Saturday, December 17, 2022

Betty and the Panthers

In the summer of 1974, 44-year-old Betty Van Patter, a bookkeeper and divorced mother of three, was excited about starting a new job.

David Horowitz, one of the editors at Ramparts, the magazine where she’d been working, had recommended Betty for a similar position at the Educational Opportunities Corporation (EOC), which was operated by the Black Panther Party.

Horowitz was one of many white progressives in the Bay Area and beyond who supported the Panthers, their revolutionary political philosophy, and their community programs, which included a free school, a free breakfast program, and a jobs initiative. 

Almost alone among black power groups of the era, the Panther leaders voiced support for women’s rights, Latino rights and gay rights, and formed alliances with white radicals. They also welcomed whites into their inner circle, an openness that quickly elevated the party to a kind of a rock-star-like status on the left. 

From San Francisco and New York to Hollywood, wealthy people in the legal, publishing, and entertainment circles threw parties and made donations that helped fund Panther programs and defend them during the numerous trials stemming from violent clashes with police and rival black groups.

After a period of growth and global prominence, and under the relentless pressure of attacks by police agencies and the FBI, the Panthers had peaked as an international revolutionary organization by the early 70s. They needed to retrench so they ordered all their offices and branches to close down and the most important regional leaders to come back and work out of headquarters in Oakland.

Meanwhile, Horowitz recommended Betty to Elaine Brown, who, in the absence of the party’s charismatic co-founder Huey Newton, was now the head of the party. (Newton had fled to Cuba to avoid murder charges.)

A number of others choose to leave the party as well. In a phone call in September, Betty explained to her daughter, Tamara Baltar, that among those leaving were Audrea Jones and William Roberts.

The departure of Jones and Roberts had created a vacuum around the administrative and bookkeeping functions for the EOC and the party, which led to an immediate increase in Betty’s responsibilities. On August 31st, 1974, Betty wrote her mother, Venus Floyd, describing her new work opportunity: 

“They want and need to get things in order on a straight basis, and I can do that. The big thing I have going for me is that I know how to do it and have very few hang-ups about black people. I think they recognize that. 

Later in the letter, Betty addresses what she knew to be one of her mother’s major fears:

“Please don’t feel frightened for my physical safety. I am not in the least worried about that part of it. What I need to look out for is legal problems, not physical problems. If anything, I am super protected physically. There is no one in the whole organization who would lift a finger against me physically. 

Later that fall, Betty wrote her mother again:

“As of last Tuesday, I have been asked to take on the structuring of the books and supervision of the whole of the Black Panther Party operation.  After meeting Elaine Brown (the very lovely and articulate young woman who is now the acting head of the party) and hearing her proposal to me – and after talking to four attorneys and several other people, I met again with her Friday. 

“I told her I would like to help and she said she was so relieved she could cry. She has a mountain of responsibility on her shoulders right now. She is a dynamic, educated, intelligent, forceful person and she has given me her complete trust.”

Later in the letter she continued, “As I proceed with this whole thing I am becoming more and more aware that there is no need for fear.”

On October 22nd, Betty wrote to her mother again, indicating that she was becoming much more familiar with the inner workings of the Black Panther Party.

“All of their money has gone to help people in various ways. Medical, dental, food, clothing, car repair, rent, education, childcare – you name it. Very few people know of all the good they have done. Eventually, the Black Panther Party as such will not be called that but something else. 

Then she described the various party projects she was working on. “Aside from the party per se, I am taking care of the EOC and teaching and supervising things on the accounting end. There’s also the Lamp Post, which is taking more time as well.”

The Lamp Post was a bar run by Newton’s cousin, Jimmie Ward.

Then thIngs for Betty deteriorated rapidly. In a letter on October 31st, Betty for the first time expressed some reservations about her co-workers. “My biggest problem and frustration is in getting the people I'm working with to do what they're supposed to be getting done on time.  It takes a lot of patience. They are never rushed about anything -- maybe I should take a lesson!"

Although she did not share it with her mother, Betty Van Patter was developing a deep concern about what she was witnessing as bookkeeper for the EOC and the Lamp Post.

By mid-November, Tamara, saw that Betty had become quite agitated, telling her that cash was being taken out of register at the Lamp Post and not accounted for. “They don’t understand that the register tape shows cash coming in and so when they just take cash out of the drawer, it shows up as not accounted for,” she says.

In her journal, Betty wrote: “Something very heavy is happening in my life right now…There will be a crisis point – I know it. It’s rapidly approaching – I can feel it. There is an imminent danger.”

Tragically, she was right. Within a few weeks, she would be dead.

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