{{Short description|American educator and activist}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Richard Aoki | image = RichardAoki.jpg | caption = Aoki in 2007 | birth_date = {{birth date|1938|11|20|mf=y}} | birth_place = San Leandro, California, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2009|03|15|1938|11|20|mf=y}} | death_place = Berkeley, California, U.S. | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | citizenship = | other_names = | known_for = | education = Merritt College<br />University of California, Berkeley | alma_mater = | employer = | occupation = Civil rights activist most known for his role in the Black Panther Party, FBI informant against same. | years_active = | height = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | opponents = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relations = | callsign = | awards = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Richard Masato Aoki'''<ref name=cironline/> ({{IPAc-en|ɑ:|ˈ|oʊ|k|i}} {{respell|ah|OH|kee}} or {{IPAc-en|eɪ|ˈ|oʊ|k|i}} {{respell|ay|OH|kee}}; {{langx|ja|青木 正人}},<ref>[https://democracynow.jp/video/20120823-1]</ref> November 20, 1938 – March 15, 2009) was an American educator and college counselor, best known as a civil rights activist and early member of the Black Panther Party. He joined the early Black Panther Party and was eventually promoted to the position of Field Marshal. Although there were several Asian Americans in the Black Panther Party, Aoki was the only one to have a formal leadership position.<ref name="bio1">{{cite web |url=http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Our_Stories/Chapter3/Richard_Aoki.html|title=Another shade of Black Panther...|publisher=It's About Time|access-date=June 7, 2009}}</ref><ref name="AsianWeek">{{cite web|url=http://www.asianweek.com/2001_04_27/feature_richardaoki.html|title=Back in the Day...|publisher=AsianWeek|author=Neela Banerjee|date=April 27, 2001|access-date=June 7, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319021909/http://www.asianweek.com/2001_04_27/feature_richardaoki.html|archive-date=March 19, 2009}}</ref> Following Aoki's death, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's records on him were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, showing that, over a period of 15 years, he had been an informant for the government.
==Biography== Richard Aoki was born in San Leandro, California, in 1938 to Japanese parents Shozo Aoki and Toshiko Kaniye.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Nittle |first=Nadra Kareem |date=August 20, 2019 |title=Biography of Richard Aoki, Asian-American Black Panther |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/asian-american-black-panther-richard-aoki-2834877 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316094636/https://www.thoughtco.com/asian-american-black-panther-richard-aoki-2834877 |archive-date=March 16, 2023 |access-date=2022-02-24 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}}</ref> He and his family were interned at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah from 1942 to 1945 due to Executive Order 9066.<ref name="rosenfeld">{{cite book|last=Rosenfeld|first=Seth|authorlink=Seth Rosenfeld|title=Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=2012|pages=419–420|isbn=9780374257002}}</ref> They moved to a predominantly black neighborhood in Oakland, California, after World War II ended.<ref name="rosenfeld"/> In junior high Aoki joined a gang, later would brag that he was a great street fighter, and still managed to become co-valedictorian.<ref name="rosenfeld"/> Later, in a deal to expunge his criminal record, Aoki spent one year in active duty serving in the United States Army, first as a medic and later in the infantry, and 7 years in the reserves. In this time he became proficient in firearms. During his time in the reserves, he was elected to The Berkeley Young Socialist Alliance's executive council and was a member of other socialist groups, reporting the information he gathered back to the FBI.
