KEVIN: Thank you for coming out.
On behalf of the Black
Student Union, we have--
this is our special Black
Panther History Month event.
We have special guest speakers,
Billy X and Instructor Judy
Juanita here to tell about
the history and culture
of the Black Panther Party
and in honor of the breakfast
program that was so,
so popular and made
such an impact in
our communities
today, and has been a program
model for many communities
out there around
the world as far
as honoring the legacy
of the Black Panther
Party and the contribution
to the community.
So that's one of the importance
of why we're here today.
It's 50 years since our
breakfast program has started.
And it was immediately
big, feeding the people
and taking care to the
immediate neighbor next to you.
And it was deemed as a threat
to the United States government
because they were
actually doing something
that needed to be done, that
is basic needs of the people.
So, you know, that's what black
culture and the Black Panther
Party is about, is
about taking care
of the needs of the people,
protecting their best
interests, self-defense,
and we just
want to continue to
honor that legacy here
in 2019 at Laney College Black
Student Union here in Oakland.
So, I'm going to go ahead
and get things started.
We have first
speaker is Eseibio.
He has a table in the back.
And he has a lot of Black
Panther memorabilia.
And he will be introducing
himself and stating
a little bit of the history
of the Black Panther
Party, Eseibio.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY:
Power to the people.
We're going to start it off
with a little bit of call
and response.
So when I say "power
to the people,"
I want you all to say
"power to the people."
All power to the people.
AUDIENCE: All power
to the people.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY: All
power to the people.
AUDIENCE: All power
to the people.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY: All
power so that people.
AUDIENCE: All power
to the people.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY: See,
OK, I'll tell you
a little bit about myself.
My name is Eseibio.
Holiday.
AKA The Revolutionary Eseibio.
The Automatic.
I'm a hip hop revolutionary.
I've got a group called the
Black Brown Unity Project.
And we are committed
to advancing the legacy
of the Black Panther
Party 10-Point Platform,
as written by Dr. Huey P. Newton
Bobby Seale in 1966 through
music, art, fashion, film,
hip hop, modeling, theatre,
photography, and everything
that has to do with the arts.
We won't compromise our
mission by accepting
any government funds or funds
with any strings attached.
We are calling on everybody
who supports our movement
to support us by
making a donation.
You can go to the
table or go online,
listen to some of our music.
Because we're going to take
the money and make as many t
t-shirts as possible.
And we're to travel
from Africa to Brazil,
and do our hip hop in the
10-Point Platform workshop.
You know what I mean?
And so right now, we're
going to kick it off,
me my comrade Kevin, we're going
to say that 10-Point Platform.
So, in a little bit about the
history of the Black Panther
Party and every newspaper,
it was the 10-Point Platform.
So point number one,
we want freedom.
We want the power to
determine the destiny
of our black and
oppressed community.
KEVIN: Point number two,
we want full employment
for all our people.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY:
Point number three, we
want an end to the
robbery by the capitalists
of the black and
oppressed community.
KEVIN: Point number
four, we want
decent housing fit for the
shelter of human beings.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY:
Point number five
is especially
important because we're
right here at Laney College.
We want an education
that exposes
the true nature of this
decadent American society
and teaches us our true
position in history.
KEVIN: Point number six, we want
all black males and females--
updated, you know-- to be
exempt from the United States
military.
We believe that we are the
first outlook and outreach
to self-defense, and protecting
ourselves, and making sure
that our community and
our people are safe.
So yeah, we want people
out of the military service
that's not serving
us as a people,
and really contribute
it to protecting
this land and our people.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY: That's
point number eight.
But point number six, we want
completely free health care.
We want completely
free health care
for our black and
oppressed people.
KEVIN: Point number seven,
we want immediate end
to police brutality and
the murder of black people.
It's time for a change, y'all.
It's 2019.
It's still going on.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY: I say.
Now point number eight
is we want an end
to all wars of aggression.
And we want all
black people to be
exempt from military service.
KEVIN: Point number
nine, we demand a trial
by jury of our peers.
Those who will represent
us in our near community,
we believe that they should
be trialing and giving us
our justice in our community.
