Kent Ford
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| Born | 1943 (age 80–81) |
Kent Ford (born 1943) is a co-founder of the Portland chapter of the Black Panther Party in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1969.
Kent Ford was born in 1943 near Maringouin, Louisiana.[1] At the age of 12 he moved to Redmond, California with his three siblings, mother, and her husband.[1][2] At the age of 18 he had his first brush with police in California when he was arrested and jailed for three days for going 60 mph in a 45 mph zone.[2] Shortly after he moved to Portland, Oregon in 1961.[1] Here he set up a candy business buying supplies wholesale and having adolescents sell door-to-door.[2]
In 1967 he took a job at Safeway as a computer operator for 104 stores.[2] The same year he returned home to find he'd been robbed, and he subsequently called the police because $1,000 was missing.[2] When the police filed their report, it wasn't about the robbery, but instead about "possible subversive subject" - which referred to Kent Ford, who at the time had large maps of Vietnam and Cambodia in his home and writings by Mao Zedong.[2] Several weeks later Ford intervened while police were arresting a man, and was subsequently arrested, assaulted, and held in jail on $80,000 bail on charges that he had incited a riot.[3] He was eventually acquitted and awarded a $6,000 settlement.[3]
Ford has three sons, James, Sekou, and Lumumba.[2]
In 2020, Ford participated in protests against police brutality in Portland, Oregon.[4]
In 1968, after the shooting of Martin Luther King Jr., a group of 20 Black young adults in Portland started regularly meeting to discuss the writings of Malcolm X and other activist writers; not more than a year later, in June 1969, Kent Ford was beaten and jailed for these activities.[5] After Ford's release from jail he organized a press conference on the steps of Portland Central Precinct, then at SW Second & Oak, and proclaimed, "If they keep coming in with these fascist tactics we're going to defend ourselves."[5][2] Shortly thereafter Huey Newton invited him to form and lead a Portland chapter of the Black Panther party.[5] Approximately six members of the reading group formed Portland's chapter.[6] In total, the initial Portland Panthers had approximately 50 members, half of whom were women.[2] One of the requirements of the Black Panther party in Portland was that members read at least two hours a day.[5]
The Portland Black Panther Party was active in demonstrations against the Vietnam War.[5] They created a children's breakfast program and fed hundreds of children daily in the dining room at Highland United Church of Christ in Northeast Portland.[5] The chapter also opened and operated two medical clinics in Portland, The Malcolm X Dental Clinic and Fred Hampton Memorial People's Health Clinic.[5][4]
As of 2020, Ford was active giving historic Black Panther walking tours about six times a year.[5]
In 2021, a $20,000 Community Placemaking grant was awarded by the Portland Metro Council to support a play about Ford's life and work titled, "Walking through Portland with a Panther - the life of Mr. Kent Ford, All Power".[7] A stage reading of the play was conducted in February 2022, during a three day tribute in Portland honoring Kent Ford.[8] The Vanport Mosaic and Confrontation Theatre presented the solo play in June 2022.[9]
