Kent Ford (born 1943) is a co-founder of the Portland chapter of the Black Panther Party in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1969.

[2] When the police filed their report, it wasn't about the robbery, but instead about "possible subversive subject" - which referred to Kent Ford, who at the time had large maps of Vietnam and Cambodia in his home and writings by Mao Zedong.

[4] In 1968, after the shooting of Martin Luther King Jr., a group of 20 Black young adults in Portland started regularly meeting to discuss the writings of Malcolm X and other activist writers; not more than a year later, in June 1969, Kent Ford was beaten and jailed for these activities.

[5] After Ford's release from jail he organized a press conference on the steps of Portland Central Precinct, then at SW Second & Oak, and proclaimed, "If they keep coming in with these fascist tactics we're going to defend ourselves.

"[5][2] Shortly thereafter Huey Newton invited him to form and lead a Portland chapter of the Black Panther party.