ESEIBIO HOLIDAY: Last but
not least, point number 10.
We want land, bread, housing,
clothing, education, justice,
and peace, and people's
control of modern technology.
Now, those are the things
that the Black Panthers wanted
and that the community
wanted in 1966.
And it also goes on to talk
about what they believe.
But now in 2019, is up to the
young people in the community
to go into their own
community and find out
the needs of their own
community of today in 2019.
And pick up the torch
and carry on the legacy.
So with that, we're going to
kick it off and say, I say--
AUDIENCE: I say.
Power to the people.
KEVIN: Thank you,
appreciate you,
Eseibio coming out
and introducing us
to the Panther
memorabilia and paperwork.
We will carry on.
And I will introduce you
to our next guest speaker.
Our next guest speaker
has put many, many years
as far as involvement
in the Black
Panther Party, and
community contributions,
and continuing the legacy, and
making this the Black Panther
legacy still prominent
potent to this day.
So I'd like to introduce
Billy X, former Black Panther
and Panther organizer.
BILLY X: Thank you.
My name is Billy X Jennings.
I'm a former member of
the Black Panther Party.
I joined the Party
when I was 17 in 1968.
I had just graduated
from high school.
And I was attending Laney
College in the summer of '68.
And there was Panthers on the
campus selling Black Panther
Party newspapers.
And I started buying
them on a weekly basis.
And so, the next
month, I was sitting
in my 11:00 to my 11:50
criminology class on Laney
campus.
Just to inform you, back in the
day this campus was not here.
This campus was back on the
other side of the lake there.
So back where the
board of education was,
that's where the Laney College
campus was at originally.
Then it moved here later.
But back in those days, I was
attending my criminology class
from 11:00 to 11:50.
And I heard Huey Newtons'
trial had just started.
And you could hear them chanting
"free Huey" from Laney College.
So after my class was over,
around about 11:50, me
and my friends bounced
out of the class
and walked around to Huey's
trial had just started.
And so I started
picking up information.
So the Black Panther
Party opened up an office
and 73rd and East 14th.
That was the first in venturing
the party into East Oakland.
So I was living, at that
time, on 75th and Spencer.
And the Panther office was
right on the corner of 73rd.
And you had to pass the office
in order to get on the bus.
So I signed up to
become a Panther.
And you don't become
a Panther immediately.
You have to go
through a six to eight
week training period, right?
So there was a book
list that's given
to you from the very start.
Maybe 35 different books--
books by Fanon, by Du
Bois, Frederick Douglass,
Che Guevara, Fidel Castro,
Lumumba, other revolutionaries.
Those are books you had to
read and study, and attend
political education
class, right?
And so I started
becoming a member.
And another thing that you
had to do to become a Panther,
you had to require a weapon
because the Black Panther
Party was a self-defense group.
Black Panther Party was a
revolutionary organization
that believed in self-defense.
We're kind of a different
from any other group that
came before us because we
believed in self-defense.
We believed in the
word of Malcolm X.
We called ourselves the
Children of Malcolm.
So when I first
joined the Party,
we started attending political
education classes twice a week.
Also, you're assigned
to a jurisdiction,
like, say, to a 20-block
or 10-block square area.
So after selling the Black
Panther Party newspaper
during the day, you would maybe
go into the community at night
and go door-to-door,
and find out what
people needed in the community.
So I did that for a few years.
I sold the Black
Panther Party newspaper
and on Laney College campus.
So in January 1969,
the Black Panther Party
had been talking about this
for maybe eight or nine months,
about a breakfast program.
So the breakfast program
kicked off in January 1969
at West Oakland, at 27th and
West at St. Augustine Church.
This was a very
significant program
the Black Panther Party had.
Because during that time,
Oakland's poverty level
was below the government
poverty level.
So you had many poor people
in Oakland, East Oakland
and West Oakland.
And at that time, there was many
kids coming to school hungry.
And some even
fainted from hunger.
And so the city's concept
of dealing with the problem
was to take that kid home
so he could get some food.
But the logic of it is that if
he had food from the get-go,
he would have eaten it.
So there was a lot of
hunger in the community.
So the Black Panther
Party took it upon itself
to merge education and
nutrition together.
