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~ - Published by the Commemoration Committee for the.Black Panther Party Volume 16, Number 2 Suggested Donation $2.00 October 2006
40th Annivenarv commemoratiOn I of the 111011 P111111r P1r1v · · A time to reaffirm a cadre commitment to the Ten-Point Program By Melvin Dickson m which we build the IO-Point ~ ~ With workshops, presentations, Program and bring revolutionary § book-signings, and other events intercoinmunalism to life in our own throughout the month of October, for land and hemisphere as a primary aim. mer Black Panther Party members, Some of us in the BPP were families and friends from all parts of "cadre." Many of the younger genera the country and the world will cele tion may not know what that term rep brate and commemorate the 40th resents - those of us who do must Anniversary of the founding of the teach its meaning, and the necessity Black Panther Party (BPP), centered for cadre-based, professional practice in , Oakland, California_ People will . to successfully overcome, through visit Black _Panther historical sites in organization, the problems encircling West Oakland, North Oakland, East our class and the struggle today. Oakland as well as South Berkeley On this 40th Anniversary of its and Richmond, where the vati-ous BPP founding by Huey · P. Newton and headquarters, branches and facilities Bobby Seale, we are commemorating began. Farmer members will take pic the heroism and victories of the Black tures together at the Alameda County Panther Party. As we honor the heroes· court building where, 38 years ago, and soldiers of the movement, both the-Free Huey Movement set the polit living and dead; as we pay tribute to ical passions of the black community the nobility of principle and dignity of and the country on fire. purpose embodied by the legacy of the Most importantly, we will -speak Black Panther Party, we must simulta to lessons learned from the past, neously commit ourselves to consum Artwork by .BPP former Minister of Culture honors rank and
address present conditions of the mating these goals of the Black file BPP members- on the oc·casidn -df the celebration of the struggle, and call for a renewal - a Panth~r Party, witho'llt repeating the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the BPP, at Oakland's cohesive, organized drive for a future Continued on page 8 Malanga Casque/ord Cen_ter for The Arts, October 13-15, 2006. Li'lBobby Hutton Literacy Campaign Expands - - By Commemorator Staff _ September block party to help enroll At the invitation ofthe pastor and additional students and voluntf er. members of South Berkeley's McGee tutors. CCBPP Operations Manager Avenue Baptist Chutch, the Li 'l Melvin Dickson introduced them to Bobby Hutton Literacy Campaign will Pastor Michael Smith of the McGee expand its literacy sessions to this new Avenue Baptist Church and to block site. To begin expansion of the cam- party coordinator Elizabeth Coleman. paign into this community, volunteer ."Our public schools today are defund organizers from - Commemoration ed and deprioritized ;- it is part of Committee for the Black Panther Party 'dummying down' the poor and minor (CCBPP) were invited to participate in ity youth," said Dickson. "Contrast a neighborhood block party held on this with statistics from socialist Cuba, Septem~er 23 in order to enroll new or Venezuela today under , their students and tutors alike. CCBPP Bolivarian Revolution, and we get a sponsored Li '1 Bobby Hutton Literacy glimpse of wh~t could be, if we take sessions will begin at this church site the power to determine policy for our Li'/ Bobby Hutton Literacy Campaign organizers enrolled new on October 24. More volunteer tutors class." students at a block party hosted by McGee Ave. Baptist Church. and organizers are needed to continue CCBPP volunteer organizers this drive to deliver CCBPP's literacy Shamika Turner and Joyce Hutton campaign throughout our community, (niece of Li'l Bobby) ran the sign-up setting an example for the nation at a table at the event, while CCBPP time when many of our children grad- Volunteers .Coordinator Charles Bi-Partis·an War on the Poor ...... Page 2 uate public schools but are still func- Dubois headed up circulating at the 40th Anniversary Comments .·... • ...... Page 3 tionally illiterate. block party to find those interested in Mumia Update ...... Page 4 A dozen tutors and students from participating in the literacy program Education for All in Venezuela ...... Page 7 the Li'l Bobby Hutton Literacy and other CCBPP activities. Most Romaine "Chip" -Petition ...... · -~ ... .Page 13 Rrogram's S~uth B,·6)rkeley,Cornnnit1iJy ·, atteqdees1<; a_m~-by .G<;~.P.P.'s J ~l)le. to _ . _·, .GhurcIJ,. tteaehrn-g site came to , the --.·;; -1 _ •• Continued on-page 10 -~-"' Page 2 The Commemorator October 2006 I EDITORUL . I . . . t h p Bi-Partisan War~on e oorJ. ·- --~' ·-
Let's Deal with the Solution . The Democratic and Republican war on the poor, and their systematic The principles and goals of the assault on working class families with Black Panther Party are still relevant children, continues throughout the today, and one of the main concerns of country. Mass closings of _public the BPP platform was the problem of schools, libraries, clinics, hospitals, quality education and relevant educa industries and firing of working people tion needed to change exploitive con by downsizing and outsourcing have . ditions confronted by our class. As a led to a spiraling decline in available community supported, all volunteer living wage jobs and a lack of afford activity, the CCBPP Literacy able, safe and sanitary housing. The Campaign is not designed to do the job U.S. has the largest per capita prison of federal, state and local government population in the world, not coinciden bodies who have taxing powers and tally comprised of mostly poor people are mandated by law to provide educa and people of color, with "Three tional services to the population. Strikes and You're Out" policies send We do, however, seek to build ing more youth and younger people campaigns that make it possible for into a life of indentured servitude Demonstration in 2004 in Philadelphia on behalf of Mumia our people to organize together and to behind prison walls for both public and Abu-Jamal who is on death-row fighting for his life. gain power over the means to deter private corporate profits. mine our rights to living wages, our As international monopoly capital These cuts are carried out in spite of down" to the poor, and presto-change- rights to housrng, food, education, ' ist profiteers preach their empty "fam the fac,t that,. nationally, illiteracy is at o, with the "magic of the capitalist. health services and other absolute ily values," entire households are an all time high. In inner cities, more market," jobs would be created anl necessities, as the place to begin in driven into homelessness due to than half of black males do not finish social programs funded and organized turning this-situation around. We must "urban renewal" schemes turned. into high school. In Oakland, 85,000 adults by the private sector. start that example here; build that urban removal. Homeless, often work are functionally illiterate within a pop The grim reality for working example across the nation; demand ing people, become a permanent fea ulation that totals 400,000. That's class people has been that .the public that the imperialist pursuits of the ture on our streets, in the doorways of almost one quarter of the population. libraries, schools, clinics, hospitals, American empire be brought to a halt apartment buildings · and businesses, But when the State of California etc., are neglecte_d, lose funding and and those billions in monies and hun and under highways anq bridges in took control of the Oakland Public then are closed down; social pro- · dreds of thousands of hours of labor this, the "land of the free." Schools three years ago as a result of grams become targets for attack value be turned to serving the people -The gap between the ri~h a;n~ Jh_e ; aq~g~tions pf l;llis~a.n.~g~1,11~p.t, . the while larg~ . cotporations are • given of thi,s country and working people • '.1 ;,..._,,,,,,1 ·"' :'"1;''1f:', I G , 0\, "\i:1;'()\ ;• !,t\, , 1 ·"'-., ·-,,~. P~All Power to the People! c:,1(\' · ment's own study that the top 1% ' of nisms• · .,. result : 'in/ the inner• cities• ! schools households owned 57.5% of the corpo acting as holding pens for a population Opinions and positions taken in articles with bylines are those of their writers. The views rate wealth - up by 5.4% froni the group that the status quo fears more expressed in the bylined editorials and opinion pieces published by The Commemorator do year before. The top group's share of each day - knowing that the job mar not necessarily indicate its endorsement or support - Editor the. corporate wealth has grown by half ~et will IJ.Ot provide for their numbers sine~ 1991, when it was 38.7%. · · aforie, . our' youth are discarded in a Copyright' 20Q6 Literacy is at an all-time _low. Draconi~ triage-ofthe low income and According to a CBS release in under-educated. The anger amid our - ~ December 2004, some 3,000 children youth is palpable - senseless violence nationwide drop out of high school and barbarism is bred by a system that every day. Of those who do graduate demands the lowest value be attributed COMMEMORATOR'. , from high school, 64% can't read . to ourlabor in order to maximize their Published by the Commemoi:ation ~ommi~tee for the Black Panther Party profits and rep~essive controls. · Proposition 13 and California · The foi:ce . of the police, judicial "SERVING ALL OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES" Public Education Volume 16, Number 2 '-,,..,$~ ~od .; penal .~ystJ\\ ~·~ad of e.duc~ oqa r,,..,. . How this has played q:ut in . tloµal .and ,_Job development-programs, · October 2006, Oakland, California Galifornia can be seen through the : gie.:.et: the :students: of today,=shattering example of Proposition 13, written in : w~a}::s,p
the exploitation of our black commu ·nity, preventative health care, fair trials in the courts, and the enforcement of · @ our c;onstitutional rights. These are all :g basic everyday civil/human rights C/) ~ issues. We even referred to the need'for reparations for slavery so that we could rebuild our communities. But what really · distinguished our Black Panther Party was an emphasis on our right to defend ourselves from any vicious, racist attack. For years before 1966, I had kept up on what political organizations - October 1996 was the last BPP reunion, held in Oakland, CA were out there. I had recently received where former members came together to commemorate the · some material from a group called the organization's principles and goals. Lowndes County Freedom Organization that used a black panther as their logo. finally, by Malcolm X's advocacy, Huey that we needed to start a new ·I asked Huey why he thought they used particularly after he left the Nation organization. this logo. He said, "Well, maybe it's in of Islatn. A year or so later, Huey and I opposition to the fighting ½ock that In 1966, Bobby Seale founded Huey and I marched in · one drafted our founding document, the some- white racist organization down the BPP along with Huey P. demonstration - ~ ten-thousand Ten-Point Platform and · Program South has." I said, "Well, a panther Newton. strong antiwar march - where · the ("What We Want, What We Believe"), wo1,1ld kick a racist cock's ass." Then police -allowed the _Hell's Angels to over several1nights in a War on Poverty Huey said, "You know, the nature-of a By Bobby Seale · plow their motorcycles into the front office in Oakland, California, where I panther is that if you push it into a cor The decade of the 1960s, with its line of the demonstrators. Throughout was employed by the Department of. ner, sooner or later it's going to come nationwide protest movement, was a the American South, peaceful demon HumanResources. It took more than a out of that comer to try to wipe out period that captured my own and strators were viciously attacked ~and week to finalize the platform, and it who's oppressing it in that comer." I Huey P. Newton's imaginations, and murdered, and_people were viciously was completed on ·October 22, 1966, said; "Well, that's just like black folks, challenged us to organize and unite · brutalized and murdered simply the day we came up with a name for Huey. Racism keeps us all pushed into the black community. I had been because they wanted to register to our new organization. The original a comer." Huey responded, "Well, influenced by Frantz Fanon's book ~ofe. - I came · to understand that name was the Black Panther Party for what about the Black Panther.Party?" I The· Wretched of the Earth, by Martin America's power ·structure· and its Self Defense. said, "Okay, the Black Panther Party. Luther King, Jr. when he spoke at the racism were fundamentally about bul Most of our ideas were similar to . But wai~ a minute, Huey. You and I Oakland Auditorium in 1962, by the lying and terrorizing those of us who those of other civil rights organizations ~aid we've got to deal with self anti-apartheid campaign here and in .had the audacity to stand up and · at the time .:_ full employment, decent defonse. What about ·our self-defense South Africa and Nelson Mandela oppose institutionalized racism. After housing, education that taught African:.. · factor?" He said, "What about the being sentenc~d to life in prison and, Malcolm X's assassination I insisted to Americans their true history, ·an end to Continued on page 15 Panthers Spe~~ on 40th Anniversa,ry ~.f .'3PP·-F. ounding <,," 1 Editors note: -For the 40th : 'The BPP 40th Anniversary means Anniversary Celebration of the found- · that we are·still around and need t~ be ing of the Black Panther Party, The. acting . on the Ten-Poirit Program Commemorator asked some · former. , b;eca~se. positiye programs are needed BPP members to give their views on m.6fe now th~ e~er. Why? Because the the significance of the BPP struggle. younge! ·generation doesn't know whaf We asked them: What does the 40th · is happening in the world today. You Anniversary mean to you and how is ask a kid today what Malcolm X, or the the Ten-Point Platform relevant today? Vietnam War, mean - or what the BPP • Bobby Coleman, Ruth Villa (Jones), was about - they would not have a William Jennings (Billy X), Saundra clue, This anniversary? Well, after 40 Williams, Sheba Haven, and Henry years, many of the people coming have "Mitch" Mitchell contributed their not seen one another for 10, 20 or 30 reflections. ye~s. So it is a good thing because there will be other people coming wµo Bobby Coleman was born in . have never heard about the real mean Oakland, and was recruited into the • ing of the BPP, and they need to hear it. Party by Li 'l Bobby Hutton in early "Maybe we can get together and 1967, before the · Sacramento tactic see how we can make some changes where a delegation ofBPP members led for our young brothers and sisters. This Bobby Coleman, joined the by Bobby Seale, presented BPP reunion should not be just about us party in 1967, in Oakland,· CA Mandate #1, in protest of increased having a reunion just to look at one police repression, · to the State another, but about figuring out how to . Legislature. Mr. Coleman is a volunteer put some of those survival programs Ruth Villa (Jones) has an exten and member of the Board of Directors back in, how to change the messed-up sive activist background, going back to of Commemorption Committee for the system that we face today. Right now, the Civil Rights Movement in the early Black Panther Party, recruiting new I am still trying to be active with 60s, when she marched in the company Ruth Villa · (Jones), . recen.tly 11- sponsorships and volunteers for The CCBPP by helping to get_the paper out, ofDr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She also 1, Commemorator newspaper and the Li 'l and help find sponsors and volunteers. has a history organizing with the BPP turned 100 years old. She 1i Bobby Hutton Literacy Campaign. But I can only do so much. We need She co-founded the Senior Citizens for helped organize BPP's SAFE "First of all, it means surviving some younger brothers and sisters to a Safe Environment (SAFE) program; program for seniors and these 40 years. At that time I was just 20. take on organiz_er training programs a Panther survival,program, back in BPP's first free breakfast · I didn't think I would live to get to 60! with CCBPP." Continued on page 15 program in Oakland, CA. / P~e4 The Commemorator -October 2006 ' ------Mum i a Update i Viva Fidel!
