Biography
Fred Bell was a Texas community organizer (associated with the Dallas chapter of SNCC) whom The Black Panther described as railroaded to prison on a frame-up charge of aiding and abetting a bank robbery — a charge his supporters, the New Bois d'Arc Patriots of Dallas, said was never formally made and which the convicting jury was not qualified to rule on. On July 21, 1972, after an appeals court had directed that his sentence be reduced to no more than six years, Judge William Steger (a recent Nixon appointee) instead re-sentenced him to ten years, reportedly calling Bell a "bad citizen." His case ran in the federal court of Judge William Wayne Justice. Documented in The Black Panther (August 5, 1972).
Adam Nolan’s 2014 history thesis identifies Bell as the organizer later known as Fahim Minkah. It reports that Minkah and Hasan Khalif obtained a charter for an official Dallas Black Panther Party chapter in summer 1973. The thesis places the earlier bank-robbery prosecution at Ladonia, Texas; it does not establish exact custody or release dates.
The federal appellate opinion identifies him as Fred Louis Bell and places his Dallas arrest shortly after the August 19, 1968 Ladonia bank robbery. It documents pretrial confinement in county jails and says he began serving his original six-year sentence immediately on December 9, 1968. The exact first jail-admission day and eventual physical release are not established. In March 1972 the Fifth Circuit vacated the increased sentence and ordered resentencing to no more than six years. The Black Panther subsequently reported the disputed July 21, 1972 ten-year resentencing.
The Black Panther, August 5, 1972, PDF page 4; United States v. Bell, 457 F.2d 1231 (5th Cir. 1972).
The Black Panther’s May 15, 1976 report identifies Fred Bell as coordinator of its Dallas chapter and a plaintiff challenging the repeal of civilian review of police misconduct. It reports that his bond on a weapons-possession charge was raised on April 19 and reduced again on April 22, 1976. On April 29, the bonding company threatened revocation over a disputed parole-reporting requirement.
The Black Panther, May 15, 1976, volume XV no.5, PDF page 3; The Black Panther, May 15, 1976, volume XV no.5, PDF page 22.
