Defense Captain Mark Clark of the Peoria BPP
by Gloria Clark Jackson
Mark Clark (June 28, 1947 – December 4, 1969) was an American activist and the founder and leader of the Peoria, Illinois Black Panther Party (BPP). Mark was instrumental in the creation of the enduring Free Breakfast Program in Peoria, as well as the Peoria branch’s engagement in local rainbow coalition politics, primarily revolving around the anti-war movement in Vietnam. Mark Clark was killed on December 4, 1969 in Chicago, along with Fred Hampton, state chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panthers, during a predawn Police raid.
Mark was born on June 28, 1947, in Peoria, Illinois. He was the ninth child of Fannie Mae Clark and Pastor William Clark. Mark grew up in a religious home, as his father was the founder of the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, and he was known from childhood to be stubborn, principled, and possessing great empathy for the underdog and downtrodden. His family members note that as a junior high school student, he regularly attended the Carver Community Center where he practiced acting in performing arts, drawing, painting, and carving.
According to John Gwynn, former president of state and local chapters of the NAACP, Mark and his brothers played a role in helping keep other teenagers in line. “He could call for order when older persons or adults could not”, Gwynn said of Mark in a December 1969 interview with the Chicago Tribune. In that same Chicago Tribune article, family members are quoted as saying Mark enjoyed reading and art, and was good at drawing portraits. He attended Manual High School and Illinois Central College in East Peoria.
Following the 1963 Birmingham Alabama protests where white police officers let dogs loose on Black protestors, resulting in numerous severe injuries, Mark joined the Peoria Illinois National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter at age 15 under the leadership of chapter president John Gwynn and vice president Reverend Blaine Ramsey Jr.
Mark became increasingly involved in the NAACP, attending the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famed I Have a Dream speech. Mark was instrumental in organizing a boycott to demand that books about African American history be included in the Manuel High School curriculum.
Although Mark displayed considerable talent in art, drama, and speech, he was kicked out of school in the 8th grade. Despite liking the process of learning, Mark did not like school very much, likely due to the racially inhospitable environment that black students were forced to endure. After boycotting Manual High School, he enrolled in a few courses at Illinois Central College in East Peoria.
Due to his involvement in the NAACP, even prior to his joining of the Black Panther Party, Mark was a target of the Peoria police department. According to his sister, Gloria Clark Jackson, Mark was repeatedly beaten and detained on bogus charges, a common practice in Peoria at the time, as many police officers were members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Mark was first introduced to the Black Panther Party in December 1968 through family friend Henry Howard, who was a party member in San Francisco. After Howard successfully encouraged him to join the Panthers, Mark accompanied him to Chicago to pick up reports from the Chicago chapter prior to going to the Central Committee office in Oakland, California. It was on this trip that Mark first met deputy chairman of the Illinois Party chapter, Fred Hampton. Upon meeting, Hampton asked him to remain in Chicago for three months in order to train and acquire the skills necessary to start a local branch in Peoria. During these three months, Mark was trained in leadership, took political education classes, and read Panther literature, including the Ten Point Program. During this time, Mark became good friends with Hampton, a friendship that endured throughout their short-lived lives.
By spring of 1969, Mark had been inducted into the Black Panther Party by the Central Committee, and was appointed the party’s Defense Captain, giving him the responsibility of protecting and defending the Panthers at all costs. Upon returning to Peoria after his father’s death, Mark began recruiting members to the newly created Peoria branch, including his younger sister Gloria and younger brother Joseph. At only 22 years old, Mark quickly established the Peoria branch, and by July 1969, the branch had around 50 official members and 20 affiliates. As the branch’s founder and leader, Mark taught political education classes where he explained that democracy cannot exist within a system that is built upon white supremacy, using a largely Maoist lens. He and other party members read Mao’s Little Red Book in order to study revolutionary tactics.