g and a fair trial under the Fifth, Sixth ~ . . Long Live Fidel! ~ and Fourteenth Amendments because '<: g, of the prosecutor's "appeal after 1 appeal" argument that called upon the © Copyright 2006 Trafficante,'_' all of whom owned busi- · a jurors to disregard the right to the pre- By MUlllia Abu-Jamal nesses on the island. Before the Cuban "'§ sumption of innocence and reasonable Revolution, .the island was called a ~ doubt, and err ·on the side of guilt. The recent news of the illness of "Mafia paradise,'.' for the Mafia leaders Q) . ;;!, Cuban President Fidel Castro aas . owned casinos, nightclubs, whore ~ g, unleashed a ghoulish glee in Miami, houses, and also legitimate businesses, "Our.purpose is to win this and also in the White House. The like banks, airlines, TV stations and fa;· life-and-death struggle, spectacle of people dancing in the newspapers. For example, in one 8- gain a _new and fair trial, streets of MiaJili, at news· of Fidel's month period alone (in.1961), the CIA , and see our client walk sickness was disgraceful:· committed 5,780 acts of sabotage and Few of us who have grown· up · terrorism against Cuba, including sev out ofjail a free person." under the propaganda that passes for eral attempts to assassinate the Cuban· the corporate media have ifhy real idea president. · ~ of either Castro's or Cuba's immense The U. S.-supported repression, 2) Whether the prosecutor's use social accomplishments, while under brutality and corruption forced Fide1, of peremptory .challenges to exclude the threat of U.S. invasion and and · millions of other Cubans, to African Americans from sitting on the destruction. As a student of history, become revolutionaries, instead · of Dear Friends: jury violated Mr. Abu-Jamal's right to I'm often amazed at what · we don't democ;rats. And, once a revolutionary, due process ·and equal protection of know about other people, even those ft forced him to become an interna- On .October 4, 2006, our Reply the law under . the Sixth and as close as Cuba. If Americans ~ly · · tionalist; supporting freedom struggles Brief in.response to the briefs submit- Fourteenth Amendments and contra- supported democracy, instead of dicta- ' all around the world. ted by the district attorney will be filed vened the prohibition against racism torships, the name Fidel Castro may In late 1975, when armies of the on-behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal in the in jury selection held in Batson v. · never hav~ become- known , .to .· us. racist regime of Sduth Africa invaded United States Court of Appeals-for the , Kentucky, 4'.76 U,S.,79 (1986). That's beC
·r------~------~---1 Please send me ___· Commemorator-subscriptions:- , I I I NAME (Please Print) PHONE NUMBER I I I ADDRESS . I ~ I . . ' I CITY . - - STATE · . ZIP
• .~ -"'.°.- - .-- -~~ ~_@~~ - ~~~R!·_! ~;?.-.,. - .,- - - _ J October 2006 The Commemorator Page5 - . I Archives I The War Against the Panther: A Study of Repression in America and the CIA rnJunction. Though .the Huston plan mation about tactics directed at · the most, have been produced in the past Huev's Cotner was allegedly never formally adopted, Panthers. Perhaps, this was a cover-up four years in response to the Party's I- it now appears that the CIA did place in complicity with the committees, or formal litigation discovery efforts. operatives in the street, kept extensive maybe the CIA just acted as a "law Many of these pages are replete with files on United States citizens, infil unto itself," unaccountable to extensive .iwhite-outs" or "black trated political organizations, and . Congress or the President in disclosing outs"- i.e.; deletion of so-called das pulled COINTELPRO types of oi: explaining its actions. When The sified material- and are, therefore, stunts. 148 Most infamous, of course, is New York Times asked for an explana- · uninformative. Nonetheless, those few · the CIA's admission that it provided tion of this hiatus in the government pages produced reveal that within the "technical assistance" in 1971 · to its investigations; it was told by one for- United States the CIA infiltrated the former employee, E. Howard Hunt, mer CIA official that_ the reason the Party with informants and attended when he . led the White House committees didn't ·learn about the.se meetings and public· functions in order "plumbers" in a burglary of the office anti-Panther activiti_es was·because: to identify Party· members by taking of the psychiatrist who once treated They didn ~ ask. We treated the their photographs and compiling infor Daniel Ellsberg, the man who dis- Senate inquiry as an adversary pro- mation on them. Overseas activities of . closed the Pentagon papers. 149 ceeding. Had they asked, we would the CIA focused on Panthers in Afi;ica 152 In 1975, the Rockefetler have dug out the answers. · and included one operative who Commission investigated abuses by Undoubtedly, the CIA possessed became the ·owner of a small hotel By Dr. Huey P. Newton the CIA and concluded that the agency · much incriminating information to where Party supporters and associates exceeded its authority: The Senate "dig out." When the BPP filed its fed- lodged, The hotel's annual deficit was The following article by Dr. · Huey~.· Select Committee reported in 1976 eral civil rights lawsuit against, ftiter even made up.by the CIA. 156 P. Newton is a continuation from The .that the CIA had a program of domes alia, the CIA in 1976, agency officials .The likelihood that the truth about Gommemorator s July" 2006 issue. This tic spying, which primarily consisted submitted· affidavits to the court sug- CIA efforts to "nel}tralize" the Party is the last chapter from Newtons 1977 of "mail-covers"- i.e., opening and gesting the extent ofits recorded activ- will never be fully known is great. dissertation for The History of copying the inail of targeted political ities with respect to the Party: Aside from the admitted destruction Consciousness program at the persons- and intelligence gathering Apart from cases ,where it is not by the CIA of files concerning the :SPP University of California Santa Cruz. on dissidents. Neither official investi ..possible to perform a record search... and failure to respond to eivil discov As the dissertation was a history ofthe - gations discussed in any way what The Progress has been made in identifying ery efforts, one man who had first attacks against the Black Panther New York Times disclosed in 1978:. ... several thousand docyments re/at- hand knowledge of the operation Party, Newton writes of himself in the the CIA "recruited American Blacks in ing ... to the Black Panther Party.153 noted, "If they, i.e., CIA had gotten _ ihird person. The thesis, 1~The J War..,; •., theJate l9_6.0:'s1and.~arlyd 970's to spy Ano.thei: CIA .offic.ial tes.tified that.1;r, ex,pose.d, then it would baye be~p. the Against the ·Panther :... A . ~Study of r-:,oa ·,.members :of"Jhe,, Black Pantlier " .. . certain politjons .[of the,party's -. · .GIA ,v.ersu's the Black Panthers and all Repression in America, " was pub- · Party, both in the United States and in discovery request] can be addressed at Black Americans--,they've had a lot lished as a book by the Huey P. Newton .Africa."150 Spying was not, however, the present time. This is being don.e. of Americans against them. The Foundation (Writers and Reader~, solely' for the purpose of gathering · However, a significant proportion of agency would have been exposed, 1999) - available at your local book- information about the Party. documents recovered to date bear open to attack."157 store or directly from Huey P. Newton One longtime CIA operative with classification markings iridioating.that Foundation This excerpt is the last direct knowledge of the spying said, their contents include · information-· 1-47 50 U. S. C. Sec. 403 . chapter in the last section, and it deals however, that there was an additional which must be protected ·in the inter- 148 Ungar, FBI, p. 479. 'with the C!As operation in violation of goal in the case of the Black Panthers ests of national security."154 149 Ibid. its own bylaws and policies. . · living abroad: to "neutralize" them; Perhaps be~ause the CIA equates _1 ~0-Hersh, Seymour: "CIA Report~dly · , , , ~r·,; "to try. and~geU hem in' trouble with nation_al security·wil:4 pl'otectto11 ~fits-: ., Recruited Blacks for Surveillan.ce of Panther When the CIA was forme~ in lor:al ~ authorities" wherever they own image, the documents.sought will ,·· Party,:' New York Times, March 17, 1968~ p.AL 1947, the statute creating it, the could" i w never be revealed. "A [Rockefeller] 151 Ibid.,· p. Al 6, coL 3-4, Cooperation National Security Act, provided that The kinds of activities engaged in . Commission investigator acknowl- between local police departments, the FBI and,_ "the agency shall have no police, sub- by the FBI to "neutralize" the Party, as edged [that] the report [i.e., presumably, the CIA, to.disrupt the BPP was poena, law enforcement powers, or _ · has been-shown, span the gamut of ille Rockefeller Commission report] did extensive, as evidenced, Inter a/ia, by the offi inteTl).al security functions.'·' 141 .The . gal "dirty tricks,i' not stopping even at not [also] mention that between 150 . cial .conspiracy to murder Fred Hampton. The Huston plan, as already noted,. [In . murder. Direct evidence of CIA dirty and 200 CIA domestic files on Black Senate Select Committee fo~d that the FBI 1970, an attempt was made by tricks used against ·the Panthers is, dissidents had been destroyed before encouraged 1.ocal police to make "raids on the President Nixon · to institutionalize however,_ sparse. Neitrutillm I the1«, the Coriuniasion'&oo.quiry. 155 Of those ' home of BPP members, often.,wita little, or no burglary as an instrument of presiden- Presidential Commission- nor the documents the CIA has admitted exist, apparent evidence of violations of State or tial policy] proposed ignoring this · Senate Committee revealed any infor-= only a couple of hundred pages, at continued on page 16
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.. Page 6 The Commemorator October 2006 In Memoriam Leslie Turrell Slater: February 14, 1973 - July 20, 20(!6
Jefferson Elementary School. He con tinued o~ to middle sc_hool at McChesney Junior High School, and graduated from Oakland · High School, where he received certifica- tions in the field of education. . Leslif · was the eldest of three children. He was a very energetic and happy child. Being the firstborn, he was ruled and bossed around by his two younger sisters. Of course he. loved them to death. All through his primary and sec.,. ondary schooling he participated in Leslie (background) . with his family. Rashidah (sister), baseball and basketball, winning var- Cynthia (mother),. James_(father), Neico (sister). A P th P b an er u . 1ous· trop h'1es m· eac h sport. Just · like humble and loving. He ~ever bar- Survivors include h1s loving par Editor:) Note: Lesiie was the son ariy youth growing up in the 80s he . bored any animosity towards any- ents James ·and CyntlJ.ia Slater; his of CCBPP Board members,_ Cynthia · wrote and performed his own r~ps. one. · He was a friend to the end and beautiful sisters, Neico Slater-Sa-Ra and James Slater. James was a mem- He was part of c1 group called would always give his last dollar to and Rashidah Slater, Dofie Mae ber of the BPP Leslie was born into a "Restricted Territory." He had always anyone who needed it, even if it McCoy (maternal grandmother), BPP family and attended elementary loved music and dancing. He made a meant doing without. Arties McCoy (maternal grandfa- sch.ool at the BPP s Oakland profession out of his love for music · Leslie had a passion for working ther); Gracie Mae bavis (paternal Comm1,Jnity Learning Center. On by becoming a DJ, altho~gh Leslie with youth and raising awareness. He great aunt), Teresa Campbell (mater August 25, 1990, at the founding event was shy.and soft spoken at times. One had a desire to start a group home for · nal great.. · aunt), Earlene Waters of CCBPP, Leslie and his siste_r Neico of his favorite statements was "I the youth and make a difference in (maternal ....great aunt), . Ozell carried the commemoration banner to demand respect" their lives. · · Domingo (great aunt), Kokahyi Sa- honor the memory ofHuey P Newton. Leslie had a magnetic, outgoing . On July 20, 2006 l_Ilany lives were Ra (brother-in-law); Afiya Sa~Ra and February 14·, 1973, God created a ..and kindhearted personality. He was changed by the tragic death of Leslie Oluremi Sa-Ra · (nieces), Kwabena handsome masterpiece by the name very charismatic and many people Turr(?ll Slater. He w.es .. preceded in Sa-R~ and Abayomi S~-Ra of Leslie Turrell Slater. He wa~ born benefited from his generosity. Leslie death by Benjamin Slater, Sr. (pater- (nephews), Benjamin Slater, 'Jr, and raised in Oakland, CA by his was the .nucleus of his family, always nal grandfather), Claudia Bell Slater (Lois), Charles E. Wright, Sr. ·' proud and beloved parents, James M.- . maintaining strong ties with his fami (paternal . grandmother), Rasheed (Vanessa)/ Ronald McCoy (Addie), Slater and Cynthia A. S}ater. In his · ly members. Slater (paternal uncle), Mil4fed Ware . Billy Rae McCoy, Jeremy McCoy formative years he attended the - , , Lt::s:lie w.as, very, respectfyl!>f his (paternal aunt), F,i:i~. ~U<\(ft\·~(p~*~P\l}k ~ (J~µ,i,c~ ,,,a{'!~ ;,1v,:l;ark Green (uneles); Oakland Community School through elders and was, ".ery ~ccomm9dating uncle), and FJq~i~'f)Cl,l,1ilil.pl;,ell (m,at~r"" Lo@~+McCoy: .(aunt), and a whole ~ i,. · • _,1 . ~ , - "" .., lJ · _, ~"- lJ.. A '- > J, · the 5th grade, finishing 6th grade at to all people. He was very nurturing, nal great grandinoth'er). host of other relatives and friends:
Michael Zinzun: February 14, 1949 ·- ·July 9, 2006
( completing school, He set out to con- . He founded the Los Angeles based Ornelas-Crutchfield~ of West Covina quer the world. Mic,hael had dreams · Coalition Against Police Abuse, the . and Antonio Ornelas of Atlanta and and he knew at an eclfly, age that he Police MiscoJ:?.duct ,Lawyer Re,fer;ral Ri~ 2il).ZUD. who preceded Michael in
was destined.for greatness, born tO' Service and the Southern Africa death. r Michael also had nineteen lead and organize .. · Support Committee. He traveled .' grandchildren, a host . of nieces and Several years later Michael -extensively around . th~ globe, to nephews that he loved dearly. enrolled in LA Tech. Upon gradua- diverse countries such as Namibia, tion, he became a certified Auto Africa, Cuba, Brazil, China, and m~y . FATHER Mechanic. Shortly thereafter, of the European countries to oversee My father knows the proper way Michael opened his own automotive elections as part of a United Nations The nation should be run; shop located in Altaderia, California sanctioned . and sponsored observer He tells us children every day where he enjoyed,,,r%)~jring every t~. This official team included for- Just what should' n'ow be done? kind of car you could image. mer President Jimmy Carter. All public questions that arise, "However, ·this was not enough for He attended a five country · He settles on the spot; Mike, being there at tl!e shop learn- European speaking tour, his topic · He waits not till the ing how to repair cars. This went on being "Drugs and Police Abuse", in turmoil dies, for several years. · such diverse countries as Spain, But grabs it while it's hot. Michael Zinzun was born Michael began to hunger for Germany Italy, England and the It almost makes him sick to read February 14, 1949 in Chicago; more, so he closed the shop and set ·. Netherlands. It was billed as -a "Tour The things lawmakers say; Illinois. He was the second child born out to research and-study other areas For Change." My father is just the man they need, to Michael and Jean Zinzun. of cqncern. He became an active Michael Zinzu.n hosted a live He never goes astray. Michael migrated to Oakland, member of the world renowned television talk show "Message from In.conversation father can California in 1959 where he resided Black Panther Party for Self Defense, the Grass Roots" for three years. Do many wondrous !hings; . with his cousin Carmen Collins until he wa~an organizer of the free break- Zinzun is ;survived by his wife · He's built upon a wiser plan his mom and eight brothers and sis . fast, free clothing and food bank pro-. Florence, . two children and four · Than presidents or kings. · ters arrived. grnms, which were eventually . stepchildren: Robert, Randy, Michael He knows the ins and outs of each . . Michael attended Light House implemented nationwide. In 1972, he . Jr., Kindra, Tony and Michele; his And every deep transaction; Full Gospel Church. pastored by founded the ,Pasadena Information mother, Jean Ornelas of Fontana, We look to him for theories, Matthew A. Jones, where he received . Center, which provided the .above father-in-law and mother-in-law James And look to him for action his spiritual foundation. Michael reference services as political and and Betty Berdley of Los Angeles; always respected and highly esteemed legal services. His . free "Off the seven siblings,-Linda Smith of Duarte, ·DADDY Elder Jones and his teachings. Roach" pest~xter:minatiqn.,program· Mateo Ornelas of Chicago, Raquel lWILLALWAYS LOVE YOU! Michael attended Lincoln was very successfuf. ·· Zinzun esti- Ornelas-Barlow of Atlanta, Juanita Elementary, McKinley k High and mates that over 20,opo homes ·h~d Ornelas-Edwards of Fontana, Juan Your daughter, fmished at Blair High School. Upon been exterminated. · Ornelas of Oklahoma City, Cannen Michele
