Geronimo Pratt (1947 - 2011)

Sat Sep 13, 1947

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Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, born on this day in 1947, was a decorated military veteran and a high-ranking associate of the Black Panther Party in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In Los Angeles, Pratt studied at UCLA under the GI Bill and began working with the Black Panther Party. Pratt was also a target of the FBI’s COINTEL program, which sought to subvert black power movements.

In 1972, Pratt was wrongfully convicted for murder and served 27 years in prison, eight of which were in solitary confinement. Pratt was freed in 1997 when his conviction was vacated due to the prosecution concealing wiretaps that proved he was not at the scene of the murder.

“I considered myself chopped off the game plan when I was arrested. But it was incumbent upon me to free myself and continue to struggle again. You can’t look back twenty-seven years and say it was [lost time]. I’m still living. I run about five miles every morning, and I can still bench press 300 pounds ten times. I can give you ten reps. Also I hope I’m a little more intelligent and I’m not crazy. It’s a hell of a gain that I survived.”

- Geronimo Pratt