William Lee Brent, a member of the Black Panther party who sought refuge in Cuba to 1969, has died in Havana at the age of 75.

After being accused of robbery and murder, Brent skyjacked a plane with a .38 handgun and fled to Cuba, which was sympathetic to the Black freedom struggle and open to revolutionaries worldwide. After arriving in Cuba, Brent was initially imprisoned for 22 months on suspicion of espionage. After his release, he worked in sugar cane fields, on a pig farm, as a radio disc jockey and as a high school teacher. He eventually earned a degree in Spanish literature and married writer Jane McManus.

Although he never returned to the United States, Brent remained interested and engaged in the Black freedom struggle and the lives of oppressed people everywhere.
Brent, who spent the remainder of his life in Cuba, died Nov. 4 of bronchial pneumonia at a Havana hospital.

May his soul forever rest in peace.