.. . , .... ·- ...... - ---:-...--e .... - ... - ...... , ...... ~ • , - .. 7 . _._ • ..,-.... ,..... --':~... -.,.; .... --- .... .-; ;,; - .-- -· - .. "', - ~ ...... ~ October 2006 The Commemorator Page7
MisiOn. Ribas MaKes' EduCation
Available forAil. Veneztielans- . ,, ·By Trevor Gardner ' Sitting front row in the packed / , -Casa de los Abuelos (Home for As a teachei: at East Oakland. Grandparents) ·in the small mountain Community High School, a small pub- ous town of Sanare, a. 17-year old lie high school founded three years lightning bolt, in the form of a young . ago, I knpw well the effects of educa- man named Edgar Suarez, struck m~ tional exclusion and marginalization. with the purpose of why I was the~e in In the community where I teach, failure · Vene~ela; the motivation for taking · and dropping out'is more common than on an educational f~llowship that graduating from 'high ·school. Students would carry me throughout the country going to public schools in East Oaklan,d investigating the effectiveness of the learn early that a different path h~s educational and social transformations · been carved out for them and it defi- the ~01J11try had been undergoing;; and nitely does not lead·to college degrees the reason why I chose to become an . and positions of power in this country. educator eight years ago. By the time many youth make it to high · Edgar Suarez is almost 1 blind. He school, they have already been failed · comes froin a family of campesinos so terribly by schools and society that ljving and · working the land around · they have lost faith informal education. Sanare. Edgar has spent the last two Society's message to them is clear: we years of his life, four days per week, don't care about you; you are never walking over two hours to attend class going to succeed; your desired place in , es at the Misi6n Ribas, one of three this country is prison or.poverty. ' - .. adult literacy projects set in motion · Last summer, l spent five weeks in - three years ago in an attempt to elinii Sanare, Venezuela, learning from, nate illiteracy and give ali c~tizens interviewing, building community and equal access to education. Today, living with the people impacted most Edgar Suarez, along with 20 class A rally in support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in _deeply by the new Bolivarian mates from various pueblos surround down_towr, Caracas, April 2006 Education System. I attended classes · ing Sanare (most of whom are the first face is Ayleen Jimenez. A woman in and privileged. Edgar Suarez was not in which a 75-year old grandfather in their families to achieve any level of her mid-thirties with three children, welcome in these institutions and the who had learned to read only three · education beyond primary school, let Ayleen has dedicated her life to the millions of those like him were certain years previously discussed the political alone completing high school), gradu- · adult education and literac;y programs ly not valued for their role as learners or necessity of literacy with a 15-year old , ated from Misi6n Ribas. As he gave the · in the small town of Sanare, where-she potential leaders in Venezuelan society. mother who had dropped out-of high: final speecli' at the graauation ceremo- , grew up. She -is the coordinator for But . Chavez, . and the . emerging school to take care of her newborn ny, his-words were not complex. Edgar Misi6n Ribas, the nationwide educa- Bolivarian ·Education System, are daughter. I spent many 3 a.m. nights spoke spontaneously and from the tion program that provides adults with ' rapidly and forcefully ' pushing to with the young teachers who volunteer soul: "I never thought I would ever ~. three years of high school-equivalency change that history of .exclusion and foqr to five days per week at Misi6n · .accomplish anything like this. I am just schooling. neglect. ·· - Ribas, discussing !he roles that inclu- thankful for -the opportunity I ., have Misi6n Ribas is part of a larger . Until the rise of this Boliyarian . sion, liberation and co~imity play beeq given to accomplish my dream. I system that aliows adults with little or Revolution~ led by Hugo ~havez, the in the education of a people. In know that the future will be difficult no formal education to follow a six- message to Edgar Suarez and the mil- Venezuela:, I was surrounded by ari but we will always move forward." year path culminating in a high school . lions of young people like him living in energy defined by the possibilities of Edgar Suarez is one of the faces of diploma and the opportunity to con tin- Venezuela (one of the most resource education and the role of a learned -the new ~pp'roach to~ education in ue on to the university system. - rich nations on the , planet) was the citizenry in transforming a ·country for · Venezuela; what they are .calling the , Ask any of . the thousands of same: education is not an open door to the benefit of alf people. · Bolivarian Education Systerri ..Another Vencedores, a term used for the students opportunity .hut· a macb.iµe that serves of Misi6n Rib~, ·which literally tran·s- the status quo of inequity and wealth lates to "conquerors" or "victors," and ·. disparity. But this reality is realizing a she will explain that the Bolivarian period of revolutionary change with the ·Ed:ucation System and the education strengthening oftbe education Misiones Misiones in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela· - Robinson, Ribt:IS and Sucre . •Black.Oak Books are about inclusion; whereas, in the The Bolivarian Education system · 11 ·' r rml'> • past, likemost-'eapitalist natioqs, edJ,Ica- is yqung. Naturally, it has weaknesses · 540 Broadway tioii had always been a highly exclusive and flaws that must be improved if it is 1491 Shattuck Ave .. (@ Columbus, across 630 Irving St. institution in Venezuela, preserving the to c~ntinue leading Venezuela to revo Berkeley; CA 94709 .. from City Lights) (Between 7th & 8th Ave,;) ' statu.s quo and reserving most spaces in lutionary new places of humanity, 510-486-0698 San Francisco, CA · San Francisco,· CA the prestigious public ,and private ·uni- community; equality and justice: But 510-466-0699 415-986-3872 415-:564-0877 versities for the children of the wealthy Continued_on page 21 fflt~· Black Panther Pn\on & flepre\\ion .Today Commemorating the 40th Anniv, of the Black Panther Party' with Kathleeri Cleaver* Grancljury-Resistel"S;' Home- * and other- Speakers • FARMERS' Auto,., l..ife • ·Business ·· Sunday* October 15th* 6pm : ~tSide Arb Alliiru·* -O•ltbnd 3410 Lakeshore Ave.:·, 'ili04 • Oakl_'and, CA 94610 0'.2581 International Blvd.@ 26th Ave. .·J ~tions ~uested (nobody turned '2-NaY) "' Bus: 510/832-1005 • Fax:· 510/874--4504 More info:S.J'0.533.6629 . .. license #0547160 / ~~red by; Malcolm X Grassroots McNement * - ~ih~ ~~~~~tflj~~ Time e.-..'.". Page 8 · The Commemorator October 2006
.. In 1969 young girls in Oakland, CA participate in BPP rally. Nutritious food is necessary for learning. In 1969, BPP started their Free i=ood Program in Oakland, c4: . do nothing we are accepting the situa BPP 40th tion and allowing ourselves to die. We U.S. tax dollars are poured into the war sonal liberation. In the South, low Annivers_ary will not accept th~t." · in Iraq and the whole Middle East, our income African-Americans without a Ne\Yton and the Panthers put for.,. domestic work force i's every day fac- , vocation had an especially difficult Continued from page 1 ward the theory of "reactionary inter- ing increased poverty conditions. time finding a "good job" to "get errors of the BPP, to build on that leg·a communalism" to define the stage of · In fact, there is more unemploy- ahead." Student and community pro- cy a revolutionary movement that can . international monopoly capitalism ment and pqlice brutality in our Black tests and legal\ challenges fought to achieve the victory for which so many where there are no national borders and poor communiti~s now than ever fnd segregated schools. have already given their lives and for that the international bourgeoisie can- , before. There is 90% unemployment in In 1966, the Black Panther Party· the lack of which so many more con not cross, and no people of any gi~en some low-income Black communities for Self-Defense emerged from a tinue to suffer, at home and abroad. nation to whom they owe allegiance or .according to the government's own -_working class black community in • The _practice and objectives of the loyalty: ''Revolutionary intercommu- figure~. Workfare programs give our - Oakland, led by two young college stu- . Ten-Point Program,' first introduced in nalism" calls for international solidari- people a welfare check for jobs that dents, Huey P. Newton and Bobby 1966, are needed now, more than ever. ty among workers worldwide, joining used to pay other people a iiving wage. Seale. They drafted a Ten-Point In a speech at Boston College in 1970, with revolutionaries of all nations. There are more mad~ and poor Program, clearly outlining the goals of Dr. Huey P. Newton explained the We must always remember that the peopl~ incarcerated in the U.S. than . the fledgling organizat~on. The pro- ·. Panthers' ideological position and why savage· foreign ~nd-domestic policies ever before in history - more than gram· addressed many manifestations. BPP saw it necessary tq institute a Ten of internationai monopoly capital are were incarcerated in S,outh Africa at of poverty, racial discrirn.ination and Point Program. He stated: not a sign of their strength; rather they the height of apartheid, The U.S. has the police brutality that existed in the I . . A Ten-Point Program is hot rev show how weak and nonviable the the highest incarceration rate any- low-income African-American com- olutionary in itself, nor is it capitalist system is in that they must where in the world. One third of Black munity. The Party stood out as a ray of reformist. It is a survival program. resort to outright fascist means of con- men between the ages 20 and 29 . are hope and inspiration. We, · the people, : are threatened trol and financial exploitation to stay either in -prison or under the jurisdi-c- Huey, Bobby and "Li'l Bobby" . with genocide because racism and in power;· they must utilize massive tion of the criminal justice system. Hutton drove around Oakland in a car fascism are rampant in this country military and police networks and There are more Black and poor people with a police radio, armed with a law and throughout the world. And the yxhaust billions of our tax dollars to dying from treatable diseases due to booR, a tape recorder, a loudspeaker ruling circle_ in North America is support their empire. . la.ck of affordable health care than and guns in qpen view. -:- a then- respom;ible .. ~. In order to change At home, they continue genocidal ever. 40,000 children die of diseases lawful practice - for self-defense of that, there must be a total transfor policies against Blacks, Hispanics, everyday on this planet due to starva- members of our community. mation. But until we can achieve Native Americans and other minori- tion, lack of access to clean water and They would tell brothers and sis that total transformation, we must ties; to them the poor and . working . lack of ·medical care and tbe majority ters their rights when they were being exist. In order to exist, we must sur people - regardless of nation of origin. of those are children of color. And all abused by the racist white police offi vive; therefore, we need a survival - are only valued as cheap sources of this despite the facfthat lhere are now cers, many recruited from the South. kit: the Ten-Point Program, labor or political tools. Today, that has over 8,000 Black elected officials There was a Black consciousness Following a period of curtailment taken the most extreme form within the across the country. · · movement growing throughout the of U.S. gove~ent militarism in the U.S. prison industrial complex. · The Commemoration · Committee country and'on campuses where Black immediate aftermath of the Vietnam · The U.S. government uses the for the Black Panther Party (CCBPP) students attended. It was one year after War, necessitated by the U.S. people's IMF, World Bank, U.S. · forei'gn eco- has, as its primary focus, advan~ing the Watts uprising of 1965. Black com~ majority rejection of that foreign poli nomic a,id, military·and police occupa- the goals and principles of the Black ' munities throughout the nation protest- . cy, in combination with the victorious tion and repression to introduce and Panther Party as stated in its ideology . ed · and revolted - against racial .. struggle qf the people of Vietnam maintain U.S . and othdr international and in the Ten-Point Program. (reprint- discrimination, economic exploitation · against the U.S.' counterrevolutionary · monopoly corporate controLover for- ed in full on page 22) We know that and police brutality. war efforts, the United States govern eign economies. Millions of working only in unity is there strength. Shortly · after the Black Panther ment has, for the past 23 years (since people worldwide · are in a state of It was with these points in mind Party began, right-wing political forces the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983) enslavement. · that CCBPP was formed in 1990, one .in Oakland began to call for Oakland spread intensifying imperialist wars of - The Non-Aligned · Movement, year after the death, of Dr. Huey P. City College, located in the heart of the aggression. International monopoly composed of leaders of 118 such Newton, c~-founder of the Black Black community, to be moved to the capitalism is ravaging and pillaging developing countries, have advanced a Panther ,Party. Oakland hills. This eventually occurred, the Persian Gulf and other targets of vision and demand for a sane future for · . . • and people soon began to call it Merritt opportunity around the globe. mankind - and that requires an end to · · BPP HiSt0ry College, the official name. What ini-- Sirnuitaneously, over the past 30 the insanity of this system by the peo- Many founding members of the ti;illy attracted many to the Black years, international monopoly capital ple of this country taking a stand. Black Panther Party came from the Panther Party · was its militant, not.,. isn;1 has- been forced to strip the "bribe" The United States (and the U.N. southern part of the United States, at a hrrning-the-other-cheek stance. Most of higher wages, benefits and job secu doing the U.S.'s bidding) has a long tirnewhenAfrican-Americanpeoplein ofthisgenerationliyingin'Blackurban rity from the upper echelons of the U.~. history of invasiotls and wars -:-- the many southern states were not allowed communities began to endorse the working class, and push higher paid Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, to vote. In most places it was illegal for ideas of Malcolm X. In 1965, a year workers into lower-paid jobs and depro Cuba, Grenada, Panama, Yugoslavia, · African-American people to use the before' the Black Panther Party formed, _ fessionalize the professional ~lass. etc, - on top of its current siege upon same public facilities as whites. This Malcolrn X was assassinated in Therefore, today, the· "survi~al the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan was called Jim Crowism. Harlem, shortly after he had conducted ,1 program" of the BPP 10-Point and its threatening stance toward Iran, · Through the '50's and early ~60's, · a speaking tour in Oakland and the San Program may be needed by a recent North Korea and ·venezuela; among many African-Americans joined the Francisco Bay Area at large. university graduate, by a downsized others. The U.S. government continues · military with the hope of escaping the · · Malcolm X made a lot of sense to worker, by an unemploy~d attorney or to use any means necessary to expand conditions of Jim Crowism and many · oppressed African-Americans; a small proprietor who has lost his its control over raw materials and oppression and with the promise of they-were tired of watching tele~ision business, as much as by those who cheap labor;. it seeks to stop liberation obtaining a marketable skill.. In the reports of the strategically non-violent · have only ever known poverty their movements that are "in the way" of its South, many thought that if.they got.a protests in the South that left African- whole lives. As Newton put it, "If we imperialist plans. While_ billions of marketable skill that would lead to per- Continued on page 11 -. October 2006 The Commemorator Page 9
