Biography
Don Cox, was an early member of the leadership of the Black Panther Party who held the title of Field Marshal. Facing conspiracy charges and fearing prosecution, he fled the United States in 1970. He joined the Black Panther International Section in Algiers established by Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, and later settled in the Languedoc region of southern France. Cox never returned to the United States, living out his life in exile and writing a memoir of his Panther years before his death in France in 2011.
Don Cox’s first-person account describes the April 23, 1969 San Francisco Panther office raid, arrests and tear gas. Cox reports that most of the thirty-six people arrested were released without charges within thirty minutes; Brooks, the officer of the day, remained longer on an assault allegation and was later released without charge. The account does not support converting every individual’s detention to the same exact duration. The Black Panther, May4,1969 vol2 no2, original PDF page 5. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/black-panther/03n02-may%204%201969.pdf#page=5
A November 15,1969 Black Panther statement dates Don Cox’s New York City arrest to November 7 at approximately11 p.m., reports a charge of possession of deadly firearms, and says he was being detained. The Party disputed that he was armed and alleged a political frame-up connected to his organizing. This New York weapons episode is distinct from the later Baltimore conspiracy allegation and overseas exile. No exact jail intake, final disposition, physical release or total period is supplied.
