Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer

A must read for anyone interested in the history of an American city during the radical 60's.

Bass and Rae do a terrific job of capturing a moment in time when people were becoming "revolutionaries" as easily as they changed hair styles. What comes through most forcefully, for me, is the easy embrace of "radical chic" by so many who must, in hindsight, be somewhat embarrassed by their seventies selves. The book also serves as a vindication for Kingman Brewster, the Yale president, whose diplomatic handling of a potentially incendiary moment in his institution's history has been widely misunderstood and vilified. It is also sobering to realize that the crucible of poverty and disadvantage that forged the Panthers still exists in New Haven and in so many other American cities and that the long climb out of despair continues even for many of those, like the book's protagonist, who seem to have escaped the ghetto.

I grew up in New Haven and was in my late teens when the events that Paul Bass and Douglas Rae describe so well occurred. As a college student living in Washington, D.C., at the time of the murder, I realized as I read the book that I had missed a lot of the important details of the terrible crime and its aftermath, including the trial and the organized protests by the Black Panthers, Yale students, and other assorted demonstrators. But the authors do a wonderful job at recreating exactly what was going on in New Haven. They unfold a very compelling story in a fair and balanced manner so that the reader will come away feeling sympathy for both the victim of the crime, Alex Rackley, and for the perpetrator, Warren Kimbro, a man who worked hard to redeem himself. For those of you who lived through the late sixties and early seventies, this book will remind you of what that time was like; and for those who did not, Murder in the Model City will give you a true sense of a turbulent era in our recent past.

MURDER IN THE MODEL CITY: THE BLACK PANTHERS, YALE, AND THE REDEMPTION OF A KILLER begins in 1969 and follows four members of the Black Panther party who committed murder in Connecticut and fled. Nine Panthers would eventually be tried with crimes from that night - and activists of all denominations descended on a small New England city to protest. Paul Bass and Douglas Rae recreate events, politics, and social issues during the stormy period, bringing to life the sentiments of all sides. A 'must' for any who would understand 1960s black activism and its lasting legacy. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch