"The Color of Gun Control"?

Did the FBI, in the early 60's, create a coloring book they wanted people to think came from the Black Panther Party*, and was this part of a wider plan to scare whites into enacting gun control laws?

I received the following as a comment to a previous post. I'd seen correspondent "Madashell" talk about the coloring book in KABA Newslinks comments and asked him to give me more information.

Anonymous said...

Dear David Codrea;

Sir I believe you want info about the BPP coloring book created by the FBI. I decided to share this info with everyone.
Madashell

1) For a copy of the BPP coloring book
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/COINTELPRO/coloring.html
2) For US Senate report on coloring book
bookhttp://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIc.htm
3) For additional links including to the Senate report and more
http://www.perspectives.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=90600&forum_id=94&jump_to=3222755
4) Latest from Jeff Knox tying it all together
http://www.firearmscoalition.org/new/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=37

I present this for discussion only. Not having the time to track this down, my gut instinct says verify before accepting, and I do note the Knox piece addresses generalities of how the FOID was passed in fear of black armed rebellion, and does not mention this coloring book. On the other hand, though I had not heard of Paul Wolf before, he appears to have good legal credentials, and has done extensive research, but I have only given his pages a cursory glance and have no insights into what he is about.

I did find the coloring book on a University of Notre Dame page, but it doesn't mention an FBI disinformation program. You can find other websites here.

So caveat emptor. One would think this would have been a major news story--was it and did I sleep through it? If it's true and it hasn't been, "why not?" might be an appropriate question to start asking.

If anyone can help shed light, please do so.

And thank you, Madashell, for bringing this to my attention.

*UPDATE: It's not clear from the "Senate Report" linked above whether the FBI is alleged to have created the book or simply distributed it--the inference could be made they took an existing independently-produced book that was not authorized by the BPP hierarchy and sent it out to scare people, and that BPP leadership disassociated themselves from it when it came to their attention. Of course, the BPP could also have created it and lied when it became an embarrasment to them. Who knows?

From the report:

In an admitted attempt "to impede their contributions to the BPP Breakfast Program," the FBI sent anonymous letters and copies of an inflammatory Black Panther Coloring Book for children to contributors, including Safeway Stores, Inc., Mayfair Markets, and the Jack-In-The-Box Corporation.

On April 8, 1976 in Executive Testimony a former member of the BPP Central Steering Committee stated that when the coloring book came to the attention of the Panther's national leadership, Bobby Seale ordered it destroyed because the book "did not correctly reflect the ideology of the Black Panther Party . . ."