Mark began a Free Breakfast Program at NAACP vice president Reverend Blaine Ramsey Jr.’s Ward Chapel AME Church. Mark expanded upon the Panthers’ survival pending revolution programming, establishing free clothing and shoe giveaways for children, and was in the process of establishing a free clinic and a sickle cell foundation at the time of his death. These programs were funded by both donations, solicited through charity or boycotts of local businesses, and the sale of the party’s newspaper. Mark, as well as the Black Panther Party in general, were vehemently against accepting funds from the government.
The Ward Chapel congregation members eventually voted against their involvement with Mark and the Free Breakfast Program due to suspicion of government monitoring, which would later be revealed to be true. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation was running a massive, illegal, disruption and neutralization campaign against the Black Panther Party as part of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO). At one point, Rev. Ramsey was ousted as the church’s pastor due to his permitting the Peoria Panthers to use church facilities for the Free Breakfast Program. Then Ward Chapel voted to cancel and end the free breakfast program for kids for good.
Even though the breakfast program took a hit due to not having a stable location, the Peoria BPP under Mark’s directions continued to feed children at various locations by passing out food baggies in parking lots and near school grounds.
Mark remained dedicated to the party by visiting the Chicago Chapter every weekend. On a few occasions, the entire Peoria BPP Branch visited Chicago to participate in chapter meetings. During those visits Mark would often address crowds of between 300 and 400 people as the Peoria BPP Defense Captain.
On November 13, 1969, a former panther named Spurgeon (Jake) Winters was killed by the Chicago Police in a shootout that also claimed the lives of two police officers and injury to 7 other officers. It had become an all out panther – police war and everyone involved was fully aware that the police would retaliate. On November 26, 1969, Mark made the decision to go to Chicago despite knowing the danger that he would be facing. Mark told my mother and I that we might not see him again.
A week later, on December 4, 1969, around 4:45 am, the Chicago Police, along with police from Cook County which had been organized by State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan, raided the apartment of Chairman Fred Hampton at 2337 West Monroe Street, using a search warrant for the alleged possession of illegal weapons. (No illegal weapons have ever been found). The policemen killed both Mark Clark and Fred Hampton and caused serious bodily harm to Verlina Brewer, Ronald “Doc” Satchel, Blair Anderson, and Brenda Harris, by firing between 90 and 99 shots into the apartment.
In January 1970, a coroner’s jury held an inquest and ruled the deaths of Mark Clark and Fred Hampton to be justifiable homicide. A $47.7 million lawsuit was filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Clark and Hampton stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated. The wrongful death lawsuit filed was against the City of Chicago, Cook County, which had been organized by State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan, and the federal government (specifically the FBI). The multiple trials lasted 13 years.
In 1982, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government agreed to a settlement in which each would pay $616,333 to a group of nine plaintiffs, including the mothers of Clark and Hampton. The $1.85 million settlement was believed to be the largest ever in a civil rights case.
Efforts to honor Mark Clark’s life and legacy have been on-going in Peoria, Illinois and beyond. Mark Clark’s sister, Gloria Clark Jackson, published a book in 2020 detailing the untold story of her brother’s life, death, and legacy: She states, “This book is my concerted effort to make sure that Mark’s legacy is never forgotten nor lost to future generations. Mark was one of many fallen comrades whose names are lesser known and rarely talked about: They were the real heroes of the revolution.”
A mural located at 2746 W Madison St, in Chicago commemorates Mark Clark alongside Fred Hampton on a building just a mile away from where both men were killed. Their deaths were the main feature of the 2017 “Black Panther Party 50-Year Retrospective Exhibit” at the Movement & Justice Gallery inside Chicago’s Westside Justice Center.
Mark Clark has also been recognized with a plaque at Peoria’s African American Hall of Fame Museum, located at the downtown Riverfront Museum. In addition, a scholarship named Seize the Time: in Honor of Mark Clark has been established in his memory for Black African American students who attend Illinois Central College.