The Black Panther Party was an African-American revolutionary leftist organization, active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. It achieved notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and in US politics of the 1960s and ’70s.
Lawyer Stuart Hanlon, who helped Mr. Pratt win his freedom, said Mr. Pratt refused to carry any resentment about his treatment by the legal system.
“He had no anger, he had no bitterness, he had no desire for revenge. He wanted to resume his life and have children,’’ Hanlon said from San Francisco. “He would never look back.’’
Mr. Pratt lived a peaceful life in Tanzania that he loved, O’Neal said. Mr. Pratt returned from a visit to the United States about 10 days ago and remarked that he appreciated the pace of his life in Africa.
“He’s my hero. He was and will continue to be,’’ O’Neal said. “Geronimo was a symbol of steadfast resistance against all that is considered wrong and improper. His whole life was dedicated to standing in opposition to oppression and exploitation… . He gave all that he had and his life, I believe, struggling, trying to help people lift themselves up.’’
Mr. Pratt worked with the United African Alliance Community Center in Arusha for the last nine years that he lived in the Tanzanian community, which sits near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. The organization, which O’Neal founded 20 years ago, works to empower youth.
Mr. Pratt’s lawyers, who included high-profile defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, blamed his arrest on a politically charged campaign by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI against the Black Panthers and other perceived enemies of the government.
Mr. Pratt’s belated reversal of fortune came with the disclosure that a key prosecution witness hid the fact he was an ex-felon and a police informant.
