Bobby Hutton

CTL-E-6068 · Person · other · 1950–1968

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07291 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6068.

Robert James Hutton, known as Bobby or Lil' Bobby Hutton, born 21 April 1950 in Jefferson County, Arkansas, was the first recruit and first treasurer of the Black Panther Party. His family moved to Oakland, California, in 1953, fleeing harassment by Ku Klux Klan-linked nightriders, part of the second Great Migration. In December 1966, at sixteen, Hutton met party founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale at the North Oakland Anti-Poverty Center and became the party's first and youngest member, drawn by its Ten-Point Program. On 2 May 1967 he joined the armed Panther demonstration at the California State Capitol in Sacramento protesting the Mulford Act, and was arrested there and again later that month on firearms charges. On 6 April 1968, two days after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Hutton was with Eldridge Cleaver and other Panthers in a confrontation with Oakland police in which two officers were wounded; after a ninety-minute gun battle at a West Oakland house, Hutton was shot and killed by police as he emerged. Eldridge Cleaver said Hutton was surrendering; police said he tried to run. He was seventeen, and the party's first member killed.

The record

• Also known as: Robert James Hutton, Lil' Bobby Hutton, Bobby James Hutton

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Census Intake Wave 5 — 747 Program, Wave 11; 40-record packet). Gate A (2026-10-16): no Bobby Hutton entity in the live graph at 3,763 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-6068 assigned at assembly. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 3 — Famous Birthdays ABSENT census, readiness rank 1457 (Civil Rights Leaders list). The census supplied the NAME ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — African American teenager who was the Black Panther Party's first recruit, first treasurer and first member killed. Vital status: DECEASED — killed by Oakland police 6 April 1968, aged 17 (BlackPast; Wikipedia). The circumstances are disputed in the sources and are stated neutrally in this record: Cleaver said Hutton was surrendering, police said he tried to flee. Hutton is a deceased historical figure, not a living minor; the SPEC minor rule (no records for living minors / child athletes) does not apply to this tribute record. STATISTICS (sourced, dated): First recruit and first treasurer of the Black Panther Party (joined December 1966, aged 16); took part in the 2 May 1967 Sacramento Capitol protest of the Mulford Act (BlackPast, accessed 2026-10-16). MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: Wikimedia Commons photograph of Bobby Hutton at the California State Capitol protest, 1967; no file page was read at file-page level in this pass, so no image is cleared — CTL-PHOTO-001; a CTL-created graphic is the standing alternative); chart FILLED (charts/chart-temp-1457-bobby-hutton.svg); video HELD (Shorts Link Map checked by name and variants — no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights basis). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio at staging.)

Relationships

• Black Panther Party — member of organization
  Hutton was the first recruit and first treasurer of the Black Panther Party (CTL-E-5641), joining in December 1966 at age 16.
• Bobby Seale — related to
  Hutton met Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale (CTL-E-5681) and Huey P. Newton at the North Oakland Anti-Poverty Center in December 1966 and became the party's first recruit under them.
• Oakland, California — from
  Hutton's family moved to Oakland, California (CTL-E-4770) in 1953, when he was three, and he was raised there.

Sources

• BlackPast, 'Bobby Hutton (1950–1968)' — Robert James Hutton, born 21 April 1950 in Jefferson County, Arkansas, was the first recruit and first treasurer of the Black Panther Party at 16 and the first party member killed by police; his family moved to Oakland in 1953 after harassment by Klan-associated vigilantes; he met Newton and Seale in December 1966 and took part in the 2 May 1967 Sacramento protest — https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/hutton-bobby-1950-1968/ (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, 'Bobby Hutton' — Robert James Hutton (21 April 1950 – 6 April 1968, aged 17), treasurer and first recruit of the Black Panther Party; killed by Oakland police in disputed circumstances — Cleaver stated Hutton was shot while surrendering, police stated he ignored commands and tried to flee — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Hutton (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6068 · Combined Graph record U-07291 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 3 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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