Brother Pete and Sister Charlotte O 'Neal have resided in Imbaseni, Kids Corner Tanzania since the late 60s. Brother f' ete· was a founder of Kansas City branch ofthe Black Panther.Party. He and sister Charlotte have maintained their commitment to the goals and principles ofBPP through their practice · The Truth of Black Roots over the .many years of struggle in their small yillage, where they con.tinue to reside. _ _ For the BPP 40th .Anniversary, Sister Charlotte will participate in a Haneefah- is·a thirteen year old, workshop on building solidarity with Africans and African Americans, gifted student enrolled with the learning healing, fstablishing relationships and networks. Li'! Bobby Hutton _Literacy Brother Pete Campaign. She is disciplined in And her work and has a charismatic Sister Charlotte personality. A poet, a black Once again thank YOU for all of your Invaluable help in making the historian, rapper, dancer, pianist, UAACC and painte,. Haneefah has Heal the Community Tour 2005 the powerfully inspirational community event it something to say. was! Whereever the film -(A Panther in Africa) was shown ... whereever Charlotte Spoke about our work-and mission ... we were always very well received and encouraged to keep up the positive example ... to keep planting byHan:eefah .- the seeds ... to keep on doin' the work! What a joy it is to let people know. that we are continuing the community ~ork and programs There's been so much bombing of the Black Panther Party ... albeit thousands of I can't take it ·miles away from the streets of Kansas City! Some people really don't care, I just want to erase It We continue to communicate, plan-and form alliances with good People wanting to -volunteer Guess how I know some pe_ople don't care and contribute botlr to our work and in their Because when they read the news they really don't hear own communities! It's so wonderful to witness the ,Because if they did care the same stuff wouldn't be happening Pete and Charlotte colliding ofspirits; .. 1 Some people.say, "Oh that's sad," but they don t_ know the meanin at home in Imbaseni Village, site of and touching ... within. United African-American Ailiarice and networking, .. Community-Center (UAACC) and building ... and- April 23, 2005 Stupid, dumb, an_p hyphee, healing our communities ... oh I think they like me · Ph_oto by Sherry Whetstone McCall together! It's not only a dance but a bad curse inside thee
I couldn't believe it All t~e black roots were curried Black Wall Street smile and the 4 little girls died. GRASSROOTS ARTISTS the stories are all alike and soine people say they're old There're newer and newer until you realize the story they told MOVEMi.NT (q.~,M~), JN·~ More and more ·stories from black root 25 , 26, and a big ole scoop GA:ME, Inc, is _a grassroots artist campaign f~tinded in 2001 by artists Badu, Mos Def, Talib kweli antl'bead Ptez.. . I say everyday "Lord why do good peopJe even die? But now I know why- GA.~E is an .A~.t~~~ti9r1.al r1011:.:PFofit tQat ai~§. to pr<>y_i~~ h~.~!tli Cf1£f, q7v~l7 opment cllld uni9nizatiori tQ hip-hop and all'artists with the goal'of redirecting f •. ••• .• •·••· <·· ...... ••. y· •••._.. ••. ••·••••• •· ••••• All this stress in this world and all this drama; hip~hop resources packjnto.the Black and Latino communities., · • · it's really better to just say bye to your mama )\ Artists on lab~ls currently make an average $25,000 per year "and receive few h7~1_tli be11e~ts. GA.ME, Inc. and the lrliematJ.onal Artists U.nion {IAU) will be . "Would you want your family to live in a world c~paigningfor a law' to ~llow a,rtiststo ,unionize"and bargain.~ a group. with with all these terrible events, and_tricks; especially now labels mad mu~If gr<>~PS; ,. ' . ., cause some events we can never ever fix." . GA:i\1E.• supperts positive a~d'i~.9ur11tial Hip-flop artist~ and pufs 'ouf,a CJ:). We should all try to work in a 1commuriity; compil~ti9n titledG~t in the Q.;A-Mf fo~turtng artists suchas f~~d Prez and because if we work it all through even all of us will be free_ .Im¥1P:~a1Jec~tqu~: Gf\.MK~oke a(ihe Nati~~al_ l!ip:ijop golitic3f ,~Qn'ventiqpi'04·onj1ea_l~ ~tsprties. · ,. ·-- ,, kW; ---. ;i:\ :,:r 1 We will, 'but we would never have to pray for a better day; but when GA.ME, lnc also was featur~in Rlissell Simmons ;One Jf'9rld, XXL the . God makes a choice, let Freedom and our dreams never be erased. Po_Source and ~llai~..Vqic¢.. _... :• . G]A.~-- .. fbpi:esenta.,pyes. - l;J.ave ;been i~tirviewed.on..--
_Our People: Th·e Jacksons (Dedicated to Jonathan and George Jackson)
When our people are locked up for somethat tha's good not wrong We should fight for what's right and also be strong. Fight for what's right is what our people shoul~ do From the Soul of Jonathan Jackson We should never be fooled Fooled by the police Fooled by anyone else Don't try to be t}:lem Try to be yourself And appreciate, be proud of who you are No matter what situation might be, _ No matter how far the journey might be Our kind is not only a gift but a revolution And if we follow ,that lead the truth will always be within. ·
Hane,efah l -
\ Page 10 The Commemorator October 2006·
At the McGee Avenue Bldck Party, CCBPP literature table While the. adults were coming together and greeting one coordinator Shanrika Turner (left), and CCBPP Volunteers another, meeting new neighbors, the children were having fun Coordinator Charles DuBois (center) explain Literacy Program with the various games. to Kevin Broucaret (right). · ·
issue is not having a place to .go or Literacy _· something to do. If we as a church can not take a stand, and take control of Campaign our destiny; if you don't own your des Ex·pands · tiny - that's a problem." While the children were largely Continued from page 1 unfamiliar with BPP's legacy, many of introduce themselves and find out the adults that visited the CCBPP table more about the program to tell a friend, were familiar with key aspects of~PP's relative or neighbor or to personally history in this area, where. it all began. . become a volunteer. Some had parents who had been Li'l Bobby Hutton Literacy Panthers; others recalled how they had Campaign tutors, Aqueila Le_wis, participated as children in the Party's Constance James, Pam Thom~s and survival programs of the 1970's. One CCBPP volunteer organizers Charl~s DuBois (left), Shanrika Kush Amen led the contingent of stu woman recalled the times when black Turner (center, behind table) and Joyce Hutton (right) tell dents from South Berkeley Community people came to Oakland from the South neighbors and .church members about the Literacy Campaign. Church. during World War II, looking for jobs. _£§ "The public education system has She obsei;ved, "Many of the programs ·ccBPP's always been a tool used by the ruling in this community were started by the , Kings class to control and manipulate the work BPP, like the Free Breakfast Program. A Li' I Bobby Hutton ing class;' said Charles DuBois, CCBPP lot of people don't know where those Volunteers Coordinator. "In our inner programs came from. They don't wanf Literacy P·rogram Market cities, our youth - oi our so-called us to know the Panthers started that." . 'minority youth' who actually· make up By taking part in CCBPP's literacy NEEDS You-, the majority of youth in the inner city ___..: campaign, you can help create a pres -· GROCERY• are under attack at many levels. Public ence in the communi,ty in a framework Become a tutor, educatio_n is one of the·ai;eas that is hit that sets a positive example - you ATM/LOTTO hardest and the resultant poor education can't get anymore basic than learning learn to read, keeps our youth down. Thi·s is not just READING AND WRITING in today's . Refer a friend. 5442 Martin Luther King Jr. Way from th~ George W. Bushes and his class world. Our survival programs inust be • Oakland, CA 94609 at the top, but also from local and state the glue that sticks, i.e., bonding with Volunteer to help. politicians. That's one reason we need to · the ·people who are most affected by 510-547-2452 expand our Literacy Camp~ign." governm~nt's negligence, especially · Call today ours: Mon - Sat: 7 am - 11 pmi At the block party, staff from the low-income, and working class, African Oakland Zoo, th~ -Berkeley Library, American comm1J,Ilities. To join with· 510-652-7170 Sun: 7 am - 10 pm _Fred Finch Youth Center, Turning CCBPP, call us at 510-652-7170.~ Point and Longfellow Middle School's Health Related Programs and Services all set up tables and provided activi ties. The music was DJ'ed by Herman Coleman and his daughter, Rishona. · The Reverend Michael Smith told The Commemorator that he is "thank ful for working and promoting healing in our communities." He said, "One of the ways towards healing is bringing people together. This block party, the backpack donations with school sup plies for the kids, the support from Turning Point, Fred Finch, The Corrzmemoraior, and Berkeley Public Library is only a step. It. can't stop here. We are losing too many of our -youth. We want them to achieve and excel, and we want them to know they can achieve and excel. Our faith has to motivate us to reach beyond where we ·are now and change what is going on." Elizabeth Coleman, Coordinator of the Youth Program for the church, wlio chaired the event, told The Commemorator, "There is a common strand in our community, and that is that tlfe home life is changi~g. The
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the community and on the ~ampuses; it Thousands of members of that genera time, called for organized self-defense ·BPP 40th went deeper than the moderate, petty tion were swept into this great move against police brutality, oppression and Anniversary bourgeois, aspiring-capitalist stratum of ment nationwide. Revolt, protest and poverty. The free breakfast program blacks,. too many of whom were more revolution were in the air in this coun for school children developed from the Continued from page 8 interested in maintaining the status quo try. That political awareness also engen "Free Huey" movement headed up by of capitalism than elimin~ting the root dered political support for organizing Bobby Seale and David Hilliard from cause of poverty in the Black ghettos. against colonialism, capitalism and 1967 through 1969, while Huey was The "Pork Chop Nationalist" is imperialism in third world nations ·of incarcerated. In the African-American someone who defines politics in a soci Asia, Africa and Latin America. community, what Huey and the Party ological (racial) framework rather than had been saying about politics and the . in an economic (class) framework. A The attitude in the urban ghetto need to organize for power, "All power "Pork Chop Nationalist" looks ONLY communities changed to the people," made a lot of sense. for the liberation of black people No one was going to allow the through capitalism and by going "back police to walk over them any more, The reality of the repression to Africa" culturally. The Black Panther kick their door down and · brutalize The Black Panther Party started a · Party disagreed with the "Pork Chop them. Most everyone in the African campaign against sickle cell anemia, a Nationalist" line because Black people American community was concerned blood disease characterized by produc have an investment in the United States about whether Huey would survive the tion of sickle-shaped red blood cells and capitalism is an enemy of the police. There were literally bets on the that create a severe and sometimes fatal working class throughout the world. streets of Oakland that Huey would not lack of oxygen flow. This deadly dis For the 40th Anniversary, Today we face the.federal Welfare live to see the streets again. "Charged ease primarily affects Black people and Commemorator: publisher and Reform Act, prison industries, elimina with killing a wh.ite policeman. Man, the U.S. government was ignoring it, CCBPP Chair Melvin Dickson tion of overtime pay and setting up he's already dead." not providing the necessary testing and took responsibility to host a enterprise zones and so-called Meanwhile, the nation's urban research to fight it. Empowerment Zones that pit cities Black ghettos were in a stage of politi The Party, through its clinics ai:id workshop on newspaper against each other vying to sell their cal revolt. The Black Panther Party health programs did more tests for sick publishing. poor for the cheapest wages, largest mushroomed during the "Free Huey''. le cell anemia than all city, county, state American people with bashed heads, tax breaks to corporations, and the movement. The Party began to speak and federal agencies combined during dogs sicced on them by racist white lowest safety and health standarqs in out against rioting and spontaneous, that period. Dr. Tolbert Small, a police officers, and that resulted in history for our local work force. unorganized protests and, at the same Continued on page 18 horrible deaths. This was an attempt to The lives of many - Black and intimidate them into submission. The white - changed philosophically and .g, 0 Black Panther Party emerged at a time politically when members of the Party, Former Black Panther ::s when the younger generation of the led by Bobby Seale, made their famous civil rights movement was seeking trip to California's capitol building in Aaron Dixon Bids for U.S. Senate II~ other methods of struggle to fight th~ Sacramento to protest a special bill to , ::s- economic and social conditions of ban the ability to carry arms in open people can create small classrooll)s '6' colonialization and exploitation of the view for self-defense. The Panthers and pay teachers what police and fire- ~ U.S. working class and minorities. had gone into the capitol building men make. The police should have ~ Many felt that turning the other openly armed with shotguns and pis community oversight, where they are ~ cheek, as put forth by Dr. King and tols, demanding their Constitutional responsible to .a community council 0.. other leaders of the civil rights move right to do so ·be protected. This image that is paid a good salary. ~ ment, was not going to achieve their of Black militancy was promulgated Cl) goal of ending the exploitation. When by the media around the world. : The poor and Black community ,§ the Black Panther Party began to articu Shortly thereafter, Huey was arrest often slides into the criminal judicial "0 late the ideas of Malcolm X, Patrice ed and charged with murdering a police system, and since often there is no Lumumba, Mao Tse-Tung and Che ~ officer. Huey's arrest on the. police mur money to hire lawyers to help them ci1 Guevara, it all seemed to make more der charge produced a tremendous out out, often people resort to crime 0 sense. Jt was more advanced than the pouring of support for him, the Party because of distressed situations. :t:.""" ordinary cultural nationalist groups in and Black low-income population. They can 't find work, and are influ Q) enced by a traumatized environment, a ::s rife with - both psychological and ~ t:, "In 1962·1 learned to make candy from a feUow physical peril. When they are incar ><' ~ cerated they often cannot see Jami 0 prisoner named "Cap Pistol." Over the years, ~ · , ::s .....0 Editor note: Aaron Dixon co- hes because they are often far_ away o' using a stove made from ~ founder of the Washington State from them. What can we do about .., 0- cans and tissue; I g Chapter ofthe Black Panther Party is this devastation? ~ ~ running for a US. senate seat from Mr. Dixon: We must create equi ~ perfected the recipe (1) .g the Seattle community. He recently table community legal systems so from inside my cell}' -0 ~ provided the following comment to crimes are addressed by a communi ::s Q) ~:y;,:- The Commemorator newspaper: ty committee. Prisons should be near m· ~ ·t~-.at :t' aM ~,e,Q.J the community,so families and incar How do you see the relevance of cerated people can stiHvisit and see +" ..,n; .. M~ ~~e, ~ lit.,tl&.· · the party program especially as it ~~~ . . . · . · . · . ·· . ~ , each other. This is a much more s.we.ete,..- ~(); ¥OU.· relates BPP Ten Point Program, to humane way of treating people. poverty, crime, drug addiction and Punishment should not be punitive, -~~wa~. other problems that plague the Black but rehabilitative. In third world ! and poor communities in Seattle? countries they have detention cen Mr. Dixon: We need to end the Delicious homemade New ters, but the families live close. drug problem in our communities. Indigenous cultures deal with legal Orleans style pecan praline The United States should stop fight issues in the community: candy makes great gifts, ing wars iii Afghanistan, and Iraq and and are perfect for your use that money to create housing for How do you see help for the next meeting, event, Americans, especially in the inner youth? party or snack! cities. We can create a National Jobs Mr. Dixon: For youth in jeop Program .. People can be paid a liv ardy boarding houses should be cre ing wage, and obtain the training ated. Here students can set goals they need. such as getting their GED or High School Diploma. They learn cultural What do you suggest for educa values and find alternate ways of tion? staying out of the clutches of the Mr. Dixon: We can use the police. We have a transitional hous money being spent in the wars abroad ing program here and it is helping to overhaul the schools and put them young people in setting goals and in corrn_nW1ity hands where visionary staying out of trouble. Page 12 The Commemorator October .2006
> . ~ , ••' • ,_ • . a' Political prisoner Eddie Update on Leonard Peltier ·
U.S. Government sniper. His death Conway is in good spirits has also never been investigated. Two FBI agents also found death that day. th As you well know, Mr. Chair, these for BPP 40 .Anniversary events led to the wrongful incarcera tion of Leonard Peltier. After more than 30 years, the U.S. piece of evidence. He was convicted Government still w~m't recognize nor on January 15, 1971 and sentenced to correct the wrongs of the past. life plus 30 years. Therefore, again this year, the Lakota "At the outset, I would like . to · People of Oglala organized another take this opportunity to thank you for Commemoration last June 26th under. yo.ur support. Like thousands of other the theme "Let the Great Healing individuals, organizations and Begin" to remember the people who groups, you have taken a stand died during the Reign of Terror and to against injustice. I have been wrong- COMMISSION ON call for the release of Leonard Peltier. . Jy held in Maryland's prisons since HUMAN RIGHTS The community uses traditional ways 1970 for a crime that I did not com Sub-Commission on the such as prayers, ceremonies and con mit," stated Mr. Conway Promotion and Protection of Human ferences with youth and elders to heal * No physical evidence was ever Rights Working Group on Indigenous the sacred hoop. Truth, justice and submitted to link Eddie Conway to Peoples reconciliation are needed between the scene of the shooting. Indigenous Peoples and States around * Trial judge Charles Harris Twenty Third Session, 3 lJuly - 04 the world. · appointed defense attorney James August 2006: Subject: Indigenous We should all together be able .to McAllister to Eddie's case. peoples
