This member of the group that was the subject of the 1970 book "Black Power and the American Myth" died on December 19, 2008.
James Bevel James Luther Bevel (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was a minister and leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. As the Director of Direct Action and of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he initiated, strategized, directed, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era: the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade, the 1965 Selma voting rights movement, and the 1966 Chicago open housing movement. He suggested that SCLC call for and join a March on Washington in 1963. Bevel later strategized the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, which contributed to Congressional passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
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.