Biography
Flores Forbes joined the Black Panther Party in San Diego as a teenager in 1968 and rose to assistant chief of staff, part of the security cadre around Huey P. Newton. On July 30, 1974 he was arrested with Newton and six other Party members at the Fox nightclub in Oakland; Elaine Brown told the press that Forbes and Newton were beaten so severely while handcuffed that both needed hospital treatment, and that the announced charges — conspiracy to possess weapons, assaulting police officers and resisting arrest — followed a fight that never happened. In October 1977 he led the botched attack on the Richmond home of a witness against Newton in which fellow Panther Louis Johnson was killed and Forbes himself was wounded; after three years underground he surrendered in 1980, was convicted, and served four years, eight months, and nine days in California prisons — principally Soledad, with part of the term at San Quentin. After his release he earned a masters degree in urban planning, became a New York City planning executive and Columbia University administrator, and told his story in the memoir Will You Die with Me? My Life and the Black Panther Party (2006).
The appellate record (People v. Forbes, 175 Cal. App. 3d 807, A024602) confirms the January 29, 1981 indictment and September 7, 1983 sentence: six years for second-degree murder plus a consecutive two years for firearm use. The conviction concerned the killing of fellow Panther Louis Talbert Johnson under transferred intent. Colorado College's biography for his April 2016 lecture reports four years, eight months and nine days in Soledad and San Quentin; Columbia University's June 2016 profile confirms release in 1985. Exact surrender, prison admission and release days have not been established. The reported calendar duration is preserved in words, not converted into a supposedly documented exact number of days or used to back-calculate a release date.
Reported duration is not a recovered custody date
The court opinion establishes September 7, 1983 sentencing and January 29, 1981 indictment, but does not identify the surrender or prison admission date. The prior October 1980 field treated an unverified surrender chronology as prison admission; it is cleared pending an actual admission record. Colorado College's April 6, 2016 lecture biography reports a calendar duration of four years, eight months and nine days, while Columbia's June 29, 2016 profile confirms release in 1985. The year-precision release is retained.
The previous 1,713-day documented counter was not a source-stated day count. Calendar months vary in length, and without endpoints this duration cannot establish an exact integer of days. It is preserved in the sentence text, not converted or used to calculate June/July release dates. Exact arrest/surrender, admission and release days remain unresolved after court, institutional biography, interview and publisher searches. No unrelated 1974 case dates are changed; existing photograph retained.
Sources: People v. Forbes, 175 Cal.App.3d 807 (1985); Colorado College, April 6, 2016 lecture biography; Columbia News, June 29, 2016 profile. An actual corrections movement record or source explicitly stating the endpoints would be needed for day precision.
The October 26, 1974 Black Panther places Forbes’s Fox Restaurant arrest on July 30, 1974. Attorney John George represented him at the preliminary hearing, where Municipal Court Judge Jacqueline Taber presided and Donald Whyte presented the prosecution. The report said George Whitfield’s testimony led to a further Superior Court hearing scheduled for November 1; it did not report the eventual outcome or actual jail discharge.
The Black Panther, October 26,1974, PDF page 5; The Black Panther, October 26,1974, PDF page 7; The Black Panther, October 26,1974, PDF page 20.