He attended Merritt College for two years, where he became close friends with his longtime acquaintances Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the founding members of the Black Panther Party;<ref name=":0" /> the organization was founded in October 1966, one month after Aoki transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1968 and a Master of Social Work degree in 1970.<ref name=":0" /><ref>View archival newsfilm from KRON-TV, featuring Aoki speaking at UC Berkeley in March 1969: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/208092.</ref>
Bobby Seale's text ''Seize the Time'' describes Aoki as the person who provided the Black Panthers with their first firearms.<ref name=":Mullen">{{Cite book |last=Mullen |first=Bill V. |title=Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-05722-7 |editor-last=Cook |editor-first=Alexander C. |location=Cambridge |pages= |chapter=By the Book: Quotations from Chairman Mao and the Making of Afro-Asian Radicalism, 1966-1975}}</ref>{{Rp|page=263}}
It was originally reported that Aoki died at his home in Berkeley from complications from dialysis.<ref name=chang>{{cite web |author=Momo Chang|title=Richard Aoki, charter member of Black Panthers, dies in Berkeley|work=San Jose Mercury News|date=March 18, 2009|access-date=June 7, 2009|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11942438}}</ref> Nearly a year later, it was publicly revealed that he had died of suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He never married and had no children.<ref name=":0" /> His life was chronicled in the 2009 documentary film, ''Aoki''.<ref name="PuckLo">{{cite web |url=http://oaklandnorth.net/2009/11/12/film-on-former-panther-richard-aoki-debuts-tonight/|title=Film on former Panther Richard Aoki debuts|author=Puck Lo|publisher=Oakland North|date=November 12, 2009|access-date=February 19, 2010}}</ref>
Longtime friend and AAPA activist, Harvey Dong, served as the executor of Aoki's estate.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rosenfeld |first=Seth |date=2015-06-09 |title=New FBI files show wide range of Black Panther informant's activities |url=https://revealnews.org/article/new-fbi-files-show-wide-range-of-black-panther-informants-activities/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Reveal |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Posthumous revelation as an FBI informant == On August 20, 2012, a report by Center for Investigative Reporting journalist Seth Rosenfeld alleged Aoki was an FBI informant who had infiltrated chapters of the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers' Party and, nearly from its inception, the Black Panther Party.<ref name=SFGate1>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Activist-Richard-Aoki-named-as-informant-3800133.php#page-1|title=Activist Richard Aoki named as informant|last=Rosenfeld|first=Seth|authorlink=Seth Rosenfeld|date=August 20, 2012|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> In response to a FOIA request by Rosenfeld, it was revealed that a November 16, 1967, FBI intelligence report listed Aoki as an informant with the code number "T-2". Former FBI agent turned banker, Burney Threadgill Jr., also said that he worked with Aoki, stating, "He was my informant. I developed him."<ref name=SFGate1 />
On September 7, 2012, the Center for Investigative Reporting published a second story about Aoki with new documents detailing his 221-page informant file. The file was released under court order after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The second story notes Aoki was designated the code name "Richard Ford". The file details 16 years of cooperation between Aoki and the FBI's San Francisco office. According to the story, the records show "that at various points, he provided information that was 'unique' and of 'extreme value.'"<ref name="cironline">{{cite web |last=Rosenfeld |first=Seth |date=September 7, 2012 |title=FBI files reveal new details about informant who armed Black Panthers | Center for Investigative Reporting |url=http://cironline.org/reports/fbi-files-reveal-new-details-about-informant-who-armed-black-panthers-3833 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130508065606/http://cironline.org/reports/fbi-files-reveal-new-details-about-informant-who-armed-black-panthers-3833 |archive-date=May 8, 2013 |access-date=June 15, 2013 |website=Center for Investigative Reporting}}</ref>
==Footnotes== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book |first=Diane C. |last=Fujino |title=Samurai Among Panthers: Richard Aoki on Race, Resistance, and a Paradoxical Life |location=Minneapolis |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780816677863}}
==External links== *[http://aokifilm.com Official website for ''Aoki, A Film Documentary''](includes video clips from film) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091113131908/http://aokifilm.com/ |date=November 13, 2009 }} * [http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/23/was_bay_area_radical_black_panther ''Was Bay Area Radical, Black Panther Arms Supplier Richard Aoki An Informant for the FBI?''] from Democracy Now! August 23, 2012
{{Black Panther Party}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aoki, Richard}} Category:1938 births Category:2009 deaths Category:2009 suicides Category:People from San Leandro, California Category:Asian-American movement activists Category:American civil rights activists of Japanese descent Category:Members of the Black Panther Party Category:COINTELPRO targets Category:Japanese-American internees Category:Activists from Oakland, California Category:Federal Bureau of Investigation informants Category:Suicides by firearm in California