Richard Aoki

Richard Aoki ( born November 20, 1938 in San Leandro, California, † March 15, 2009 in Berkeley ) was an American civil rights activist. He was one of the first members of the Black Panther Party, in which he was Field Marshall and the only party leader from an Asian-American family.

Aoki was born in 1938 in San Leandro, California. He was with his family from 1942 to 1945 in the detention center of Topaz in Utah. After the war, Aoki moved to Oakland, California. Richard Aoki served eight years in the Army of the United States, first as a paramedic and later as an infantryman. Aoki attended for two years the Merritt College, where he became friends with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. When Newton and Seale, the Black Panther Party founded ( in October 1966), Aoki was changed to the University of California, Berkeley. He received his bachelor's degree in sociology in 1968 and 1970, a master's degree as a social worker ( Master of Social Work ).

Aoki died at his home in Berkeley of complications of his dialysis. His life was told in the documentary Aoki ( 2009).

In August 2012, it was announced after a request for inspection of the journalist Seth Rosenfeld that Aoki was spying for the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 for the FBI, first against local communists, but especially against the Black Panther Party. He drove their weapons and their militaristic appearance ahead ..