BARBARA J. CALHOUN Counci\wom.in District 'J
(310) 605-5534 City of Compton Fax. (310) 761 -1427
·..-::>,•· OFFICE ,- -· :i-_" ~"'· '_ 01t·_:i:,:::Gl~¥ ' - :, -COUNCIL 00;·~--
~i~ _c_;,:f :/'June 5, 2006_:·"'
f Ms. Margarita Perez :\ Chair Person . ;51,t"i/, CA Board of Prison Terms "'"\;/q,J515 K. Street, Ste. 600 -.,, Socramento.·'::~'.'!~;,~.;, ; EA~~::: 95.B-;~~· i 4 Freedom For Romaine "Chip" ~t This correspondence is in regard to o Compton, CA born resident, Romaine "C:Rip" Fitzgerald. In Fitzgerald · 1969, Mr. Fitzgerald, a member of the Southern CA Block Panther Party, was charged and convicted of murder ( a crime he denies committing to this day) and received a .sentence of death by the California State Supreme Court, which was automatically appealed. It was during this time In 1969, Romaine "Chip" in February of 1972 that the death penalty was considered unconstiMional. Therefore, Mr. Fitzgerald was a member of Southern Fitzgerald's original sentence of death wcis commuted to 7years to life with the possibility of California Chapter of the Black . parole. When Mr. Fitzgerald's original sentence was overturned he had already served half the Panther Party that was targeted by the · minimum and it was at this .time that he became eligible for parole in 1976. Some 30 years later • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Mr. Fitzgerald sits in prison having been repeatedly denied parole in -~p!feJ,.:Of, his exceptional for its political activities. Fitzgerald, a behavior during his incarceration. ' \ · · dedicated cadre,· who educated his {:~: community though his work selling Mr. Fitzgerald's prison records reflect that he hos conducted himself as a model prisoner; there ore and circulating the Black Panther no acts of criminal and/or violent behavior. Mr. Fitzg·erald hos been incarcerated for 36 years; News Service, has been locked up for this means he hos spent more time locked up than he has free on 1he streets. In addition, since his almost 38 years. The State of incarceration, Mr. Fitzgerald suffered a stroke and hos hod major bock surgery, which hos left him California continues to violate the law, partially paralyzed requiring him to walk with a cane for the rest of his life. i.e. penal code 1170.2 (b). Today, Chip is the longest held At this time we appeal to you to release Mr. Fitzgerald on parole. As Councilp!rson for .. the !irst Black Panther political prisoner in the District of the city of-Compton, I assure you that Mr. Fitzgerold hos a vast networlcin"'thisc~"'lhat'""~' ,,~,, United States prison system. He has .,wm embro~, !."Ppor:t, protect and guide him upon his' release and for years_ ftt~r:eafter. We shall .. ha Calhoun: She mailed it to State Board U.i 'V4,.,.L -· ':"VLlY Vi. U. _._ .• ..-·, • · of Prison Terms Chairperson, We Den:ian~ .Jhe immediate release of Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald Margarita Perez. Chip's next hearing • ... j ; ·- - • ' _ .. ·it'.~: - -.,. before the Board of Prison T~nns is, . ,·: ~·· ~- , .,.:· .~.:_.:·, ~£ _j J~c ... likely to occur in early 2007. Name (write): .,, ,. · _ Name (write): Please · write to Ms. Perez . and· Address: Address: demand that the Board of Prison Terms recommend Chip's immediate Name (write): . Name (write): release. . ' I Address: · ·· .: Address': - Please mail the following letter by Council Person Barbara Calhoun's to Name (write): Name (write): the CA Board of Prison Terms and , Address: Address: · ask others to sign it to add their voice - to this just demand for Chip's release. Name (write): Name (write):· Address letters to: Address: Address: - Ms. Margarita Perez Chair Person . California Board of Prison Terms Name (write):. Name {Write): ,1515 K. Str-eet, Suite 60 . . Address: Address: Sacraqiento, CA 95814 - Name (write·): N~me (write): • Thank You for your support Family and Friends of Chip · Address:. Address: , (831) 39,2-2869 ~ October 2006 The Commemorator Page 14 40t~ Anniversary Reunion of the Black Panther Party 10am- 2 pm Outreach Editor's note: Kiilu Nyasha is a 3:30 pm-5:30 Volunteer class regular contributor to The Q Commemorator, a commentator on 7-10pm Volunteers Phone Training ~ local San Francisco and Berkeley ~ 0 MONDAY radio stations; and a writer for San ..... 10am-3pm Speaking engagment phoning FrafJcisco Bay View on the topics of "~ 6-7pm Volunteer Orientation political prisoners, poverty, police · ?Q) ~ 6-10pm Volunteers Phone Training repression, attacks on the working Q) class and the war in Iraq and the 7-10pm Publication Workshop Middle East. She regularly corre TUESDAY sponds with Mumia, Ruchell McGee, 1 Oam-3pm Commemorator Sponsor phoning Hugo Pinell and other political pris 1-Spm · Mai lout oners inside the United States. For the EPP 40th Anniversary she agreed WEDNESDAY to host a workshop on Political 10am-3pm Outreach Prisoners in the United States. 1-Spm Mailout By Kiilu Nyasha 6-7pm Volunteer Orientation 7-10pm Volunteers Phone Training In October 2006, Panthers from THURSDAY all over the globe will gather in Oakland to celebrate the 40th anniver 3-7pm Outreach sary of the founding of the Black 6-7pm Volunteer Orientation Panth~r Party for Self-Defense in 6-10pm Volunteers Phone Training October, 1966. 7-10pm Publication Workshop The BPP organized free break fasts for children, free health clinics FRIDAY and clothing drives, alternative 1-3pm Mailout schools, rent strikes and other 3-7pm Informational Table protests; published a community SATURDAY newspaper, warred against rogue cops and drug dealers, struggled for the_ 10-11ain Volunteer Orientation release of captured comrades and Former BPP members, Kiilu Publication Workshop buried tlieir martyrs. Nyasha and activist Malik CCBPP Staff Meeting As stated by Huey P. Newton in 1970 in Revolutionary Suicide, "The Rahim from New Orleans. will Black Panther Party stands for revolu lead workshops at BPP 40th tionary solidarity with all peopk Anniversary. fighting against the forces of imperial ism, capitalism, racism and fascism. Our solidarity is extended to those ment, homelessness, hunger and des people who are fighting these evils at titution, unjust wars, massive incar home and abroad. Because we under- ceration, the proliferation of drugs Commmunications with stand that our struggle for our libera- and guns, has resulted in the destruc tion is part of a worldwide struggle tion of our families and communi political prisoners being waged by the poor and ties, creating social isolation, oppressed against imperialism and the alienation, drug addiction, child and Greetings. I just spoke with Jalil and he world's chief imperialist, the United spousal abuse and violence turned notified me that Herman Bell 79C-0262 has States of America." inward. The BPP's Ten-Point Platform The Party's international liberation beeri moved to Sullivan Correctional and Program demanded freedom and ideology, its expansion beyond our Facility. self-determination, an end to police borders, and its alliances with other brutality and murder, "land, bread, revolutionary groups prompted the FBI Jalil also wanted me to thank every one housing, education, clothing, justice to label it the "greatest threat to the and peace," etc. At the end of the internal security of the United States,"· that wrote a letter for his parole hearing Platform were two long paragraphs targeting it for "neutralization." and he wjll be putting out his response quoted from the Declaration of Victim of the FBI's notorious early next week. You will be able to find· it Independence. Here's an edited COINTELPRO that used every "dirty excerpt: " ... deriving their just powers trick" in the book to destroy it, as well at www.freejalil.com. Here is Herman's new from the consent of the governed as its youthful lack of experience, the address. ... whenever any form of government Party was over by- the end of the ' becomes destructive of these ends · ' 1970s. Nevertheless, its impact upon Thanks for all your work ... [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- the · Black community, the nation and ness], it is the right of the people to the world was immeasurable. alter or abolish it, and to institute a This anniversary reunion should Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win new government. ... [W]hen a long provide participants with an opportuni Paulette NYCJericho train of abuses and usurpations... ty to discuss ways in which we can evinces a design to reduce them under unite our OGs ( original gangstas ), Herman Bell 79C-0262 absolute despotism, it is their right, it elders, and young people of various is their duty, to throw off such govern- communities to organize a true people's Sullivan Correctional Facility ment, and to provide new guards for party serving the needs of all our people Box 116, Riverside Drive their future security." suffering under this fascist police state. Given today's harsh realities, the Former Panther, Malik Rahim, Fallsburg, New York 12733-0116 heed to organize a revolutionary party co-founded the Common Ground (845) 434-2080 (Sullivan County) and "throw off such government" is . Collective in ;New Orleans to deal Free All Political Prisoners! greater than ever. with the horrendous aftermath of Today's social and environmen.- Hurricane Katrina Panther [email protected] • www.jerichony.org tal problems are ten times worse than style. They · are doing tremendous they were 30-40 ·years ago. Lack of work serving the people of that rav health care, education and employ- aged city. c:.-« Page 15 The Commemorator October 2006 Leadership Council (SCLC) Poor Bobby Seale People's ¥arch. . Continued from page 3 0 Our message was not always a'.; understood by mainstream America - Black- Panther Party · for Self ~ this was especially true of our decision Defense?" "Right on time," ~as my ,,'lg. to arm ourselves. In 1965, [a year response. . ~- before our BPP began] there was a - Our uniform came about because group in Los Angeles called one day, out in front of Merritt Community Alert Patrol (CAP) who, College, Huey happened to be dressed in the aftermath of the Watts Riots, in a sports-style leather jacket, black began to observe the police, with law slacks and a blue shirt. I stepped back, books and tape recorders ·in hand. After like a movie director I peered through a few weeks of observing, they were my squared hands, looked at him from b~aten and locked up by the LA p_olice-. different angles in the nice California -Huey and I read about this in -January sunshine, and said, "Hey, Huey, •hold of 1966 while Huey was studying law. it! That should be our uniform, just the Huey had discovered a California State way you 're dressed right now, with the Supreme Court ruling stating that a cit Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, · founders of the Black black shoeg nice and shiny." The next izen had a: right to obserye police offi- evening, we were watching an ord Panther Party, 1966 cers while they stand at a reasonable movie about the French und~rground all peoples. These ideas were the basis not only yo~ng, white, leftist groups distance _away. resistance to' Hitler's occupation. The . of our BPP's slogan, "All Power to AU and middle-of-the-road liberal . When we began our police patrols characters in the film were wearing · the People." Without even knowing the . groups, but especially the American it was clear, because of the CAP exam berets. I said, "Huey, let's wear berets, term then, we wanted to rise above Indian Movement (AIM.), young ple, and in light of the ongoing brutal · man." The uniform was an important xenophobic black nationalism. The Hispanic groups like the Puerto Rican ization of peaceful protesters, that part of our image. Huey and I under- concept of all peoples' power was the . Young Lords Party, and the Brown carrying legal guns would be neces . stood that good visuals were all part of foundation of our policy of coaliti9n Berets, young Chicano/Mexican sary. To the media, and especially racist· how we could successfully communi politics - an organization that crossed American brothers and sisters, along politicians the ·very idea that we had cate and capture the imagination of the all racial, ethnic and organizational with youthful Asian Japanese guns was reprehensible, but in fact, our people. .· lines, Leaming to know the difference [Richard Aoki was the first Asian BPP guns were dead legal: mainly, b"ecause At this time my concept of Black between our friends and the real ene member] and Chinese organizations our guns were not concealed and we - . unity was rooted in the idea that black mies. We would work with anyone such as the Red Guard in San didn't go around pointing them. Huey community unity must be a catalyst to who was positive and dedicated to the Francisco. We evolved working coali- had always maqe the point that it was help humanize the world. To me that human liberation plight. tions with more than 30-odd different illegal to do so. After patJ:olling the humanization would ultimately end the .Ultimately, over the years, we organizations including Dr. Martin police· for about six months, we had racist exploitation and oppression of worked with dozens of organi~ations, Luther King's Southern Christian Continued on page 19 ~ 0 0 ~ 0 ~ Cl) cii ::i: , ,1 William Jennings (Billy X) at Li'/' Booby Hutton Day at the West Former BPP member Saundra Williams (right) with daughter, .Oakland library. BJ joined the BPP in 1968, in Sacramento,- CA. Maisha Williams, joined the party in Oakland, CA 1967. Today, ,, , " r{ Saundra and Maisha are business partners· of lntersage, as FormerBPP munity. There were breakfast pro professional massage therapists. Members Weigh In . grams, and programs for the people I · in prison and others to help with the "The goals and aspirations of the to the success of the movement for Continued from page 3 problems. Ten:Point Program are still relevant freedom and equality." "I was the organizer of the Seniors today. We want freedom today. We still the mid-70s. She also organized th.e Alliance and the SAFE escort program have n9 control in our communities. Saundra Williams- was born in first BPP. free breakfast program in for the seniors. We took the people to The issues .with the police, education, Oakkmd,joined the BPP in 1967, and Oakland. She recently passed ber services like doctor's appointments, housing, economics, politics and oth is active in her community volunteer 100th Birthday and CCBPP celebrated and other places they needed trans ers continue to be bad if not worse than ing with various health programs that that milestone at the April 16 Open portation to in order to take care of they were during the time of the Black address problems thai often affect poor House for CCBfP :S newly renovated their business. ·Panther Party activism. Capitalism · people, such as nutrition and physical office. "Huey often told people I was his continues to ·exploit us. Community therapy. "There is chaos and confusion mother and this was a joke between us . . organizing is key'to the problems that "Today, people seem to have no everywhere ... We ~ould need to orga I enjoyed working with the Panthers Black people and poor people face. sense of community. The · brother j nize the people to change this .. and believe it was an exciting time !'The growth and development of hood, the sisterhood is missing. Back "Today's· young people need an pack then. We need an organization." any new political movement must also then, many of us lived in predomi organization to pay attention to · go. along with the correct social and nantly black ghettoes, like brothers ·1 youth; the families need to become William Jennings (Billy X) former cultural development. This helps give and sisters ... and a lot of people were · more involved in the lives of their BPP organizer, founder and lead orga our community, especially young peo concerned about the war in Vietnam children. During the days of the nizer a/It's About Time: Black Panther ple, clear values and a context for deal that devastated many lives, not to I Black Panther Party, the families in · Party that has sponsored BPP photo ing with their lives. mention the economic cost of the war. the con;ununity were excited because exhibits, · and r.egular commemorative "There is also a need for unity People had strong opinions and felt they could see the Ten-Point Program celebrations over the last decade, between groups organizing in the com that th~y could make change. Today of the Pant}lers operating in the com- .since 1995. munity and the churches are important Continued on page 24 ·, ~..,, V'1)'') 1)~"\0b' - •.;,r,f(!t''t") i)ft.f L'()t\.iJ....,•ut..,··.) ~11~,:::.. ~j,.'\~~L' l \. c.. .. J. • ----·. - ·----·-- --- ~- - - .