Warren Aloysious Kimbro (April 29, 1934 – February 3, 2009) was a

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

member in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

who was found guilty of the May 21, 1969, murder of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Panther

Alex Rackley Alex Rackley (June 2, 1949 – May 20, 1969) was an American activist who was a member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in the late-1960s. In May 1969, Rackley was suspected by other Panthers of being a police informant. H ...

, in the first of the

New Haven Black Panther trials In 1969-1971 there was a series of criminal prosecutions in New Haven, Connecticut, against various members and associates of the Black Panther Party. The charges ranged from criminal conspiracy to first-degree murder. All charges stemmed from t ...

in 1970.

Murder and trial

Kimbro had been a resident of the New Haven Panther headquarters at 365 Orchard Street, where Rackley was held and tortured for two days under suspicion of being an informant for the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO ( syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program; 1956–1971) was a series of covert and illegal projects actively conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrati ...

program. It was established at the trial that afterwards, Kimbro,

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

Panther

Lonnie McLucas Lonnie McLucas was a Black Panther Party member in Bridgeport, Connecticut who was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder for his involvement in the May 21, 1969 murder of New York City Panther Alex Rackley, in the first of the New Haven Blac ...

, and national Panther

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

George W. Sams, Jr. had driven Rackley to the marshes of

Middlefield, Connecticut Middlefield is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,217 at the 2020 census. The town includes the village of Rockfall in the northeast section. History Middlefield, in Middlesex County, is so named becau ...

, where Kimbro and McLucas had each shot Rackley, on Sams' orders. Sams testified that national Panther leader

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", ...

, who had been speaking at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

the day before the murder, had personally ordered the killing. Seales was at the Black Panther Headquarter the night Rackley was executed. The jury in Seale's subsequent trial was unable to reach a verdict, and the prosecution chose not to re-try the case. According to Michael Koskoff, one of the lawyers for McLucas, :"Many of the people in the New Haven chapter of the Panthers were

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

. They were defined more by their

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

than by their own personalities. And they were young and impressionable."

Early release

At the trial, Sams and Kimbro both turned

state's evidence A criminal turns state's evidence by admitting guilt and testifying as a witness for the state against their associate(s) or accomplice(s), often in exchange for leniency in sentencing or immunity from prosecution.Howard Abadinsky, ''Organized C ...

in exchange for the reduced charge of

second degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

, for which each received the mandatory

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

and served four years. In 1972, Kimbro met with a parole board and was permitted to attend

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's School of Education. In 1975, after only four years of his prison term Kimbro became the Assistant Dean of

Eastern Connecticut State University Eastern Connecticut State University (Eastern, Eastern Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State, or ECSU) is a public liberal arts university in Willimantic, Connecticut. Founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest campus in the Connecticut State Univ ...

After prison

For more than 20 years, Kimbro was president and CEO of Project MORE, a non-profit agency in New Haven that offers both day programs and residence to ex-convicts, helping them to re-enter society. Kimbro also volunteered for many years at the Pilot Pen International tennis tournament in New Haven. The Rackley case and Kimbro's journey from murderer to one who rehabilitates convicts were the subjects of a 2006 book, ''Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale and the Redemption of a Killer'' by Paul Bass, editor o
The New Haven Independent
and Douglas Rae, professor of management and political science at the

Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate business school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Administration (MBA), MBA for Executives ...

.Biographical page for Douglas Rae
/ref> (

Basic Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history. H ...

, 304 pages).

References

External links

"Justice in New Haven"
a ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' article {{DEFAULTSORT:Kimbro, Warren Members of the Black Panther Party Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni American people convicted of murder 1934 births 2009 deaths People convicted of murder by Connecticut American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Connecticut People paroled from life sentence African-American activists American nonprofit chief executives