This member of the group that was the subject of the 1970 book "Black Power and the American Myth" died on December 19, 2008.
Black Power and the American Myth Black Power and the American Myth is a 1970 book by Reverend C. T. Vivian that analyzes the Civil Rights Movement. Before writing "Black Power and the American Myth", Vivian had been an activist, a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a member of its Executive Staff along with Martin Luther King, Jr., Andrew Young, James Bevel and others. Besides King, Vivian was the first member of SCLC's staff to write a book about the Civil Rights Movement, and his access gave readers a first-hand account of the thoughts and motivations of the movement's leaders.
Alex Rackley Alex Rackley (June 2, 1949 – May 20, 1969) was a member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s. In May 1969, Rackley, 19, was suspected by other Panthers of being a police informant. He was brought to Panther headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut, held captive and tortured there for several days, "tried" in kangaroo court, condemned to death, taken to the wetlands of Middlefield, Connecticut, and murdered there.