By 1968 , many Black Panther leaders had been arrested , including founder Huey Newton for the murder of a police officer ( Newton 's prosecution was eventually dismissed ) , yet membership surged . Black Panthers later engaged the police in a firefight in a Los Angeles gas station . In the same year , Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated , creating nationwide riots , the widest wave of social unrest since the American Civil War . In Cleveland , Ohio , the " Republic of New Libya " engaged the police in the Glenville shootout , which was followed by rioting . The year also marked the start of the White Panther Party , a group of whites dedicated to the cause of the Black Panthers . Founders Pun Plamondon and John Sinclair were arrested , but eventually freed , in connection to the bombing of a Central Intelligence Agency office in Ann Arbor , Michigan that September
was assassinated
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Black Power movement