----·-- ·-~~ l lj Pag,e 16 The Commemorator October 2006 152 Hersh, Seymour: New York Times, On behalf of the Commemoration Committee for the Huey's Corner March 17, I 968, p. Ai 6. . Black Panther Party, we want to thank the following Continued from page 5 153 Affidavit o( Robert A. Barteaux, volunteers, people, organizations, and businesses, for · Federal law ... " and that "BPP members [were] Chief, Information Processing Group, .your support, in honor of BPP 40th Anniversary: followed and arrested for violations of 'local Information Services Staff, Directorate for _ Motor Vehicle Code laws'." [Book III; Final ·Operations, CIA, July 5, 1977, filed in Black Africa City Alive Report, pp. 220-22.J.] Undoubtedly, one pur- Panther Party v. Levi, No. 76-2205. Black Oak's Books · pose pf these raids, arr~sts, and prosecutions of 154 Affidavjt of Sidney D. Stembridge, Buffalo Soldier & the Berkeley Flea Market BPP me,mbers was to force the Party to deplete · Deputy Director of the Office of Security of the Sister Carole & Women's Employment Resource Center its limited financial resources on bail and CIA, July 5, 1977, filed in Black Panther Party Bobby· Coleman · lawyers. As a former federal prosecutor v. Levi. No. 76-2205. Emory Douglas. observed: "Viewed from one perspective, the l SS Hersh, Seym;ur:- New York Times, Charles Du.Bois Panther 21 case [N. Y.] might be seen as a_ victo March 17, 1968,p.A16. Everett & Jones Barbeque ry for the prosecution in spite of the acquittals 156 Jbid. Food Not Bombs ... Almost all of the money and energy of the I 57 Ibid. Indeed,. all three domestic secu David Hilliard ·Panthers in New York was diverted to the rity' op~rations identified by Senate investiga ~lizabeth Hope defense of this one case. The. stress wh_ich this tors appear to have focused on the Panthers_. Nia Imara case, together with other serious criminal cases, "Project MERRIMAC [ 1967 to 1973] involved Perlie Jacobs · put on the Party acro.ss the country, exacerbated the infiltration by CIA agents of... Biack_ Constance James internal conflicts ... If the point of the 'Panther activist groups ... Project RESISTANCE [1967 William (Billy X) Jennings & ITS ABOUT TIME 2 I trial was to help destroy the Party, then the to 1'973] was a broad effort to obtain general Raymond Joe . prosecution must be judged a succes.s. background information" about radical groups Ruth_Villa (Jones) Judged by other proper standards though, across the country. In 1969, upon the recom Ali King (LV) the. prosecution failed. It failed . . . as a_symbol mendation of the official in charge of the C:JA's Marlene & Geoff Krohn of justice - as a symbol of what the criminal CHAOS Program, the FBI began submitting Marlynn Mackey & Save the Babies, Inc. justice system· should be," [Peter L: ~irnroth, "names of domestic political radicals and Black James Mattson Perversions. of Justice: The Prosecution and militants" fo the CJA for inclusion on .its mail / Henry Mitchell Acquittal of the Panthers (New York: Viking opening«Watch List." [Book III: Final Report, Kiilu Nyasha Press, 1974, pp. 397-398)]. pp. 682,573] ~ ~ Opal Pound Dr. Tolbert Small and The Harriet Tubman Clinic, r.lA ~ Clarence Thomas & ILWU/Local 10 < r5 Greg Tomeoni & Copy Ce.ntral San· Francisco Act Up I n honor of the The Trading Post Bobby Seale .Black Panther Party Pamela Thomas Shanrika Turner 40th Anniversary Jacky Waks Save the Ba,bies, ln·c. Bldg. 17 145 up c/o Solano. State Prison P.O. Box 4000 Vacaville, CA 95696 Rahsan Amin, found~r . < > • =-v.!.l "\... Comrades, friends, supporters: . . 0 n the occasion of the Black panther ·Party · 40th Anniversary, Weleome to Oakland James Mattson October 2006 The Commemorator Page 17, ,, African Americ~n Longshore .Puget Sound Coalition _Aids in Relief ti. , Coalition Conference ·Held at sa·n ·Recbnstruction-Retur'n Francisco Local 10 Union Hall - {Left to right) Leo Robinson, retired /LWU local 10 member,· Chris Silver, President of the Teamster .Black National Caucus, Clarence Thomas « . The Puget Sound Katrina ReHef to compel government officials and and Trent Willis,co-founders Million Worker March Movement: . . . and Reconstructio·n Committee politicigns to meet the needs of peo, (PSKRCC) is a coalition of un.ions and pie· most impacted by Katrina. The community groups established after PSKRRC raised over $10,000 in . · the Gulf Coast devastation· left by donations that was used in shipping Hurricane Katrina. PSKRRC is a part expenses and other operation costs of a nationwide network that has of 2 conta1n.ers full of building sup !)een formed to support relief efforts plies to help with the reconstruction. and political organizing led by . In one container, it is estimated to be Louisiana based Community Labor $19,000 ,in donated materials and United (CLU). The CLU network has, .close to $50,000 in the other. responded to the crisis Katrina by ' - ILWU Local 19 members donat-. launching the People's Hurricane - · ed $11,000 dollars in the form of a Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition Lows account fo Mama D, who is a. -to ensure hurricane.· s4rvivors areQ't local activist of New Orleans work stripped of their hor!}es, land, jobs ing to rebuild her community. · Also, and rights bythe Bush administration . the ILWU Coast Committee don~ted · '(Left to right) Sisters Patricia Gil!etfe of_ Chicago, =-with sis~er;_!,lfary rebuilding process, This effort by the $3,261 to help in the shipment of the James of Lywood, IL and sister Laurie Lee from Sanford, FL took labor movement and its allies is container; the PSKRRC contributed part in the day of honor at Local 10 union hall. . rapidly gaining recognition and $4,478 of the donated money raised. momentum nationally. The -joint : There were unions like Teamster · effort is demanding: 17 4 that donated $1500 in materials · * The right to .return for all dis- and Teachers' Union donated $500 placed people; dollars in-_materials. True Value * People's participation in all Hardware donated hundreds of dollars aspect of the reconstruction process; in material arid supplies from three of * Affordable . housing, living their ·stores. There were rank and file wage jobs, quality health.care and . members who donated tools and education; and . money. Shoreiine Community College Justice for people neglected or . donated one generator and other build- abused by the government ing supplies. Community organizations In Seattle, dockworkers form the iike LELO and FSP are part of the PSKR- Jack Rasmus commented on the Joe - {Papa Joe) Mosley, 1st 1nternational Longshore and RC and they have played;major roles in the corruption on ·the U.S. African American Chief Warehouse Union (ILWU) African the public relation, organizing and fund military industry complex. · Dispatcher. American Longshore Coalition raising. There were b.lack community (AALC), Million Workers March organizations like Women for Police Starting on Augu~t 18, on Friday Then on Saturday, the next 2 Movement with members of ILWU Accountability, Paul Robeson Peace night ''Joining of Hands" a reception days, The .. African American~- -1:ocal 19 and 52 have joined forces and Justice, and A. Phillip Randolph for the Teamster National . Black Longshore Coalition Conference with the CLU, ILA Longshoremen's Institute (APRI) and others who were Caucus, who also led· in the Katrina '\ (AALC) held its conference and Local 3033 in Baton Rouge, the very much invohied and still are working relief effort, was hosted by Local 10 addressed issues, such as working Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor with others in the ongoing relief effort and co-sponsored by local ILWU chap- conditions and the imperialist war in Council and the Port of -Seattle to set In the end, the business agent for ters from Portland, Tacoma and the middle east. It consisted of up the BURT Nelson Memorial ILWU Local 52 was unable to negoti Seattle. · approximately over 300 attendees· Katrina Relief Warehouse Unions like ate the railroad donating transporta- But on Friday night, memgers from ranging from members of the the Teamsters Local· 174, Teachers' tion services. It is quite shamefui the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, lnterrational ·. Longshore _ .and Union ~nd other unions not yet to when large · riational companies and some 400 TNBC delegates Warehouse Union (ILWU) up and named; have contributed supplies refuse to help those in need. enjoyed the food; music, conversation, · down the coast. and labor. The warehouse space is Sometimes we have to ask ourselves and dancing t~at flowed through the During the Friday evening recep- named after a Seattle longshoreman havewe done all that we can or just ev,ening. · tion, Chris Silver, the President of the who org ' -•• ,._ 't: * ., ... ~- ._, • ',l ·. - a, + " "' -( • '.... ,.. i \ fo ::;-- t ... ,_ ' •· • ,r ~ f ' ... '\!"•..f,, I.,~._, Page 18 The Commemorator October 2002 BPP40th Thereafter, the BPP was on.the defen,. Party away from alienating small Many in the Black Panther Party sive and lost the forward motion that it · Black businesses in the community did not foresee this in the 1960s. The . Anniversary had once owned. from the Party. At the time there were country still had a strong ·manufactur Continued from page 11 · Party members who were very dog ing base and this was before interna The birth of CCBP:P and matic in their thinking,· denouncing tional corporate interests, using member of GCBPP's Board of The Commemorator as an local small business as the enemy. modern transportation and telecommu- Directors, ran one of the Party's sickle organizing tool after Huey's Death Huey explained that we had to orga- . nications, so completely relocated cell programs. The Party leadership· ' Huey was killed · on August 22, nize the small businesses because manufacturing out of the highly indus understood the class and economic 1989. Immediately after his death, the they are victimized too, by the same trialized nations where trade unions nature of the struggle against racial media· launched a renewed campaign economic forces that victimize poor had raised wages to th~ highest levels. oppression and strengthened that under- of misinformation, not only about Dr. peopk- It was before the relocated jobs into standing over time. Thus, the Ten-Point Newton but about the entire Black Huey pointed out a method to devel_oping nations where they could Program of the Party aimed the struggle Panther Party. It was at this time that transform small businesses from train and exploit cheaper labor, while at material improvements tliat exposed I, along with other founders of objects of the system of international breaking the unions at home. , fundamental contrad.ictions between the CCBPP, took up the challenge. As for- - capitalism to subjects of history The BPP arose in a different era government and the people. mer members we put forth that this through identifying · with the Black· of capitalism, the waning of industrial was an attack ori the legacy of the oppressed community and donating on capitalism as we kno-w:- it in this The meaning of the BPP and ·an attack on the entire Black a regufar basis to the surviv,d pro- nation. Huey Newton put forth the Ten-Point Program community. It was an attack, on all grams organized by_the Black -Panther .t heory he called "intercommunalism" The Ten-Point Program became the those years of commitµient and sacri- Party. Through this process the small back· in 1970 in a speech at Boston ·constitution of the Paity; all members . fice made by many people who had businesses-are transformed from being College, in which he called for the had to study it and learn it verbatim. · paid the ultimate price, people such as an appendage of international capital- necessity for workers and· exp lotted There were other materials mem- Fred Hampton and ·Mark Clark mur- · ism to a vital part of the oppressed peoples to organize acro'ss national bers liad to study, such as the experi- dered in Chicago, · Alprentice community, fighting in its own historic bQrders:, just as'the other side of inter ence of the Chinese revolution, Frantz "Bunchy" Carter who was murdered self-interest. national monopoly capital had done to Fanon and the Algerian Revolution, by FBI agents in Los Angeles and . Huey .understood, on a fundamen ·serve · their own interests. Newton speeches of ,fidel Castro and writings "Li'i Bobby" Hutt_on, murdered by tal level, what politicizes the ~asses: pointed to that international context of Che Guevara in Cuba, as well as the policemen ..in Oakland. It was an not ideology or theory·per se, but meet and · the need for political and eco-. experience of Black people in America attack on people who are still incar- ing their day-to-day needs, which nomic power to place resources into through W.E.B. Dubois, · t4e life of · cerated on trumped-up charges, such · advances them through a process. He the hands of the people to be able to Malcolm X and other~. But the Ten- as Mumia Abu-Jamal and Ruchell often explained that people do not move realize the Ten Point Program, while Point Program was the main guid~line Magee; and lesser-known brothers from A to Z, but from A to B, or A to C. . many Panthers remained focused on for our daily practice. and sisters who-are still locked up in · By the early 1970s, the direction local oppressive symptoms . of the In understanding its relevance U.S. prisons for their political beliefs, of economic development in the U.S. · problem. today, we must remember what Huey ~nd on those who are in political was shifting from a manufacturing and Bobby used to emphasize, that exile, such as Assata Shakur. · based economy to a service-based Moving into the 21'' Century · ·Point Number 1 (the demand to erid So The Commemorator began as a .economy, although it was barely dis- We need to organize from the bot- police bruta_lity and murdering of voice for the truth, to organize off of cernible at that point in time. Huey tom of the · socioeconomic ladder Black people and all oppressed people) this attack on the legacy of the Party. saw the leaps of technology and where Blacks are . "last hired, first is only one point out of the ten: In fact, We began publishing the paper in _ automation and he mistakenly identi- fired." The only factor of production as bad as · police brutality is today, 1990, one year after Huey's death, fied the low-income strata in the U.S. that labor and the poor _· o~n is labor more people die in the U.S. today from commemorating his life and the contri- as being the same as the lumpen pro- power. Labor organization that unites a lack of health care and food than by butions of the Black Panther Party by letariat - a class disassociated from the "unrecognized" worker with the tlie·guns of the police. So the emphasis holding a Comme~otation UQity production, poor but not · a working dwindling number of union workers . on armed self-defense by ·the Black Rally on the first anniversary of class, which exists opportunistically as well as with small business owners Panther Party was a defensive tactical Huey's death. Through the rally; we. off of the labor of the working class, is central to any improvement in move to begin mobilizing the masses were able to collectivize enough sup- such as those who survive through the income, benefits, working and living to fight for fundamental change, away port and resources to begin the paper. underground economy or illegal activ- conditions. This is also why current from enticement and lies of co-opta- . ities, or students. _ ruling class exploitative efforts are tion and reform that were becoming Huey's understanding of the world · Huey mistakenly thought that the aimed at using racial division to pre- vezy popular in the volatile Black com- Huey understood that the-funda- · increased poverty he saw emerging in vent multi-racial ·labor organi,zation mu,nity back then, especially among mental contradiction in society is the U.S. in _the late 60's and early from being unified. If their race card cultural nationalist organizations.