OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - The black berets and leather jackets that made them 1960s icons are gone, along with the shotguns and bandoleers that led the world to sit up and take notice of their uncompromising protests.
Aging members of the Black Panthers gathered for an unprecedented reunion this weekend in Oakland, California, the city that marked its painful birth as an urban radical movement exactly 40 years ago. Their soulful handshakes and world-weary hugs gave little hint of the angry battles many fought with police in their teens and twenties.