The Black Panther Party: Heroes and Pariahs

Most bay area natives, especially those over the age of 40, are familiar with the Black Panther Party (BPP) and their legacy. The BPP and the personalities that emerged from it, has captured the imaginations of many. The current BPP refers to themselves historically as:

"a progressive political organization that stood in the vanguard of the most powerful movement for social change in America since the Revolution of 1776 and the Civil War: that dynamic episode generally referred to as The Sixties. It is the sole black organization in the entire history of black struggle against slavery and oppression in the United States that was armed and promoted a revolutionary agenda, and it represents the last great thrust by the mass of black people for equality, justice and freedom."
Others have referred to the BPP as an “African American revolutionary left-wing organization,” terrorists and or community heroes. Regardless of what side of the polemical pole you stand on, the Black Panther Party has left a lasting legacy in the history of America, and its relations to social activist groups.

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, as the group was initially called, was “founded in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton on October 15, 1966, the organization initially set forth a doctrine calling primarily for the protection of African American neighborhoods from police brutality. “ Their political leftist leanings and counter-culture ideologies, ensured that the BPP would eventually be put on the FBI’s terrorist watch list. So much so that the FBI, through their COINTELPRO program, attempted to discredit and tear the group apart. At one time, J. Edgar Hoover , the head of the FBI, called the BPP-
"The greatest threat to the internal security of the country..”
But on top of what some saw as negatives, the BPP also did many good things for their communities’ nationwide: free food giveaway programs, community health classes, keeping a watchful on local police forces to cut down on police brutality against Blacks and a free breakfast for children program. If no longer considered one of the greatest threats, the Black Panther Party is an oft-written about entity whose history and legacy will not dissipate anytime soon.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY-

Howard L. Bingham's Black Panthers, 1968
The Black Panthers : photographs
Revolutionary suicide
The Huey P. Newton reader
Assata : an autobiography
Seize the time : the story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton
Black Panther : the revolutionary art of Emory Douglas
The Black Panthers Speak
Black Panther[videorecording] ; San Francisco State on strike
In search of common ground : conversations with Erik H. Erikson and Huey P. Newton
In search of the Black Panther Party : new perspectives on a revolutionary movement
A Panther is a black cat

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAYARD RUSTIN

Bayard Rustin- civil rights activist, master strategist, counselor to Martin Luther King on techniques of non-violence, main organizer for King's march on Washington.  With such a resume, it is surprising that few Americans have probably heard of Rustin.  Bayard Rustin was also an openly gay man and this is wherein the problem lies.  A few active in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's fought to have Rustin removed as King's advisor, Senator Adam Clayton Powell went as far as to blackmail King with outting him and Rustin as lovers if he didn't remove Rustin.  Even though there was no proof to this allegation, King acquiesced, accepting Rustin's letter of resignation. 
Rustin was later asked back into the fold and became the chief organizer and strategist for the now famous March On Washington.  So Happy 98th Birthday Bayard Rustin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi4AWjt9Bv0&feature=related

Books and Videos on Bayard Rustin:
Lost prophet : the life and times of Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin : troubles I've seen : a biography
Bayard Rustin : American dreamer
Bayard Rustin : behind the scenes of the civil rights movement
Brother outsider [videorecording] : the life of Bayard Rustin

THIS FAR BY FAITH: religious views throughout the African Disapora

Wherever Africans have traveled throughout the African Diaspora, religion has always played a major role in the ordering of their lives, their worldview and how they ascribe meaning to their lives. Daily, and almost casually, it can be heard, African Americans, saint and sinner alike, when stressed calling on the name of the Jesus. In the movie Kingdom Come, the not-so-religious character Charisse Slocumb played by Jada Pinkett Smith, screams “LORD TAKE ME NOW!” as she falls out at the funeral of her father. This hyper dramatized scene plays out daily in the black community.