· between the exploiting ruling class 1970's was the "lumpenproletariat" on t_actic works, inner-city minorities are On December 3, 1969, Fred and the exploited working class of the the rise, when in- actuality it was the used at iower wages through govern- · Hampton. and Mark Clark .were mur- world. The fight .is over power, i.e., ·· workers who are members of the eco- ment "job training" or workfare pro dered; in their sleep, by the .Chicago control of wealth and labor, and the nomic undercl~s that is not included grams, or prison labor or Enterprise police, _decimating the leadership of race card is use Clark, Bunchy Carter and John We went to Hollywood and to struggle when the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale Huggins had all been killed. Many . Abby Mann, George Sanford Brown, , organized many grassroots programs Continued from page 15 chapters and _branches_ had been Qssie Davis and Ruby Dee, Sammy and advocated_th.e right of self-defense attacked. In 1970, a young white _ Davis Jr., Jane Fonda, Burt Snider, from racist attacks for our black com had arguments, edgy standoffs; but Berkeley .policeman who knew that the Mark Rosenberg and Paula Weinstein munity, beginning in Oakland; _ nothing like a ·shootout. Later that year, FBI and Berkeley police had been . and her motper, Hanna _Weinstein, California _in 1966. These images · though, a state assemblyman, Don planning for months to attack our along with my friends Marlon Brando touch upon the party's nationwide Free Mulford, introduced a bill to stop citi- Berkeley headquarters stole their plans and James Baldwin l:illd a host~of oth- Breakfast for School Children pro zens from carry loaded weapons ipside and gave them to our lawyer, Charles ers like Danny · Giover, Donald gram, preventative medic~l health care city limits, nor could anyone have a R., Garry. · These plans detailed how Sutherland, Carol and especially clinics, many of our major courtroom loaded weapon within 150 feet of pub- · they planned to come in with SWAT Congressman Ronald V. Dellums, now trials across the USA, many ~allies and . lie property, which included all road- teams, and that they expected there to the Mayor-elect of Oakland, the aftermath of the shootouts that ways and byways. Thjs, in effect, be 15 to 20 dead Black Panthers when California. occurred in defense of ourselve-s- and pievented us from legal ~rmed patrols they l~ft. In the previous year (1969), our peoples' struggle for what I call of_ the police. California politicians lit- every BPP office was attacked at least our Constitutional Democratic Civil- . erally "criminalized" that legal right. once and Chicago was attacked three To me, advocating for social · Human Rights. In protest against this bill, on May times. It took a µ.s. Senate investiga- ch.ange is notjust about · . Stephen· Shames' involvement 2, 1967, I. led a group of armed tion of the FBI's " ... concerted attempt speaking at a podium or on .with BPP as a photographer is related Panthers to the state capitol. We to -s111ash the Black Panther Party ... '.' to to this idea of functioning, face-to-face entered the California - State stop the FBI and local police from a bullhorn, but about working cQalitions. The agreement I Legislature, and I read Executive planning and -carrying out attacks on inspiring party members and had with Stephen was that while he Mandate Number One, a Black our houses and homes. · other community people with wanted to document our protest move Panther Party &taiement written by .relevant activity ment, 1 needed him to StJ.pply pho- . myself, Huey and Eldridge Cleaver, tographs for our weekly newspaper, _denouncing the pending Mulford Act. We were feeding 250,000 The Black Panther. Stephen also taught It so happened that Ronald Reagan, the kids five days a week To me, advocating for social photography to some BPP members, governor of California at that time, each morning change is not just about speaking at a most prominently Loren Williams. His was out on the front lawn when we podium or on· a bullhorn, but about. photographs were key in ·capturing the arrived. Reagan was to the right of us be/ore school. inspiring party members and other com- peoples' imagination and further rais on the lawn, speaking to a couple of . We had no government munity people with relevant activity; ing their awareness of the party and hundred youth, c~ildren aged about ten money or War on Poverty Getting up early in the morning, ~ock- the1r consdousness of the issues at to fourteen. The kids left him and fol · . ,money to start the ing on doors, and registering people to stake. lowed us, black guys dressed in uni vote, organizing rallies, assembling The Black Panther Party? Yes. We forms and armed with guns. They programs-we did it people in communities across America were an actual political party- though thought we yver'e a gun club . .They ourselves with d.onations. to volunteer- this was what gof the grassroots in our character, as we must have been bored with Ronald Panther social programs going. pulled off some of the most unortho- Reagan. The Mulford Act was passed In a five, near six.,year period, our . dox organizing feats, few of which in late May 1967. Now, in 2006, on the occasion Qf free preventative medical health clin- have been repeated since the I 960s. Our march on the capitol brought our 40th Anniversary, I would say that ics tested over one million black folks Steve Shames' photographs reveal that us a huge amount of media attention besides our resistance and our ability to for sickl.e cell anemia for the first time our Black Panther Party peoples' revo and intematiQnal notoriety. We wel- weather everything that was thrown at in U.'S. history. The electoral cam- lution was no.t about violence but paigns that we ran were jn~e~coqnected · about, th~ I?,ee<;l to re-evolve politi~al, cop~~t the attention, but we wante~ YJ.~,q u~ t>:r(jtJ?~~Rfil~ t~AJeiP.1H1)SHJ~m\'ers, , , ..:J , .,,. , -.1,.(..,. Jr.. .. 1.- , .• • , .~ ..,, ,• •. ,., focus to ,be on our Ten-Point Pla,tform, · one ... f}fr,1:n~ ;:-P8J1Y's. important 1~sting witli these prpgrams. Later; when we economic, and social justice empower- ·and Program, which the media tended legacies is grassroots programmatic visited homes while registering voters, mertt back into the hands of the people: .~ j_gnore, instead characterizing us as organizing, such as the Free Breakfast people who had never voted before, or to empower people: Today the results gun-~otin '. , militant black radicals. for Children Program, which evolved didn't relate to voting, would invite us of oirr work can be seen within the cor Over the years with the aid of the FBI's to the point where, through 49 Black in and-sign up beqmse they had visited ridors of power. Congresswoman COINTELPRO, the media continually Panther chapters and branches, and in our free health clinics. Real, tangible Barbara Lee and Congressman Bob9y distorted facts, . saying that we had association with-many other organiza service moved beyond the reach of Rush, along with politicians in several instigated shootouts with the police tions across the United States, we were · speeches, as' people actualiy came to other cities ·across the United States, when, in fact, as we now know from feeding 250,000 kids five days a week kno; us anti care when Panthers went are a testament to all the hard work our Freedom of Information Act docu- each moming before school. We had no to trial or to jail. B1ack Panther . Party · did, along with . ments, the FBI worked· with po Hee gov~e,nt jnoney or War 09 Pb~erty Our Black Panther Party's 40th many oth,ers, and the contributions that departments to plan attacks on Black money to'start the programs - we did anniversary founding and the pho- we made to this epic of human · Panther Party offices. - ; it our~elves with donations. We ran.ads tographs in the new book of photogra- involvement in American history. By the end of 1969, they had iq our newspaper appealing to .propri phy, The Black Panthers, by my friend Toward a Future World, of Co- attacked our offices al~ across the etors to donate food and we boycotted Stephen Shames, evoke many of my operational Humanism. country; and Freer Hampton, Mark those, like Safeway, who refused. old, tough-times memories ·of a hard Bobby Seale e-«. ~ RESTAURANT CATERING TAKEOlIT @R Six Convenient Locations: ·Don's Headquarters ..1.,2676 Fruitvale Ave .. Oakland, Ph# {510) 533-0900 (Formerly Cook Barber Shop) A296 A St. Hayward, Ph# {510) 581-3222 Known for profe~ional service and courtesy A 1955 San Pablo Ave.. Berkeley, .Ph# {510) 548-8261 · 3019 Shattuck Avenue A3415 Telegraph Ave.. Oakland, Ph# {510) 601-9377 .B~rk.~ley, Ca.1,i;(.ornia A8740 E. 14th St. Oakland, . Ph#. (510) 638-6400 csi'o) s46~91 is. _J.. 126 Broadway, Oakland, .,,; Ph# (510) 663:.2350 I .. ef - .- ··". ~.- .. .. ··-- ·-- ' ---- ...... -; ...-~ ·-_· ---- - ~-:...·_. :. •· ...... --- - - , ------~- - -~--- · Page 20 _ . The Commemorator October 2006 CCBPP-Board Member Educates High School Students on BPP History -Save -the Babie-s. ~ , : ,'-- . . - <-~ Dear Editor, ,, It's mathematically impossible - which . 0 g The time is now upon us to make a itself should terrify us to the core of our ~ . ~ call to ARMS. I'm not referring to a . beings, because we will have success- Q. battle being waged_ against . our ene- fully allowed those responsible for our ~ mies with {lrtillery, but with our minds, oppression and . suffering to have ~ spirifs, and ethics. Our nation as a altered our pre-determined divine jour ; whole i_s defenseless against the con- ney into remembrance. ~ tinuous onslaught against our youth I suggest · that our immed_iate through the multitude of tactics being course of action should be to b.econie implemented by this imperialist gov- familiar with those programs, projects ernment. We must make an honest and institutions that sincerely cater to effort toward ensuring that the partici- the ·enlightenment, encouragement, pants who will be placed on the front- guidance and 1,1pliftment ofow youth line, to propel our struggle forward and support them 100%. We have to tomorrow, are properly armed with the upgrade our stock and invest into our CCBPP board member Marlene Krohn -(right front) gives a knowledge of self and victories of yes- returning to our rightful place as a peo presentation on the history of the Black Panther Party in Mr. terday. This can only be done through ple with dignity, compassion and Love Sloan's (second from left) class at California High School in the painstaking task of our elders · for se~f1 There's a saying that, "If we . San Ramon. Marlene is a former BPP volunteer from reaching out to our youngsters and knew better, we'd do better." Our Philadelphia. embedding within them the principles, greatness as a people is no secret, so morals, ethics and conduct, which what's our.next excuse??? Editors note: CCBPP board ,;nem wielding African Americans to blacks made us· a successful people in the ber Marlene Krohn, a former BPP who want to change their way-of liv predawn of civilization! Rahsan Amin, member was invited to make presenta ing, and trying t~ express their views If we continue to refuse our duties · Founder of Save the Babies, Inc. tions on BPP history at the history in · a black oppressed society. ofreplenishing the well of knowledge, Bldg. 17 145 up classes ofMr. Sloan at CaliforniaHigh · Although, I do not completely agree it will eventually dry up and b~come .· c/o Solano-State Prison, School in San Ramon. F oll~wing are 1 with your "no war" viewpoint, I still void of its life-sustaining contents. . P.O. BOX 4000 some letters that students sent to Ms. believe that war is bad. But the United This is exactly the case ·concerning our Vacaville, CA 95696 . Krohn in appreciation of the work she States being the world power that it is, up and coming generations! Editor's note: Since 2004, Save the did to educate students to the history should be the police of the world, and How can they possibly be expected Babies has _been providing tutoring and legacy ofthe BPP · keep world peace. Thank you for to carry on the torch' of our.fruitful and and 'transportation for children of coming in and enriching and changing conducive contributions to humanity if inmates and other low "in9ome fami Dear Ms. Krohn: my view of the Black Panthers . they're viewed as being unsalvageable, lies, as well as assisting families with Thank you very much for speak..; . BenKim and if they are not properly nurtured? basic needs. . .. ing to our class on Wednesday. I very much enjoyed seeing history through -- - . . · · · . ' · , · · , · · · _"""' -" _ . f :t.. 1· d . . --rl- .. .."T," c •· ··~ .. 1 ''\""' <',-rr,--...S• - ~ - . " the eyes ·o someone wno 1ve 1t. ·, · · · · , · ·" , ., .• ~ .•• •• •. i ··-· • • 't: Before you and Mr. Santina came in; Afr··1 ca· n· D ·1 ·asp Or~·1 C Rep a·r ·a t ·1 0 n s § the Black Panther Party had a nega- - . 1 · · • • • _ . _ ~ tive connotation in my mind. · · ' · "' Somehow I felt ·that what they did Dr. Mustafa Asaria . Please _note . the · lndige~ous ~eparati_on Tribuna~ ~y the ~ddi_tion_of · S .c · d · b t ..l b African D1asponc Reparations · Economist, Poht1cal Sc1ent1st, ,: was 1.or a goo cause u -uone y T ·b · · d f Ch- f J · H. t · d th. th t. · ,.. . · n una 11s m nee o a 1e ust1ce to · 1s onans an o ers so a we can ~ extreme measures. 1 qmckly found oversee reparations organizations · assess the injuries and postulate reme- C out that they were n?t aggress~rs, but throughout the African Diaspora. dies. ~ only wanted protectl~n for the1r peo- Trinidad is forming it's T_ribunal under Self-determination requ[res a · Cl: ple from corrupt police and govern- lli8dd ai•d~ the auspices ofthe IADRT. To this end, Nation-wide vote,· volunteers, and c ' ment officials. ·From reading their we 1n1ill need'' l nternatioi:ial :H~m~n organizational unity amongst our city, ~ wants and beliefs I see that most of Rights attorneys, historians, econo- . state and National Organizations. The t . . them were reasonable, taking the his- . mists, real estate developers, agricul- African , Diasporic Reconciliation ..• ..:! torical setting 'into consideration. I ~ turists and psychologist to assess the Project has a new forum, and is forming C: agreed with your beliefs about war postulate damages in each country ~en a~d women's groups -to be proac- ..ti and its atrocities. I found'it funny iliat affected. ·. _ . t1ve 1~ ~ur approach t_o ~elf ..Q you stated that the United States only , Resolut19n 1s the control- Det~rn~mat1on an~ . the Nat1onw1de Q 60/~47 ): h 1 d ~ tri th t h d · thin Jmg law on Reparations and allows us Pleb1sc1te vote. To JOm the Clan Heads ti e pe coun . es a a ~ome . g Resolution adopted . by the the opportunity to effect 9 out of the or Clan Mothers, please contact adr- Q.. we _want. _This statement is acmally General Assembly 60/14 7. Basic 1 O points set out by the Nation of [email protected]. You will be given ii very, true, m .my ey~s, and you ma~e Prindples and Guidelines on the Right Islam and the Blacir' Panther Party. the password to work on nation build- sens~ when_ you said that• no _o~e 1s to a Remedy and Reparation The resolution has a plethor-a of reme- ing and all other issues related to our helpmg Haiti out because Haiti had FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE dies that can be utilized to obtain self- struggle. Wear~ in the long process of nothing and nobody wants poverty. October 3, 2006 Dr. Mustafa Ansari, determination, the right of return and structuring such a National process and Again; thank you for sharing your The Chief Justice .of the Indigenous indigenous land rights in America and encourage all volunteers in each of the point of view with all of us. Africa n American Reparations Africa. This resolution can compen- 50 states to contact our office_s at 904- Respectfu.lly, Tribunal and presiding Jurist of the sate our people for the enslavement, 369-5837 or at HYPERLINK 'Thias Hernandez Indigenous African Diasporic loss wages, loss opportunities, humili- · "mailto:[email protected]" _Repara tions Tribunal, js pleased to . ation, and psychological damages \t "_blank" [email protected] *~******************** present to the Africans in the America that our people have suffered and our Dear Mrs. Krohn, and the Diaspora Resolution 60/1.47. suffering as a result of the . Trans Resolution 60/14 7 t"! as been signed Atlantic · Genocide :and Jim Crow dis Thank you so m1,1ch for coming to by the United States and-duly passed criminations. You · may view our class, · and teaching us about the by the Nations of the World in Resolution 60/1 47 here: HYPERLINK Black Panthers. In our history books, December of 2005 and distributed on " http:/ / www.ohchr'' \t "_blank"\. the Black Panthers . are barely men March of 2006. This resolution legal- http:/ /www.ohchr.org/english/law/r tioned. And if they are, they are por ly e_ffects and obliges the United emedy.htm trayed as dangerous, evil, riotous black States, Spain, France, England ,_ However, the passage of the. UN person [people] living _in Oakland . . I Holland, Sweden, Germany, their car- Law is· not enough,.as U only the legal never realized that the Black Panthers porations and Churches, and the road to a process that we as a people · were just tryi11g to protect themselves · African Dynasties of the Slave Coast must prosecute by way of vehicles_ from the brutality of the whites. I also to repair and compensate the victims such ' as a Collective Status Pleqiscite,_ · never realized how horrible segrega and their heirs for the International Incorporations of the International law · tion was even in the 60s. · You have Slave Genocide and its resultant dis- into domestic . law by "Special criminatory effects. Measures", the · perfection of our helped put the Black Panthers in a n~w , light. . From dangerous, evil, gun- l • " ..' ',..· October-2006 The·Commemorator Page 21 & ~ ~ Q, ~ -0 "~ G) Q) §- (!) ~ Mural of Simon Bolivar, liberation hero of Soyth America, in th~ ' community 23 de enero (23rd of January) in Caracas. The Educators and Program Coordinators involved in the Misi6n quote reads, "The health of a republic depends on the morality Ribas adult education program in Sanare, Venezuela. that, through education, its citizens acquire during childhood." critical lessons ·to leafl! from Edgar Education for· Suarez and from Venezuela. has its flaws and there is much room "missions" - (misi6nes) -reach under My original intention in studying for improvement - and improvement served regions in Venezuela. They are All in Venezeula the transformation in the Venezuelan will be necessary if the Bolivarian eacb named after prominent figures in Continued from page .7 education system was to . write an Revolution is to continue with Venezuelan history, and weave le~sons informational piece, remaining_ as strength. But if the process continues · of history and civic responsibility the intent is present, the will is . objective and apolitical as possible. to advance· and develop it appears to together with reading and mathemati poignant and the people have con- I-Jowever, what I ,now understand is me that, within one generation, cal skills. vinced me that they ~ill settle for noth- that with voici:,s like Edgar Suarez and Venezuela may just be the most edu Misi6n Ribas is named afterJose ing less. If Venezuela continues pn the many others like him who have cated country in the world. Felix Ribas, a philosophical and military leader of ' Venezuelan path it has begun with the ed4cation ~ha,re.P;. t\le,ir . expfrie11q~~ _'Yith ._me, - / Misiones and the Bolivarian E(Jucation :),~hl;st~vHy , Iii~, ,p nji~J-.