John Sinclair American Radical

["labehotierre" <labehotierre@wanadoo.fr>]

John Sinclair was sent to goal 24 February  1966 for six months in the
Detroit House of
Correction for a second arrest (Oct. 1965) on "sales and possession of
marijuana."

Influenced by the Black Panthers, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, Sinclair
(with Pun
Plamondon) founded the White Panther Party in November 1968, serving first
as its minister
of information and later as chairman. The White Panther Party demanded
economic and
cultural freedom. "Everything free for everybody!" and a total "assault" on
the American way
of life  by any means necessary were the essence of the Whit e Panther
program.

In July 1969 Sinclair was sentenced to prison for 9 1/2 to 10 years for
possession of two
marijuana cigarettes. While in prison he assembled he wrote and published
another collection
of writings.

On 10 December  1971,  15,000 people attended the Free John Sinclair Now
Rally headlined
by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Three days later, the Michigan Supreme Court,
on its own
motion, ordered John Sinclair released and later overturned his conviction,
finding that
Michigan's marijuana statutes were unconstitutional and void.

The John and Leni Sinclair papers (1957-79) accord an exceptional source for
the study of
America's radical movement. . They include  correspondence  from Abbie
Hoffman, Allen
Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, and Jerry Rubin,

 REF MICHIGAN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

                    John and Leni Sinclair
                       Papers, 1957-1979
                  39.5 linear ft. (41 boxes),
                      1 oversize folder,
               1 oversize v., and 33 sound discs.








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