributed by local merchants. Newton says that much of it comes out of his and Scale's pockets. He reports having received "something like $400,000" in advances on books and magazine articles. Scale has also done well with books.

The Panthers have won increased respect from other, more moderate civil rights groups. Says Percy Steele Jr., executive director of the Bay Area Urban League: "The majority of Oakland's citizens are black. Bobby Scale is no dummy; he has a large following. Most of the programs the Panthers now have were going on in the past, but they were overshadowed by rhetoric. The Panthers are going from guns to butter."

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