Africans have always been adaptable when it came to religion- Vodou, Hoodoo, Candomble, Santeria and other new world traditions are all syncretic religions.  For Africans, tradtionally, faith was imbued in everything they did, Africans carried with them their faith.  Rev. Peter E. Adotey Addo says " ...the private and public life of the African religious rites, beliefs, and rituals are considered an integral part of life.  Life... is never complete unless it is seen always in its entirety. Religious beliefs are found in everyday life and no distinction is made between the sacred and the secular. The sacred and the secular are merged in the total persona of the individual African. Life is not divided into compartments or divisions."




Below find a list of materials housed in the African American Center to speak to the religious views held throughout the African Diaspora.



This Far By Faith: stories from the African American Religious Experience

African Beliefs in the New World

Introduction to African Religion

Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief

The History of the Negro Church

Yakub: the Father of Man-kind

Ifism- the complete works of Orunmila vols. 6 & 7

Botanica Los Angeles: Latino popular religious art in the City of Angels

The Neteru of Kemet

History of Islam in Africa

How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind

How God Became African

Down Up and Over: slave religion and black theology

African Gods: contemporary rituals and beliefs

IN MEMORIUM- LUCILLE CLIFTON

On Saturday, February 13, 2010 prolific, and widely-acclaimed poet Lucille Clifton died. Clifton was a poets poet a great teacher of poetry and highly decorated for her work.  Lucille Clifton was the first author to have two books of poetry chosen as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir, 1969-1980 (1987) and Next: New Poems (1987). A bio of the award winning writer can be found here. 
Share

GOOD TIMES
my daddy has paid the rent
and the insurance man is gone
and the lights is back on
and my uncle brud has hit
for one dollar straight
and they is good times

good times
good times

my mama has made bread
and grampaw has come
and everybody is drunk
and dancing in the kitchen
and singing in the kitchen
of these is good times

good times
good times

oh children think about the

good times

Lucille Clifton

Readings: books by and about Lucille Clifton-

Generations : a memoir

Good woman : poems and a memoir, 1969-1980

Mercy : poems

Voices : poems

Some of the days of Everett Anderson

One of the problems of Everett Anderson

BLACK HISTORY MONTH HISTORY

The oft asked question by many African Americans is, “why do blacks get the shortest month of the year to celebrate their heritage?” Well there is no conspiracy here. Black History Month was founded by historian and “Father of Negro History,” Dr. Carter G Woodson in 1926 as "Negro History Week". Woodson initially chose the second week of February because it marked the birthdays of two Americans whom he felt greatly influenced the lives and social condition of African Americans: President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass.
Black History Week provided an opportunity for lectures, performances and teach-ins on black history and culture. In the 1970’s The Association of Negro Life and History (later Association for the Study of Afro American Life and History) independently expanded the week celebration and renamed it Black History Month.

AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH TRIVIA

1-

WHAT WAS MALCOLM X’S REAL NAME?

2-
WHAT ARE THE FIVE PERCENTERS?

3-
WHAT IS THE TALENTED TENTH AND WHICH AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOLAR AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST MADE THE TERM POPULAR?

4-
WHO GAVE THE ATLANTA COMPROMISE SPEECH?

5-
WHO WAS THE LEADER OF THE SLAVE REVOLUTION THAT BROUGHT INDEPENDENCE TO HAITI?

6-
WHICH RAP GROUP HAS A BOOK PROVIDING INFORMATION ON THE BASIC PRINCIPLES, PHILOSOPHY, AND SPIRITUALITY OF THE GROUP?

7-
WHICH ACTIVIST/SCHOLAR CREATED HIS OWN AFRICAN BASED HOLIDAY FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS ?

8-
THIS WRITER WAS THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN TO WIN A PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY?

9-
WHICH LAW LEGALLY AND CONSTITIONALLY GAVE BLACKS THE RIGHT TO VOTE?

10-
WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE AFRICAN NATION REPATRIATED BY AMERICAN SLAVES?
11-
LEROI JONES CHANGED HIS NAME TO THIS, HIS MORE FAMILIAR NOM DE PLUME?
12-
WHICH LAW SCHOOL DID BARACK OBAMA ATTEND?

