Reggie Forte

Reginald Westley Forte (1949–1997) was one of the early members of the Black Panther Party.

Family

Forte was born on March 31, 1949 in Birmingham, Alabama to Leavy II and Helen (Demand) Forte. He and his family relocated to Berkeley, California in 1959. Later, the family moved to Oakland, California where Forte attended Oakland and Emeryville public schools.  He had one brother, Sherwin. He had one daughter, three grandsons, one niece and one nephew.

Ancestors

Census records show in the 1900's, there were three brothers, Caze, Washington, and Preston Forte.  They owned their own land in a town called Eufaula, Alabama. Each brother raised 11 children.  They lived as a "clan" to protect each other from the Klu Klux Klan (KKK).

One of Forte's forefathers seized the opportunity to migrate to Liberia with his family.  In 1868, Willis Forte sailed on the Golconda, with his wife Paulina, son Wiley, daughter  Catherine, and another son Charles.  Later, as Wiley took a wife, he established a town called Forteville.

An incident arose in the 1930's  between the KKK and the family. The story is documented in a book by David Frost, called Witness to Injustice. One of the Forte men went to town and had a fight with a white man.  A knife was involved and both men were injured. When Forte made it home the women and children moved into the woods, while the men prepared for a fight.  The next day a group of klansmen came to seek revenge at the Forte compound. They stopped at a country store to load up on supplies.  When asked by the store owner where they were headed, the Klan leader said, "to get those Forte's."  The proprietor told them they'd need a lot more ammunition and supplies because they were going to be gone for a long time.  He explained that some of the Forte's could shoot the leaves off a tree from a good distance, and would be ready to fight!  The Klan reconsidered and went home.

In 1963, Reginald's maternal grandmother was a victim of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham.  She survived, but never fully recovered from her wounds.

While in high school, Reginald met Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton and with his brother joined them to patrol neighborhoods in Richmond, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco to monitor the police. They often followed the arrested to the police department, and would often pay their bail. The Panthers always (legally) displayed their weapons publicly. 

In 1967, Reginald, Sherwin, Lil' Bobbie Hutton, Big Man, BobbySeale and others went to Sacramento, California's state capitol, to introduce their Ten Point Platform and to demonstrate their opposition to a law that made it illegal to bear firearms in public.

Death

Reginald died February 18, 1997, in San Jose, California.