Born in Missouri in 1936, Don Cox joined the Black Panther Party one year after its founding in 1966. Appointed as the party’s field marshal, known as “D.C.,” he was inducted into the party’s high command as a member of its central committee and founded the party’s San Francisco office. In 1970, he helped open the party’s international section in Algiers. Two years later, he resigned from the party. Except for a brief trip when he entered and exited the United States incognito, using a false passport, he lived in France in the village of Camps-sur-l’Agly, where he died at age seventy-four in February 2011.

Continue to follow Cox’s legacy on Instagram: @field_marshall_dc.