13-
THIS MAN HAS BEEN CALLED THE FATHER OF NEGRO HISTORY, AS WELL AS BEING THE FOUNDER OF THE THEN “NEGRO HISTORY WEEK”.


14-
THIS GREAT GRANDSON OF SLAVES, HAS BEEN CALLED THE FOUNDER OF MODERN RUSSIAN POETRY?





Answers and Book titles for further research:

1-
Malcolm Little
The autobiography of Malcolm X / with the assistance of Alex Haley
Malcolm : the life of a man who changed Black America

2-
The term Five Percent comes from NOI(Nation of Islam) doctrine that sees the world population divided into three groups: 85% of the people are blind to the knowledge of themselves and God, while 10% of the people know the truth but teach a lie for their personal gain; seen as part of this 10% are Christian preachers that teach that God is an incorporeal being (hence the term "mystery God"). The remaining 5% are the poor righteous teachers—those who do not subscribe to the teachings of the 10% as they know and teach that God is the Blackman [sic] of Asia. "Black" in Five-Percent doctrine includes all non-caucasians and "Asia" refers to the whole planet Earth, or Pangea
The Five Percenters : Islam, hip hop and the gods of New York

3-
Describes the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in social change. He believed they needed a classical liberal education to reach their true destiny as what would in the 20th century be called public intellectuals.

Transcending the talented tenth: Black leaders and American intellectuals
The Negro problem / contributions by Booker T. Washington

4-
Booker T Washington
Say it plain: a century of great African American speeches

Booker T. Washington and his critics: Black leadership in crisis

5-
Toussaint L'Overture
The Black Jacobins
Toussaint Louverture : a biography

6-
Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang manual
The nine rings of Wu-tang

7-
Maulana Karenga (Ron Everett)
The African American holiday of Kwanzaa : a celebration of family, community & culture
Fighting for US : Maulana Karenga, the US organization, and black cultural nationalism

8-
Gwendolyn Brooks
Annie Allen
Report from part one.
 
9-
15th Amendment
The two reconstructions : the struggle for Black enfranchisement
The Voting rights act : securing the ballot


10-
Liberia
The price of liberty : African Americans and the making of Liberia
Liberia : portrait of a failed state

11-
Amiri Baraka
The autobiography of LeRoi Jones

12-
Harvard
The audacity of hope : thoughts on reclaiming the American dream
Dreams from my father : a story of race and inheritance

13-
Carter G Woodson
The African background outlined; or, Handbook for the study of the Negro
The mis-education of the Negro

14-
Alexander Pushkin
The collected stories  
Eugene Onegin and other poems

FACES OF GHANA EXHIBIT

Marcus Lorenzo Penn, M.D. is a physician by training but truly a photographer by passion. He has traveled much of the world gathering many photos of his experiences. His travels have taken him to six of the seven continents and to West Africa in 2007. From this trip Dr. Penn has created a photo series called Faces of Ghana from his very own Marc Lorenz Photography Collection. The primary intention of his photography simply involves, “Sharing the world with the world, one photo and one face at a time.” He seeks to inform, to empower and to heal all those who encounter his art pieces.

Dr. Penn envisions this to be a healing exposition, where the two “West Coasts” of Africa and America meet at one place, where the Diaspora meets the Domestic, where the world is shared with the world one photo and face at a time. The Faces of Ghana photo series will reveal the happiness that many Americans do not see of Africa. The Places of Ghana photo series reveals the paradox of visual beauty and historical brutality felt at the remnant castles of the West African slave trade. Dr. Penn provides short captions of his thoughts and feelings for each photo in this exhibit to bring people along the journey with him.

People will see grandmothers, uncles, sisters, cousins and more in the faces showcased. In essence, this exhibit will serve as a place of reunion for families of the Diaspora. It is an honor and privilege for the San Francisco Public Library to be the vessel for this process to take place.