First time in American
history a group had done that.
So it started in West
Oakland, here in Oakland.
And within the first
month, at that time
it was the Black
Panther party's growth.
We had 48 chapters in 30
major cities in America.
So the program was very
successful people accepted it.
So Bobby Seale, in
January, declared
that every Black Panther
Party office across the nation
would start sponsoring these
free breakfast programs.
Now, what's very important
about the breakfast program is
because it showed
that the community--
that we cared about them, that
we wanted to solve problems
that were facing the
community, here on board here,
this is a typical
breakfast program.
You know, young kids--
most of our breakfast
programs were at churches.
You know, most churches
and community centers.
And so at St. Augustine Church,
that was run by Father Neil,
father Earl Neil was the
pastor of that church.
He went on to become
the minister of religion
for the Black Panther Party.
And right now at this very
day, he is in South Africa.
He is Desmond Tutu's
administrative assistant,
all right?
So at his church, we
started feeding kids.
Most of the kids were going to
Durant Elementary School, which
was along the path
where the church was.
So what we did was start--
we had five people on
the breakfast program.
We had one person who
was designated to walk
the kids across the street.
Because at that times, 6:00--
I mean 7:00 in the
morning, you had
a lot of people
rushing to go to work.
Then you had a
person at the desk
who would welcome
the kids in when
they came into the
church, who would
write their names down and ask
them what they're allergic to,
what they want, and
what they don't like.
Because there's no sense
of throwing food away
if they don't
particularly like what
you're having that
particular day.
So we had a person who
would serve the food.
And then after that, the
kids would go off to school.
Now, but by doing this, this
embarrassed the United States
government.
Because during this time,
the United States government
is saying that the Black Panther
Party is no good, we're thugs,
we're gangsters.
but we're feeding more people
in the morning than any program
that they have.
So by 1971, the government
was so embarrassed they had
to start a breakfast program.
So the breakfast program
that you see now in exist--
maybe your kids go
to it, or maybe you
went to it as a young person--
well, that breakfast program was
inspired by the Black Panther
Party.
Now, the government
says they feed something
like 13.5 million kids per year.
So, you can multiply that
by from 1971 to this day,
so there's millions and
millions of American kids
who have breakfast
in the morning.
But I bet 0% of them know
that the Black Panther
Party initiated this
program to feed them, right?
So this program is like
a part of the institution
of the community now.
You know?
Also, the Black Panther Party
started a number of programs,
social programs, at--
the flyer I gave
out, this right here,
it has the 10-point
Program in the back of it,
in the very last page.
And as it was read before, what
we want and what we believe--
what we believe is also printed
in the 10-Point Program.
So when Huey and Bobby put the
Black Panther Party program
together, we first started
out patrolling the police.
Because that was the
first immediate thing
we had to deal with.
I mean, there was
other things that
came before number seven,
which kind of dealt
with police brutality.
But that was immediate.
Because people were
dying from Hunter's
Point to Richmond every
week by police brutality
and being killed as well.
So the Black
Panther Party legacy
started out serving the people.
We started with the
breakfast program.
And we had a number
of other programs.
We had Black Panther Party
brought medical clinics.
We opened up 13 different
medical clinics across America.
And we featured
sickle cell anemia.
Sickle cell anemia was
the disease at that time
that people didn't
know about that.
If you had it, you
didn't know you had it.
And if you had it,
your doctor didn't
know what it was
because he didn't
know what it was until the
Black Panther Party started
doing research and defining
what sickle cell anemia was.
And not only that--
in this particular photo, we had
cadres going into the community
to give people sickle
cell anemia tests.
We didn't wait for people
to come to our clinics.
We went to where people were--
in public housing,
or at schools,
and other geographical
locations.
Now, when I first joined the
Party, we did a lot of work
in East Oakland.
I worked in the
East Oakland office.
And we had opened up
three breakfast program--
one on East Avenue and Douglas.
We opened up another
one in Jingletown,
over in the Fruitvale area.
And we opened up a breakfast
program on 68th Avenue, right?
And soon after that-- you've got
to remember this is 1968, 1969.
So also, that same year we
have liberation schools.
Because during that time--
it wasn't until I got
to Laney College in 1968
that I had my first black
history class, you know?
And we were studying from a book
called "Before the Mayflower."
And we would study
from another book
by LeRoi Jones called
"Blues People."
So, the Black Panther
Party was big on education.
Our thing was to educate
and organize people.
So we put out a newspaper
on a weekly basis, right?
So the Black Panther Party
newspaper came out every week.
It sold for $0.25.
And inside the paper was a
lot of solutions to problems,
right?
On this particular issue
of the Panther paper,
we were dealing with the
issues in the Bay Area.
And we have Laney College here.
And they were dealing
with problems.
Merritt College had just opened.
And Grocery College--
Alameda call it
hit it just opened.
So we will organize the
people in various ways.
In 1968, there was a big strike
at San Francisco State College.
Black Panther Party members
and students from San Francisco
State was a part of that.
Also, in the following year,
in 1969 at UC Berkeley,
there was a student strike
around ethnic studies.
Black Panther Party members
help to support the students
during that time.
And they were able to
secure ethnic studies, which
started in California and
went across the country.
So students and members
of the Black Panther Party
here in the Bay Area are
kind of responsible for a lot
of ethnic studies classes
throughout America.
Because ethnic
studies was passed,
I mean, it opened up
jobs for maybe 2,500
different professors
to be hired for tenure.
There was Asian
Alliance, Asian studies,
Mexican American studies,
Native American studies.
All these different
student-sponsored classes
came from efforts of
students who wanted
to change their education.
That goes back to number
five on the 10-Point Program
that we had read earlier.
Now, if you have a time to
check out this exhibit here,
we have women here.
This is dedicated to women in
the Black Panther Party, which
starts next month in March.
But this particular
picture here, Laney
played a very important part.
In this particular-- in
this picture right here,
we're giving out--
in 1972, we gave out
10,000 free bags of groceries.
In that picture,
you see Bobby Seale
putting food in those bags.
See, that was right
downstairs here, 1972.
So when we gave away
those 10,000 bags,
we used the BSU that Laney had
secured the students center.
So all those bags
of groceries you
see that was given out
at Oakland Auditorium
was started here.
We had the BSU would help--
BSU at Jew Laney, BSU at
Merritt, BSU at UC Berkeley,
Stanford, BSU--
all these BSUs came together to
help us launch these community
survival programs, right?
And so Laney plays a
very important part,
just like Merritt does.
Huey, and Bobby, and some
of the original Panthers
went the Merritt.
But many Black Panther Party
members went to Laney College
because they were
from East Oakland.
So I just wanted to hit on that.
Another thing I
wanted to talk about
was the Black Panther Party's
effort towards ending the war.
Black Panther Party
with anti-war.
During that time, the
Vietnam War was going on.
The Black Panther
Party was involved
in all the major demonstrations
here in the Bay Area
and across the country, as well
as we had an alliance with some
of the biggest groups,
like SDS, Students
for Democratic Society.
We had an alliance with the
Mob people, Mobilization
against the War.
Black Panther Party, we had
an alliance with many groups.
Some of the words that came
from the Black Panther Party
is "rainbow coalition."
That was our effort to
organize many different groups
across the country and work
in an organized-type manner.
One of the groups that we
worked with here on this campus
as well as in the streets,
was the United Farm Workers.
When Cesar Chavez was
organizing the grape strike
and the lettuce strike,
students from this campus
participated in
closing Safeway down.
Safeway was the
biggest distributor
of grapes and lettuce.
And Safeway was in East Oakland.
Safeway's main headquarters is
on 55th, right off of Seminary.
You know, so they were
distributing all these grapes
and stuff in the community.
So we was organizing--
we shut down Safeways throughout
San Francisco and Oakland
in support of the
United Farm Workers.
So in 1972 here on this
campus, Bobby Seale
launched his effort to
run for mayor of Oakland.
Bobby Seale and Elaine
Brown right downstairs
in the student center,
announced they were
running for mayor of Oakland.
Now, that is one of the things
that helped change Oakland.
Because we started
registering people to vote--
thousands of people who
had been unregistered vote.
