TIM HAYES'

While the party began with a heavily male-focused public image, women joined in massive numbers, reaching an estimated 60% to 70% of total membership by the decade’s turn. As male leaders faced intense law enforcement crackdowns, arrests, and deaths, women stepped up to run local chapters, direct national operations, and manage administrative ranks. As early as Feb. 1969 I attended meetings in several Panther chapters with themes of “Ending Male chauvinism in the Party” And as more women took positions we often talked about how the white “women”s liberation” movement mostly excluded input from Black and Brown women…and many women in the Panthers and the Young Lords ( our mostly Latino comrades) started using the word “Womanism” to separate themselves from what they felt was still a largely racist movement. Female members organized and operated the iconic Free Breakfast Program, free medical clinics, and ambulance services… Often still having male members do the “cooking and serving” Female members directed community schools like the Inter-Communal Youth Institute, offering holistic education and teaching children historical awareness. Notably Elaine Brown Served as the first and only chairwoman of the party from 1974 to 1977, guiding its political and social direction…This is not to say that we managed to completely “purge” the Black Panther Party of sexism…Unlike SNCC and CORE and most other Black Militant movements of the time …the Panther’s were not “College student based” we did a lot of recruiting on campus but most of us came from the streets and working class or below backgrounds this made it a real struggle to get ideas of sexual equality in the mix …but even then NONE of the other Black militant groups even talked about sexism and patriarchy and homophobia until the 80s. In that regard we were pioneers..IT’S BLACK PANTHER PARTY HISTORY AND LEGACY MONTH We learn a lot from the lessons of the past.

It’s still Black Panther Party History month. One of the hardest times for the Black Panther Party was the arrests and trials of “The New York 21” a classic “provocateur” action by the United States government. That became a standard way to tie the organization up with bogus court cases and huge legal fees. The “New York 21” later called The Panther 21 were a group of New York Black Panther Party (BPP) members who were arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in a pre-dawn raid on April 2, 1969. The 21 arrested Panthers—at first called the “New York 21” but later referred to as the “Panther 21″—were charged with over 200 counts of conspiracy in what was characterized as a BPP terror campaign against the city of New York, including attacking police stations, murdering police officers, and bombing public buildings.
“By the time the trial began in October 1970, the case had been narrowed to 13 defendants and 156 counts of conspiracy. The trial lasted seven months and was the longest and costliest in New York state history. When it concluded in May 1971, after revelations that undercover police agents in the BPP had played key instigator roles, the jury acquitted all 13 defendants of all charges..This method of arresting Panthers for “made up” charges or for crimes actually committed by paid informants became an on going problem for the rest of the party’s existence …… At 4:30 a.m. on April 2, 1969, the NYPD’s Bureau of Special Services performed a coordinated raid on the homes of twenty-one members of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party. The arrestees, nineteen men and two women, were charged by Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan with conspiring to “murder policemen and blow up four police stations, five department stores, railroad lines, the Queens Board of Education building, and the Bronx Botanical Gardens.”
The arrested New York Panthers were:
Sundiata Acoli (a.k.a. Clark Squire)
Kuwasi Balagoon (a.k.a. Donald Weems)
Joan Bird
Cetewayo (a.k.a. Michael Tabor)
Robert S. Collier
Lonnie Epps
Richard Harris
Ali Bey Hassan (a.k.a John J. Casson)
Jamal Joseph (a.k.a. Eddie Joseph)
Abayama Katara (a.k.a. Alex McKiever)
Kwando Kinshasa (a.k.a. William King Jr.)
Larry Mack
Mkuba (a.k.a. Lee Berry)
Mshina (a.k.a. Thomas Berry)
Baba Odinga (a.k.a. Walter Johnson)
Sekou Odinga (a.k.a. Nathaniel Burns and Nathaniel Williams)
Shaba Om (a.k.a. Lee Roper)
Curtis Powell
Afeni Shakur (a.k.a. Alice Williams)
Lumumba Abdul Shakur (a.k.a. Anthony Coston)
Dhoruba bin Wahad (a.k.a. Richard Moore).

As we remember the horror of the Oct. 7 raid by Hamas ..And the memory of the Israeli lives taken. Oppressed people around the world also should remember that nothing happens in a vacuum . The dehumanization , abuse , and herding like cattle, daily murders with little or no consequences , destruction of homes , land theft , mass incarceration, destruction of infrastructure as soon as it’s built among other things that the people of Palestine continue to suffer . pre date the October Hamas raid by decades. I grew up listening to survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto describe not just the horror of being forced to live in that “open air prison” but also stories of Jewish girls who would invite Nazi soldiers into spaces only to have them shot or stabbed to death by their cousins. Or the great rebellion in Warsaw April 19, 1943, when Nazis as well as Jewish people who were thought to be collaborators were hunted and killed by Jewish rebels. Not only were people who survived that ghetto and that rebellion as well as lived through the death camp “Treblinka” the people who first exposed me to the civil rights movement …they were also the first people to explain to me the horror of the abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel and the first people I heard who named it “Apartheid”. They were all Jewish and all people who knew injustice and oppression when they saw it. They were also good teachers and helped put me on a path I’m still on. People who are treated horribly will eventually commit horrors not unlike what was done to them. This is the true lesson of Oct 7th. The best way to remember the people who were killed on October 7 is justice and true equality for the people of Palestine AND Israel…..”from the river to the sea”

