Melvin Howard (left), 20, and Israel Fields, 21, who infiltrated the Black Panther organization here as undercover agents for the New Orleans Police Department, tell of their harrowing experience at a press conference on Friday at Police Headquarters.

The Peoples Party II was a Houston-based Black revolutionary group modeled after the Black Panther Party. Founder and Chairman Carl Hampton would eventually be killed during a shootout with the Houston Police Department at the party’s Dowling Street headquarters in July of 1970. Out of the Dowling shootout, the “Black Coalition” was formed. The Coalition consisted of mainstream Black organizations responding to the violence against black people committed by the Houston Police Department. The Coalition urged a boycott of businesses downtown, which would ultimately fail due to poor organization. The Peoples Party II was part of the Rainbow Coalition, which was composed of the Peoples Party II, the John Brown Revolutionary League, and the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO).

On verso: manuscript title, date stamp and newspaper caption with artist's credit affixed.

This object has the following keywords:

• Black Panthers
• Civil Rights Movements
• Escapes
• Headquarters
• Injustice
• Israel Fields
• Melvin Howard
• New Orleans
• New Orleans Police Department
• Press Conferences
• Racial Discrimination

• Image Dimensions: 7 1/2 x 9 7/16 in. (19.05 x 23.97 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in. (20.16 x 25.24 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen