Census records from the 1900s show that Reggie's forefather was one of three brothers, Caze, Washington, and Preston Forte.
The story is documented in the book Witness to Injustice by David Frost, Jr. One of the Forte men went to town and had a fight with a white man.
When Forte made it home to Eufaula, the women and children moved into the woods for protection, while the men prepared for a fight.
He explained that some of the Forte's could shoot the leaves off of trees from one hundred yards, and they would be ready to fight.
While in high school, Reginald met Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton and with his older brother Sherwin, joined them to patrol neighbourhoods in Richmond, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco to monitor the police.
[2] In 1967, Reginald, Sherwin, Lil' Bobbie Hutton, Big Man, Bobby Seale and others went to Sacramento, California's state capitol, to introduce their Ten Point Platform and to demonstrate their opposition to a law that made it illegal to bear firearms in public.