-. W.h~,t the _ Editors No_te: Within four , y(!ars [ndepe,nd,ence; Misi6n Robinson is system, in ten to 20 years, it might just B_olivarian · education model is under the C,havez Administration, more . nlimed afler. Simon Rodriguez, a pri be the most equitably educated nation attempting to. accomplish is no. less than 3,000 new schools have been vate tutor to Venezuelan liberator in the world. From my perspective, than to liberate, empower and bring bu_,ilt. Py 2002, school attendance at all Simon Bolivar who oftefJ traveled within the neglected system of educa- _equality to the entire p9pulation of levels had jumped 25%, representing under the pseuponym "Samuel tion in the United States, a system that _Yenezl,le\a, : wµich ~~s, for _500 year_s apprQximately 1.3 million students who · RoMnson ,; and Misi6n Sucre is named Jonathan Kozol refers to as the ''~hame ~·given (?Xtreme priYilege to a few ·at the hadpreviously been excluded from the after independence hero Gen_,e;t_ of the nation," it is clear that we have _ e~pense of_ the masses. Of course, it system. The -gover.nment-sponsored Antonio Jose de Sucre. BPP 40th sponsored slashing of benefits and Huey's theory of revolutionary inter- _ Angele's, Seattle, .Chicago, Denver, _ __ . • . .. ius.1i1utiQD.alizJiliQtLQU!ltra,-low. wages cQmml}Ilalisgi;_/ltJll~PQ!!!Lofp.ui.9!i£.f ,: fl~yy}ap;99i:- ~acramento, San!a _Cruz ·f,.~r.! Anniversary thro~gh such anti-wor~ing class profit- - We have taken the lessons from our and, · of course, the Oakland-San Continued from page 1B .. makmg s~l;lemes as welfare slavery, mistakes and shortcomings and are Francisco Bay Area. We need more dis · corporate-nm health care, prison slave . applying them to· advance our practice - tributors throughout the country. I urge The growth of multi-racial econom- labor, job training (for low-wage or . now. e\rery reader to contact CCBPP today. ic class-based organization capable of non-existent jobs) and so-called "pull · We do not ,think that duplication of _Arrange to come jn for an orientation compelling living wages and improved yourself up by your boot straps" (with · the Black Panther Party is 'where the and to -participate in our literacy pro benefits, working and living conditions out boots!) enterp_rise zones. soll;ltion lies. But we do think that the gram, prod~<;:tion and distribution of is all that . stands in the way of ruling "It is in this climate of a sell-out tactics that worked, and those that did The Commemorator or other CCBPP class exploitation. Thus the "hue and Establishment pri:,ss th~t The not work (and why they worked and did activities. Sign up for our organizer cry" atmosphere of racial hysteria being Commemorator publishes -news and not work back then) have to be ana- training program, which is available on instigated is deliberately calculated to aQ,alysis Jrom, our minority and work lyzed. We have to embrace the posi- · a foll-time or part-time basis. Call us use divisions along racial lines to-pre- ing class communities while continu~ tives, the things that advanced the today to learn more about volunteer vent unified organization along eco~ ing to uphold the contributions of the struggle for pow,er, and eliminate· the opportunities with CCBPP at 510-652.:: n:Omic class lines. It is noteworthy that Black Panther Party. It is through The negatives, -the things that set the strug- 7170 and ask for CCBPP Volunteers this time-dishonored practice of using Commemorator that we put out the call gle back. Coordinator _Charles Dwlois to sched- race to destroy unity_among labor and today to bring about the changes nec The Commemorator is distributed ule a time to come into the office. the- poor against the forces profiting essary to' install the Ten-Point throughout the country, in places suyh The slogan "All Power to the from our exploitation is unfolding Program. The prod1,1ction and distribu as New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, People!" has never been more poignant simultaneously with government;;. _ tion of The Commemorator embodies Memphis, Detroit,' Portland, Los than it is today. ~ r~-----~----~--~~---~,- - \. - k .. · .. · -·· ~ · .· ,' : ' ··: ~ 1 ~IAnJ~ 1 I ~ 1-'. Bill's Trading Post "Doing it Right o-n time;' Greg Tomeoni, Manager : - 2945 College Ave. Berkeley, CA 94705 Sorry, but this offer is not valid with other - P_ick-Up & . I Native American Artifacts, Art,·Jewelry, T-Shirts, etc. - discouri.ts or promoti~ns. Offer valid i>elivery, can -I only at this store. 510.527.5800 I Fax: 510.526.6218 I In Honor of . I I -Black -Panther Party 3½¢ .per copy with _;coupon I 40TH} ANNIVERSARY _ 155~ Solano Avenue . - : 1_ ... ~ c- 1. ~ ·- ..... -, .. ~ -~ _-8!:~~: ,_:A_:~~~~~~-~ - ~ • Page 22 The Commemorator October 200,6 - . CCBPP S-TATEMENT OF PURPOSE . . . The Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party (CCBPP) is committed to the goals of the Black Panther Party (BPP) as outlined in its Ten-Point Program which was written in 1966 by Party founders, Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The Ten-Point Program outlines goals and objectives' toward changing conditions of economic exploitation and political oppression in all low-income and working class communities in the U.S. and elsewhere, as the basis for unity and solidarity. Also, the CCBPP is committed to the concept Qf Revolutionary Intercommunalism, introduced by Dr. Newton in 1970 at Boston College. Our Revolutionary Inteicommunalism holds that there are basically two sides·. On one side there is reactionary intercommunalism which presently holds the world's low-income and working communitie; under conditions of economic exploitation and political qppression by controlling the wealth, resources and institutions in order to maximize profits for the few. HtJey identified this side as the leading reactionary side (the ruling class) which consists of a minority, fewer than five percent 6f the world population. Under these conqitions, reactionary intercommunalism, by and large, keeps the poor and working communities on a cycl_e of degradation, under condi tions ofreaction, despyration an.d poverty, with no end in sight. Newton understood that in order to·change these conditions and advance the economic and cultur al interests of these oppressed communities of the world, disciplined organizations must be built from the bottom up, enabling these low-income and working communities to fight exploitation an_d oppression by any means necessary (this fight needs to start in the advanced industrialized U.S. because our nation leads the world in political reaction_and economic exploitation). CCBPP advances and upholds the goals which the _BPP outlined in its Ten-Point Program, and those goals are about ridding black ghettos and low-income and working communities of economic exploitation and political oppression, understanding that we can reach these goals only by seizing the time at the point of practice. · - · 1. WE WANT FREEDOM, WE WANT POWER TO DETER armed for self-defense of our homes and communities against. these fascist MINE THE DESTINY OF QUR . BLACK AND OPPRESSED police forces. COMMUNITIES. We believe that-Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our destinies in our own communities our 8. WE WANT AN IM·MEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF selves, by fully controlling all the institutions that exist in our communities. AGGRESSION. We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly froin the aggressive desires of the U. S. ruling circle and 2. WE WANT .FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE. We government to force its domination upon the oppressed people of the world. believe that .the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every We believe that if the U. S. government or its lackeys do not cease these person employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American aggressive wars that it is the right 6. WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND_ OPPRESSED men are created equal; that they are endowed by PEOPLE.- We believe that the goveq:rment must provide; Black Panther Founder, their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that free of charge, for the people, health facilities that will not Dr. Huey-P. Newton among these· are life, liberty, and the pursuit of only treat our illnesses, most of which have _come about as happiness." That, to secure these rights, govern- a result of our oppression, but will also develop preventive medical programs ments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the con to guarantee our future survival. We believe that mass health education and sent of the governed; that, whenever any fortn of government b(?comes research programs must be developed to give all Black and oppressed people destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish access to advanced scientific and medical information; so we may provide our it, and to institute a new government, ·1aying its foundation on such princi selves with proper medical attention and care. · ples, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and bappiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate 7. WE WANT AN lMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY that gov·ernments long established should not be changed for light and tran AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF sient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are COLOR, ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to righrthemselves STATES. We believe· that the racist and fascist gov~rnment of the United by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to cap-y out its program of train of abuses ~nd usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces oppression against Black people, other people of color, and poor people inside a design to reduce them under absolute despotjsm: It is their right, it is their the United States. We believe it is our right; therefore, to defend ourselves . duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their ag~inst such armed forces and that all .Black and oppressed people should be future security. · · October 2006 The Commemorator Page 23 c?-x ,lu- ~ ' ;,;: C'll I + -=0 CD.•• el r 0 . --I AIDS in Africa: New .Plague or !l), +·1 i JJI C" '1J '< - ~· Clip and mail the coupon below to receive a free copy of the book What If Everything You Thought You Knewew · About AIDS Was Wrong? or contact us for more information at www.actupsf.com! · · FOLSKHUH. ____· _ . ______. _____·,· ______· ___, . ---_____.----- _ Name -,------______-c----- Address--Address ______------_:,,______----~----~----- City ______·State ___ Zip ______ sS ANA ru FRANCF n A ru c 1• · s cC o0 Phone ______Email ______ Mail to: ACT UP• 1884·Market Street c San Francisco, CA 94102 • {415) 864-6686 • www.actupsf.com O [email protected] ~ •• !I' t • t I ~ • ,; • a • • ,s • • e • • • • • • • e :9 .• • r .... • • 9 'W' • .- • .,_ ,,_ _. • ._ ... .. ,r "I' W 9' 'IJ • • • • "II' ,r • e y e y • y _. • _._ ,,. §"' 'I' 1f 'f' .,,. T ' l' Page 24 The Commemorator October 2006 FRIDAY OCTOBER 13 SATURDAY OCTOBER 14 SATURDAY OCTOBER 14 W O"RKSHOPS TIME AND ROO M TBA MALONGA CASQUELORD CEN TER torthe A RTS MALONGA CASQUELORD Impact of Ethnic Studies on Higher Education {Alice Arts) 1 CENTER torthe ARTS and the Impact of the BPP 1 428 ALI CE STREET i n OA KLAND {A.Hee MOD€RAT0R Ht:rf [)f#r;n 1428 ALICE ~TIHHE T ;n-- G·AiH.;Ar.o · i -· · Labor and the BPP Legacy MAiN LOBBY - 1;2 NOON Gerald Sanders, Ducho Dennis REGISTRATION and Eddie Johnson in the MAIN THEATER on SATURDAY SOLIDARITY MAIN THEATER on FRIDAY Elbert "Big Man" Howard -and Chuck Armsbury 1:00 pm : PRESS CONFERENCE WORKSHOP The Role of the Media in the Struggle History of the BPP MODERATOR MELVIN DICKSON Charles "Cappy" Pinderhughes 2:30 pm: FILM: Eldridge Cleaver COINTELPRO if~~1 Bobby Bowen and JoNina Abron 4 to 6:00 pm: Political Prisoner Panel .... ~ . ...._ , ,J.:: . MODERATOR KIILU NYASHA r ;~; ,·W omen 'in the BPP - Phyllis Jackson In the CONFERENCE ROOM: . The Role of Gl's in the Struggle Barbara Cox 1 PM : Youth Workshop :oo Academia and the BPP - Charles Jones ;,.:" . 3:00 PM : Reparations Workshop Solving Community Problems and Health VIDEO S H O WINGS O N GOIN G 0 , Issues - Majeedah Rahman 3:00 PM : Book Fair in Main Lobby arlo,tli\;)1 J"IJ~al'o Police Brutality and Legal Rights King . Downing Tributes to Fallen Comrades UNITEEXAFR!CAN AMERICAN ALLIANCE MAIN THEATER FRIDAY EVENING 1 :oo PM : Emory Douglas OPENING CEREMONIES 7PM REVOLUTIONARY ART. suvE sHow.t:-; 1 2 :00 PM : Bob8y Sea/e'f~.,r;otfiri1unity Organizing MICHAEL LANE performing MALCOM X LANEY COLLEIGE 900 FAlLON S~jl :~E·T in ~AKLAND ~~~~ ICHAEL MCCARTY on PANTHER GRIOT · 1 3 9 ,!tlO AM ""~1ifiiriV1 FORUM ancfYOUTH WORKSHPS :,;x:..,,; Some of the fil m for the Film Festival are: Comrade Sister by Party member Phyliss Jackson, Panthers ir, Africa ( a fil m about Pete and Charlotte O'Neal work in Tanzania). Also we will be showing Films in the Works, a few are History of the Hood, The Black . Gangs of LA 1943-1973 and 41th St and Centra(The untold story of tne Southern California Chapter of the BPP these two films are by Director . Gregory "G Bone" Everett, whose father was a LA Panther. b' Cox"", Barbara Cox, Al Carrol, John Former BPP ~ Brown, Landon, David and Elaine ~ came through. I was sent to Philly, Members Weigh In i Baltimore and New Haven. I came out Continued from page 15 ! to Oakland from H_ouston, Texa~ in ~ 1974. I am glad that I did. The BPP 1 the gentrificati?n has_ se~arated ~eo- 1' ·~ 11· :j llild~~ '"''~ ~ grew . · the Oakl~nd_ Community pie and th~t un_zty_ feelmg m the neigh- , / • ,.q.. ~.,! ! ••• • ,,:; ::::: Learnmg Center, w~thm ·that was the. borhoods is missmg. . . ~ft,.: "4 ·9J. · :g ' Oakland. Commumty School. Th~t "As far as the Ten-Pomt Program ·· ' g,3i;;,, El ' school will always be a br.6ht spot m goes, it has a lifetime effect in making · Sister Sheba Haven stood- the party's history: I worked there, different decisions regarding what to security for the 1971 .funeral hard work, too, in .the. maintenance do, today, in relati~n to l)llderstanding of BPP Field Marshal George section with Roland Reid as . my the plight of our people. But it seems Jackson at Oakland's St Section Leader. Phyllis Jackson w·as like it has been a backward slide in A t· E . I h h · our coordinator. Ralph Moore from .nk . ugus me p1scopa c urc . . terms o f know Ie d ge.. . I t hi it meant Tennessee, Donna Howe 11 , Haven a lot then. I guess there was more unity Henderson, Ayanna Ade (Gwen ... such as patrolling our community . and an opportunity to heal the rifts in Johnson), Steve McCuthen and many and taking on responsibility, for which the community, get busy · to solve other comrades. Flores took me under the Black Panther Party was setting some of the mounting problems our Henry "Mitch'' Mitchell his wings. . .. examples - thafs what is missing people face. ' It was an honor to cut the grass at today, and that's why the Ten-Point "You got all these black historical Huey's mother's house. I loved Huey Program is still needed today." colleges in the South that don't work Henry "Mitch" Mitchell is from then and still do. Got back to New together. We still have to work togeth- Harlem, NYC and is a retired city York in 1979. Retired from my NY Sheba Haven graduated from . er. People with money and resources worker, and the current Chair of a City job. I'm now the Chair of a Black Castlemont High School, Oakland, CA need to band together to help less for- Black History Committee of Local Hist9ry Committee at Local 1320. I in 1970. She was active and received a tunate brothers and sisters, by sup- l 32Q of the New York City Sewage also, work with the Grassroots Artist full scholarship from the University of porting, participating, and organizing Treatment & Senior Sewage Treatment Movement, G.A.M.E. California, but instead ofaccepting the positive programs and networks Workers DC 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO Huey thought that no one has all scholarship, she joined the Black where there is a need, like the people the answers, nor the last word. We Panther Party. Today, Sister Sheba is in the southern Gulf region; people "This is Henry 'Mitch' Mitchell. · Black people want to be free. The Ten- active with It's About- Time: Black need programs that uplift their plight, It's good to be back in Oakland, to Point Program and the blood of all our Parither Party. especially people who are trapped meet and greet all the comrades. I fallen comrades of our beloved BPP "We· can be a good example, that : into a cycle of poverty. And that is joined the BPP in late 1968 at the lighted the way for me. '. - ·,is, 'this is .another,oppbrtuility that th.e. ·,. -why (h~'::ren...:Poin.f .Ptogranld s..ne.eded .~.Harlem-branch. .Za)(.d,. Alex .Rackley - - .. - • .AlLEowet. To .'.The,;P eople, . • • • · t ,...... t . t' . ' A 1· "' .,_,.. ... ···~· (· c·' ' ,. r,,, ,, 1 ~,r Tf,,.,.,._ff,,.,,.,,,. ..,..,..,. '1"l'i!s""l"i!~•'l-lf..ll'~ ....~ ...... ~, .•.•.••~ ...... ~ 1!l"·······•·"l·'.Pt,...... ,• .•, "t ••••, • •~ ' ', '° ' ~u