I actually wrote this two years ago. But it just triggered a powerful memory… WOW…..just WOW. Music has such power. I was just sitting at the computer doing a “deep dive” into the music of Isaac Hayes. It’s his birthday today. And when I got to this “funk opus””Hyperbolicsyllablecsesquedalymistic”…it took me right back to the winter of ’69-70” …I was a college student but already a member of the Black Panther Party working with a group called “The Georgia Black Liberation Front” setting up a “free breakfast program” the very first day we were setting up for the kids who were already on the way. this song was playing on the 8 track tape player and in walked this glorious group of “Fine—FINE” young Black women who were from Morris Brown college and Spelman college…both just blocks away…..stunning ……all 5 of them. And they got right to work taking over from me cooking the grits and told me to get something to write down the names of all the kids we served and try to get addresses. It was difficult at that age to not be distracted by the women themselves …but being young and trying to impress we all complied. I think we got about 16-17 kids that first morning. …As time went on some of these women became members..and some just continued to volunteer ….but such a strong memory all triggered by hearing this song this morning….Oh yeah the song itself is a classic example of “hard funk” …spare…minimal instrumentation ..and lot’s of space between the notes. Both Isaac Hayes and that other “master of funk” keyboardist Art Neville of the Meters on different occasions told me..”It ain’t really “funk” if there ain’t space in there” I always remember that. But HAPPY BIRTHDAY Isaac Hayes…and were ever you are..go to the YOUTUBE link….Thanks for the Funk…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziKbBLUvv9Y

1966 thru about 1976 were a very different time in America…The Civil rights movement had shifted to a different level. Black activists like the members of the Black Panther Party were identifying and communicating with revolutionary and anti colonial movements all over the world ….the revolution we spoke of by then was not just about what was happening in America. The Black Panther Party and a small number of related groups were considered “the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States”. And the Panthers and other organizations talking about not just “civil rights” But support for the raging anti colonial wars in Africa and Asia, became specific targets for the FBI and the CIA as well. Many members were incarcerated..mostly awaiting trial on often ” trumped up” charges…Not only were members of the Panthers in countless prisons all over the country….many of them had begun to organize in the prisons. Probably the most well known “prison Panther” was the great George Jackson In 1970 he was one of three prisoners dubbed the “Soledad Brothers”. They were charged with the murder at Soledad Prison of corrections officer John V. Mills, allegedly in retaliation for the shooting deaths of three black inmates by a white prison guard several days prior. Also in 1970, Jackson published Soledad Brother, a collection of his letters that comprised a combination autobiography and manifesto addressed primarily to an African-American audience, but which was embraced by radicals around the world. The book was a bestseller and earned Jackson international fame.. On August 7, 1970, a heavily armed 17-year-old named Jonathan P. Jackson staged a courtroom takeover and hostage situation at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California. His goal was to force the state to free the Soledad Brothers, a group of Black prisoners that included his older brother, George Jackson. Jackson walked into a courtroom where Judge Harold Haley was presiding over a prisoner’s trial. He opened a bag, pulled out guns, and armed local prisoner James McClain along with inmate witnesses Ruchell Magee and William A. Christmas.The group took Judge Haley, prosecutor Gary Thomas, and three female jurors hostage.They moved to a van outside to escape with their hostages.Police and security guards shot at the van as it tried to leave. Four people died in the gunfire: Jonathan Jackson, Judge Haley, James McClain, and William A. Christmas.Prosecutor Gary Thomas and prisoner Ruchell Magee were badly hurt. Thomas was left paralyzed. Activist Angela Davis later faced charges because she legally owned the guns used in the attack, but a jury eventually found her not guilty.The date is remembered today by activists as part of the roots of “Black August”. That culture of Black Revolutionaries communicated and closely allied with revolutionaries and anti=colonial armies for all practical purposes does not exist much anymore. I spent most of 1971 in West Africa …Angola and Guinea Bissau, both countries colonies of Portugal and in a bloody struggle for independence . I got to meet South Africans and meet members of some of the Allied movements like “SWAPO” The South West Africa People’s Organisation officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia. And “Frelimo”, short for Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Mozambique Liberation Front)..ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) mainly because members of these anti-colonial armies often trained each other. Some of the most dangerous people l ever met were South Africans who could no longer set foot in their own country…there were other people from other struggles…but eventually this lead me to Lebanon ….where you could meet “freedom fighters from all over the world in 1970-71. I got to meet Palestinians for the first time there as well as members of the “Pathet Lao” ….the liberation army of Laos…and of course that lead to meeting members of the “National Liberation Front of Vietnam”….the Viet Cong…..the very people half the guys I went to elementary school with had been dragged off to fight in a nasty war. All these people in all these different movements talked to each other ….all the time….Many people called it a “golden age” of revolutionaries That time is over now …but the spirit of worldwide struggle for freedom, justice and equality lives…it lives through those of us who were there and are still alive and fighting …and the spirit of struggle lives too through the generations that have listened ….and people who believe …In BLACK AUGUST we remember the worldwide struggle, and pay tribute to the fighters. And push the agenda of change….

