Catherine Bournes
Biography
Catherine Bournes — her name also appears in the record as Bourns and Bourne — was a member of the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party (organized as the National Committee to Combat Fascism) and one of the defendants arrested after the September 14-15, 1970 police assault on the party's Piety Street headquarters. She was held in the Orleans Parish Prison from September 15, 1970 until the August 6, 1971 acquittal of the defendants, the assumed release date; no separate discharge record is documented. She was born about 1950, a year derived from her reported age at the time; no exact birth date, verified death record or later-life match has been located.
The August 21, 1971 Black Panther names this defendant among the twelve New Orleans Panthers tried after the September 15, 1970 raid. It identifies prosecutors Numa Bertel and William Ary and says the jury acquitted all twelve. The article also reports that the FBI placed holds on all defendants before the verdict and that only seven had posted the new federal bail by publication; it does not identify those seven or document their individual physical release dates.
The Black Panther, August 21, 1971, PDF page 5; The Black Panther, August 21, 1971, PDF page 14.
