The group was most active in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and included the proto-punk band MC5, which John Sinclair managed for several years before he was incarcerated.

Plamondon was indicted with John Sinclair in connection to the bombing of a Central Intelligence Agency office in Ann Arbor on September 29, 1968,[4][5] a year after the founding of the group.

Upon hearing on the left-wing alternative radio station WABX that he had been indicted, he fled the U.S. for Europe and Africa, spending time in Algeria with exiled Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver.

The court ruled warrantless wiretapping was unlawful under the U.S. Constitution, even in the case where national security, as defined by the executive branch, was in danger.

The White Panthers had been charged with conspiring to destroy government property and evidence used to convict Plamondon was acquired through wiretaps not submitted to judicial approval.

Two members of the group were arrested and accused of throwing a molotov cocktail through the window of a local Selective Service office.

[18][19] The WPP ran a successful 'Food Conspiracy'[11] that provided groceries to about 5,000 Bay Area residents at low cost, due to bulk buying and minimum markup.

[32] Author and anarchist Mick Farren, a leader of the United Kingdom Underground, later founded the White Panthers UK, which was one of the organizations involved in the tearing down of the outer walls surrounding Isle of Wight Festival 1970.