D.A. Fani Willis’ Dad: The Black Panther Party’s Lawyer

“It’s a black thing.”

District Attorney Fani Willis’ father is even more interesting than his now world famous and besieged daughter and her lover.

John Floyd, III is Fani Willis’ father. He is a retired criminal defense and family law attorney who helped found the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Political Party.

Today (February 16), attorney Floyd took to the witness stand during the hearing demanded by one of Trump’s co-defendants lawyers in an effort to disqualify D.A. Willis and her entire team from the prosecution of Trump and company for their attempted theft of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. They are also asking the judge to throw out the case entirely.

The New York Times describes attorney Floyd as a “longtime civil rights activist and defense lawyer.”

On the stand, Floyd allowed that he listens to “conservative radio a lot” and “last night for five hours all they talked about was this case.” Trump’s lawyers immediately jumped up and moved the court to strike all of Floyd’s testimony because this statement was somehow a clear indication of bias. The judge refused but, incredibly, said that he would consider Floyd’s testimony with a critical eye as he assessed his credibility.

As for Floyd’s relationship with his daughter, Willis told The New York Post that she talks to her dad at least ten times every day. Hopefully, for those of us who still have one, we deeply appreciate that most responsible fathers provide their children with that certain “something” that no one else can: a deep sense of security and safety and protection.

And then there is the matter of wise counsel. The ability to cut through the clutter of life’s inevitable and sometimes unrelenting vicissitudes, and not just tell but show, actually perform, the truth right before our eyes. As attorney Floyd’s only child, D.A. Fani Willis speaks of him in almost reverent terms:

“I have an absolutely amazing father and I’m very privileged to have been raised by such a great man,” Willis told The Post. “My father taught me that every single person is entitled to dignity and respect no matter who they are — no matter their race, religion or socio-economic status.”

Floyd was raised in south central Los Angeles. “I’ve tried cases all over the country” and all over this earth. Indeed, he was involved in a trial in Rwanda on behalf the International Court of Justice. His main law office, however, was based in Washington, Dee Cee.

After retiring in 2018, he moved to South Africa. Why South Africa? Because he had previously worked with the “Free Nelson Mandela Movement” back in the ’80s and ’90s when Ronald Reagan’s racist regime had labeled Mandela as the world’s most dangerous terrorist.

In 2019, he returned to Atlanta because of “political reasons” and began living with Willis and his grandchildren in a new home that she had built from the ground up.

Alas, “She was forced to move after she was elected” as district attorney, Floyd told the packed courtroom. She left, he said, because Trump supporters virtually put their home under siege. They appeared at any and all times outside their house — staking out the place, “cursing and yelling” and hurling racial slurs, along with the obligatory death threats, of course. He himself refused to move out, but insisted that Fani and his grandchildren do so while he remained behind to protect the property.

According to attorney Floyd, D.A. Willis had a boyfriend when he first moved in with her — who was not named Nathan Wade, the man whom she hired as “special” prosecutor and with whom she had an affair, and who is the linchpin upon which Trump and his co-defendants are hoping to derail the case against them.

“Deuce” was that man’s nickname. He was “some kind of disc jockey,” said attorney Floyd and he would see this boyfriend “sometimes every day.” He said he did not meet Nathan Wade until 2023.

This is important because a friend of Willis, Robin Bryant Yeartie, testified on February 15 that Wade and Willis first began dating in 2019, which directly contradicted both Wade’s and Willis’ testimony that their relationship did not begin until 2022. Willis moved into Bryant Yeartie’s condo. However, Willis and Yeartie have since had a falling out because Yeartie resigned (rather than be fired) from the D.A.’s office for poor performance. Thus Yeartie’s testimony against Willis must be taken with a gigantic pitcher of sea salt.

Floyd said he is currently living in California with a friend on a part-time basis as he is filming a documentary. He said he moved out of Willis’ home in 2022.

Floyd said he knew that his daughter traveled widely and went on vacations, including cruises. He did not know, despite Trump’s lawyers’ insistent insinuations, that she ever traveled with Wade. In fact, he testified, “I did not know they were dating” until the whole world found out just seven weeks ago.