As we remember the horror of the Oct. 7 raid by Hamas ..And the memory of the Israeli lives taken. Oppressed people around the world also should remember that nothing happens in a vacuum . The dehumanization , abuse , and herding like cattle, daily murders with little or no consequences , destruction of homes , land theft , mass incarceration, destruction of infrastructure as soon as it’s built among other things that the people of Palestine continue to suffer . pre date the October Hamas raid by decades. I grew up listening to survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto describe not just the horror of being forced to live in that “open air prison” but also stories of Jewish girls who would invite Nazi soldiers into spaces only to have them shot or stabbed to death by their cousins. Or the great rebellion in Warsaw April 19, 1943, when Nazis as well as Jewish people who were thought to be collaborators were hunted and killed by Jewish rebels. Not only were people who survived that ghetto and that rebellion as well as lived through the death camp “Treblinka” the people who first exposed me to the civil rights movement …they were also the first people to explain to me the horror of the abuse of the Palestinian people by Israel and the first people I heard who named it “Apartheid”. They were all Jewish and all people who knew injustice and oppression when they saw it. They were also good teachers and helped put me on a path I’m still on. People who are treated horribly will eventually commit horrors not unlike what was done to them. This is the true lesson of Oct 7th. The best way to remember the people who were killed on October 7 is justice and true equality for the people of Palestine AND Israel…..”from the river to the sea”

I’m in bed today, recovering from something I’m not going to talk about. But I’m watching the news coverage of Israeli families happy because loved ones have been returned, some alive… some not. At the same time we all know.. in the back of our minds that thousands of Palestinian people still have loved ones in illegal detention, close to 10,000 or more, children, men and women held in Israeli dungeons.
Who also have families that mourn or miss them..or both. The concept of race is not real. Who is “Black” and who is “White” is actually all in your head. The fact that you can call Hamas “terrorists” and call the Israeli government something else is actually the worst manifestation of “white supremacy” in current memory. I remember how in 1990s British and American soldiers used the words “sand niggers” for the Arab populations they were called on to fight against. Niggers and Terrorists, they are what ever population you as white people need them to be..On October 7th a group of Arabs did the same horrible things that had been done to them by some Israeli people for decades. But on a much smaller scale. Now we look at the ruins of Gaza…an open air prison turned into a giant grave yard. And the media asks you to mourn the loss of life of one population and not the other. After all, they are just dead “sand niggers”… like it or not… this too is white supremacy. Taking my meds now and trying to get better. What a f**king world.

While the pathologys of the kind of gun violence that happened a few blocks away from me two nights in a row. The handgun urban grudge shooting. And the psycho driven schools/church/workplace mass shootings. Are very different. And different strategies are required to end them. The root cause of both is the way many Americans see their right to “bear arms” and our almost insane failure to pass and enforce responsible gun laws. There is no “one policy fits all”… even countries with even easier to get guns don’t have the horrible tendencies to “pull the trigger to solve the problem” like our country does. I work with gun offenders and gun victims all the time. I don’t have all the answers but I know that this is rooted in the fact that we lie. We lie about what America is… and we lie about the fact that most of what made America was not “freedom for all”… but freedom for those who had the power to use violence to take it. It is simply easier for an American to pull the trigger to solve their problems than any people on earth. It has become a part of this country’s DNA..l am past giving a damn if you don’t agree

There is a big difference in what it takes out of you to talk to a large group of people about what they can do to get guns away from our children. Saying the right words to get them to see parenting differently. Creating a sense of urgency. Getting over the feeling of invading their child’s privacy. ..a lot of other stuff. But the one on one of talking to a young person who is convinced that that weapon they went out and got is the only way to deal with what they see in the moment as a problem, sometimes with triggers that have been at work inside them for a long time.. takes an entirely different skill set and also seems to suck something out of you when you have to do the same thing just a few days later. You go home and look at pictures of your middle aged children. You just want every Black parent to be blessed enough to be able to do that. It’s not like when I was in SNCC or the Black Panther Party… even though in the Panthers I did some times serve “the people” one family at a time. Most of the time we dealt in “broad strokes”..This is something “primal”…I just get to see too many people put their children in a box…in the ground. Ok …. l’m gonna go pull up weeds in the yard, then cut up some cucumbers to make pickles…l just kinda need to think on paper sometimes…… just an old head talking.