On April 6, 1968, 17-year-old Robert James “Lil’ Bobby” Hutton was murdered by Oakland police in a hail of bullets. He was the first member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) to be killed, just a year and a half after joining the revolutionary Black power organization as its first recruit and treasurer. His death became a rallying cry against police brutality and the state’s violent repression of Black liberation movements.
Bobby Hutton was born on April 21, 1950, in Jefferson County, Arkansas, to John D. Hutton and Dolly Mae Mitchner-Hutton. Like many Black families escaping racial terrorism in the South, the Huttons moved to Oakland during the Second Great Migration after being threatened by white supremacists.
As a teenager, Hutton became politically aware and met Black Panther founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale at the North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center. When Newton and Seale established the Black Panther Party in October 1966 in Oakland, California, it quickly grew into a powerful movement for Black self-determination. The party created community programs such as free breakfast for children, free medical clinics, and armed patrols to monitor and challenge police brutality. At just 16 years old, Hutton became the first member and treasurer of the party, fully committing himself to its mission.
The following year, in May 1967, he joined other Panthers in traveling to Sacramento to protest the Mulford Act, which aimed to ban the open carrying of firearms. Hutton and four others were arrested, but the demonstration cemented the party’s national presence.
Hutton’s murder took place just two days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a moment of nationwide grief and rage. Alongside Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver and other members, Hutton was involved in a confrontation with Oakland police. After an intense gunfight and the deployment of tear gas, Hutton and Cleaver surrendered. Cleaver later recounted that Hutton had stripped down to his underwear to show he was unarmed and had his hands raised when police shot him more than a dozen times, killing him. Police reports, however, claimed that Hutton was wearing a trench coat, his hands were not visible, and he was attempting to flee. Cleaver later stated that a police officer who witnessed the shooting described it as “first-degree murder.”
After his murder, Bobby Hutton’s funeral drew 1,500 attendees, and a rally held afterward in Oakland was attended by over 2,000 people, including actor Marlon Brando. His death symbolized the dangers of being young, Black, and politically active in America. For the Black Panther Party and its supporters, Hutton became a martyr.
Bobby Hutton’s murder did not happen in isolation—it was part of a larger pattern of state violence against the Black Panther Party, which had been labeled “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
The U.S. government responded with a full-scale war against the Panthers. Through its illegal and covert counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO, the FBI worked to dismantle the party through infiltration, surveillance, harassment, and outright violence. Agents planted informants, spread disinformation, and collaborated with local police to assassinate key members. Hutton’s murder was one of the earliest examples of this repression, setting the stage for further assassinations, including the police killing of Illinois Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in 1969.
Though the Black Panther Party was ultimately dismantled due to relentless government attacks, Bobby Hutton’s story lives on. Today, as police violence and state repression persist, remembering Hutton means continuing the struggle for justice he died fighting for.
In recognition of his sacrifice, “Lil’ Bobby Hutton Day” has been held annually since 1998 at DeFremery Park, which was later renamed Bobby Hutton Park by local authorities.
Sources:
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bobby-james-hutton-6040/
https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC513_scans/BPP_General/513.Bobby.Hutton.murdered.flyer.pdf
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/interviews/ecleaver.html