It’s a black thing….(You wouldn’t understand)

Willis told South Atlanta Magazine that her father has always been very Afrocentric; that her very name was Swahili and chosen by her father, who was a Black Panther at the time of her birth in 1971.

She told the magazine:

My father was a Black Panther. That was before he went to law school but kind of post-college. And so, yes, it’s something in our history I’m very proud of. He would come back here to the South and other places. In fact, his experiences of Georgia are that of the South. So, he’s kind of amazed as what he sees today.

My father will tell you that he’s been arrested so many times that he couldn’t even tell you … He could tell you the states but not how many times.

She also noted that, “We’re not talking about material things in wealth. We’re talking about that stuff that really matters… I always remember my roots, that I come from a prosperous people, which are African people.” Willis was born in Inglewood, California, an adjacent suburb of Los Angeles.

As a founder of the Black Panther Political Party in Los Angeles, The New York Post reported that Floyd told them that he dated Sistah Angela Davis in the late 1960's, a violent, turbulent period in this nation-state’s history comparable even to the blood-soaked 1860’s one hundred years earlier.

Attorney Floyd moved to Washington, Dee Cee, taking his daughter with him. She was all of six-years-old and in the first grade, according to The New York Times. There, he began working as a criminal defense lawyer on behalf of the Black Panthers because he could not help notice that all of their lawyers “were always white.”

Attorney Floyd and his wife soon divorced and she returned to California, leaving Willis with Floyd, according to The Times. That paper quoted her as saying that her father’s clients were mostly “murderers and dope boys.”

As per BET, Willis’s father “was a defense lawyer in the Washington, D.C. area” who “gave her a file clerk job when she was a child.” This explains when and where her love of the law first germinated.

She told South Atlanta Magazine:

“I tease him sometimes now that it was child abuse, because at 8, I was putting his criminal files together,” Willis said to The New York Times.

Another interesting lesson that John Floyd taught his daughter was to always, always, keep a sufficient amount of cash available. (My own father used to call this practice “just in case” money).

“I‘m not trying to be racist, but it‘s a black thing,” attorney Floyd told the judge, looking directly at him.

This statement was meant to bolster D.A. Willis testimony that she reimbursed Wade for trips by using cash.

“Most Black folks, they hide cash,” said attorney Floyd. “They keep cash. I was trained, you always keep some cash. I’ve been places just because of the color of my skin” where his credit cards would not be accepted. As an example, he cited a period when he was studying on a fellowship at Harvard University. A restaurant in Cambridge refused not only his two credit cards but his (supposedly “same-as-cash”) American Express Traveler’s checks as well.

Three-year-old Fani was with him at that time. He told her then (and she never forgot): “You keep six months of cash always.” He said he has three safes in his house. He said he gave “my daughter her first cash box and told her to always keep some cash.”

Commentary

Like Messr. Floyd, I too am a “Baby Boomer,” and easily relate to and identify with his life and career. I am, however, extremely envious of the fact that he actually dated Angela Davis. I am certain that just about every black man back then was in love with her for both her big brain and her stop-traffic beauty — including, especially, that “Fuck You!” Afro which she flaunted like a gigantic black crown protecting that big brain.

On August 18, 1970, Angela Yvonne Davis became the third woman ever placed on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, sought for her supposed involvement in kidnappings and murders growing out of an armed seizure of a Marin County Courthouse in California, History.com reported.

I was in college (Indiana University-Bloomington) from 1966 to 1970. Although I was not a card-carrying member of the Panthers, I certainly sympathized and empathized with, and spiritually and emotionally supported their (our) movement. After college, I joined the US Navy in ’70 to avoid being drafted into the Army and the Vietnam War. Wrong move: My ship, the USS Dubuque (LPD-8), a troop transport ship, made five trips to DaNang Harbor, South Vietnam during that period.

I’m not so sure that Mr. Floyd’s admonition to his daughter to always keep lots of cash will always hold up.

Malcolm X once said something to the effect that hoarding cash may not always be cool. You see, he warned, if too many black people get hold of too many green dollar bills, don’t be surprised if white people suddenly decide and declare that green money is no longer any good. Only red or blue, yellow or purple money will suffice.

If you haven’t watched John Floyd’s testimony in this important case, do yourself a favor and watch the video above.