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.
Richard Aoki Richard Masato Aoki ( or ; 20 November 1938 – 15 March 2009) was an American educator and college counselor, best known as a civil rights activist and early member of the Black Panther Party. He joined the early Black Panther Party and was eventually promoted to the position of Field Marshal. Although there were several Asian Americans in the Black Panther Party, Aoki was the only one to have a formal leadership position. Following Aoki's death, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's records on him were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, showing that, over a period of 15 years, he had been an informant for the government on the activities of the San Francisco area dissident movement.