Obituary: Elbert '˜Big Man' Howard, co-founder of Black Panther Party, author, lecturer, activist and DJ

Elbert 'Big Man' Howard, leading Black Panther. Born: 5 January, 1938 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Died: 23 July, 2018 in Santa Rosa, California, aged 80.
Former Black Panther Elbert "Big Man" Howard has died at the age of 80. Picture: APFormer Black Panther Elbert "Big Man" Howard has died at the age of 80. Picture: AP
Former Black Panther Elbert "Big Man" Howard has died at the age of 80. Picture: AP

Elbert “Big Man” Howard, a co-founder of the Black Panther Party who served as newspaper editor, information officer and logistics genius behind the group’s popular social programs, has died at the age of 80.

His wife, Carole Hyams, says Howard died Monday in Santa Rosa, California, after a long illness. Friends and family described Howard as a “gentle giant” who could paint in words what a jazz song was saying. Howard was an author, volunteer jazz disc jockey, lecturer and activist in Sonoma County, where he later made his home.

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Howard was one of six people who founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland in October 1966, along with Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. The political organisation started out patrolling police for possible abuse against blacks.

Key members quit in 1974 after years of fatal fights with police and each other. Later it became clear that the FBI had engaged in surveillance and harassment to undermine the party and incriminate its leaders.

Howard quit the party in 1974, but in its active years, he served as editor of its newspaper and deputy minister of information. He travelled to Europe and Asia to set up chapters and was responsible for the social programs that made the party famous.

Billy X Jennings, a long-time friend and party archivist, said Howard was the person who negotiated lower prices and organised refrigerated trucks for food giveaways. Later, as an administrator at a local college, he organised a programme for jail inmates to take courses.

“He was a beloved member,” Jennings said. “People might have had different grudges against Bobby or Eldridge (Cleaver), but nobody got a grudge against Big Man.”

Howard was born 5 January, 1938, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as the only child of Emma and Anderson Howard. He joined the air force and was posted to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California.

Jennings said after he was discharged, Howard enrolled in Merritt College, where he met Seale and Newton. Seale remains active in politics. Newton was killed in 1989.

Hyams was a nurse when she met Howard in 1969; they broke up when he started travelling on party business.

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“He was huge, he was impressive, he was quiet,” she said. “He seemed shy almost, but carried himself with great distinguishment.”

After Howard left the party, he returned to Tennessee and worked as a sales manager, Jennings said. The friends got back in touch in the 1990s, and Howard became active in party reunions and events.

In 2005, Hyams reached out to Howard by phone after a friend’s son found his information online. They got back together and were married in her Sonoma County home in 2008.

In addition to his wife, survivors include his daughter Tynisa Howard Wilson of Landover, Maryland, and grandsons Jaylen and Amin; stepson Robert Grimes of San Pablo, California, and three step-grandchildren.

JANIE HAR

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