Because prior to the
Black Panther Party
registering to
vote, black people
was only allowed to
vote-- the voting
rights passed in 1965, right?
So from 1965 to 1970
is only a few years.
So there was many black
people in the city of Oakland
who had never been
asked to vote.
And by registering
to vote, they--
we were telling people they had
local community power, right?
Even though Bobby didn't
win that election,
in the very next election
we have Lionel Wilson secure
being the first black mayor
of the city of Oakland.
And he would only
be able to do that
through the efforts of
the Black Panther Party.
So Laney has been like a root
part of the legacy of the Black
Panther Party.
It might not have been the first
beginning when the Party first
started out.
But all along this time,
Laney has been progressive.
We've had Black Panther
Party members who
were head of the BSU and
also the Student Association
here on campus.
Now, here is something--
some of the photos here.
You have the City Center,
which is downtown.
During that time,
the City Center
displaced thousands
and thousands of people
in city Oakland, right?
They were building
BART on 7th Street.
BART was running.
They were-- they
must have torn down
like 3,000, 5,000 homes in the
city of Oakland, most of them
in the black community,
to build the City Center
and 7th-- the post
office on 7th Street.
So there was a lot of
black people displaced.
So the Black Panther Party
sued Caltrans, sued the city,
and sued the state for
replacement housing.
So, in this Black
Panther Party newspaper,
we're showing that
we had won the suit.
And the city of Oakland had
to build replacement housing.
And one of the places they built
that was right there on 5th
and San Angelo Boulevard right
there, right on the corner,
that long complex--
it was like a 300--
300-person complex.
And they had to build
that for displaced people.
And they did some other things.
So the Black
Panther Party legacy
in the city of Oakland
and Laney College campus
is rooted deep in the
Black Panther Party legacy.
Yes, the Black Panther Party
only existed from 1966 to 1980.
And I was at the party
from 1968 to 1974,
working out in East Oakland.
So the legacy, the
many things we've
done in the city of Oakland,
our legacy will never die.
You know?
Just like the traffic
light on 55th and Market
that was put there because
of the Black Panther Party,
some of the other historical
locations in Oakland
is also at 1048 Peralta
Street in West Oakland,
was the Black Panther
Party headquarters there.
Our headquarters was on 85th
and East 14th, which is--
when the Black Panther
Party ceased to exist,
we sold our property
to Allen Temple,
which made Allen Temple able
to expand their church--
yeah-- able to expand
their church from where it
was, all the way to East 14th.
And also in front of
the church is a plaque
saying that this is a historical
location of the Black Panther
Party.
So, as kids-- as BSU, many
students in BSUs from Fremont,
[INAUDIBLE],, became members
of the Black Panther Party
or worked in our
breakfast program.
And that was another
way that people
could work with the Party, work
through out survival program,
our free food program,
our medical programs,
our Educate the People
program, and our school.
Our school was the first charter
school in the city of Oakland,
deemed so by Jerry
Brown when he was
the governor the first time.
And we had professional
people work at our school
like Maya Angelo.
Maya Angelou taught English at
our Oakland Community School.
We had Rosa Parks come
in and teach classes.
So our work in the
community will never die,
even though the Black Panther
Party doesn't exist anymore.
So if anybody has any
questions, I'll be over here.
Or you can take a look
at some of the displays
I have about our legacy
and about things we've
done in the past.
Now, you pick up some flyers
from what we're doing today.
Just last week we had
a Huey P Newton Day
Huey P Newton was born
February 17, 1942.
So we had an event for
him in West Oakland,
at the West Oakland Library.
Every year, we have
a Bobby Hutton Day.
Bobby Hutton was
the first member
of the Black Panther Party.
He joined the party when
he was 15 years old.
He was the first to die.
He was killed by the
Oakland police department.
Every April, we have an
event at Bobby Hutton Park
in West Oakland.
So this year, we're going
to have a number of events.
We're going to have pop-ups,
and have events and speakers
all over the city.
So, I'd like to
end it right now.
But we have a website
called It'sAboutTimeBPP.com.
You can go there if you're
doing research on the Party
or you want to download some
history, you can go there.
And also, there's
a lot of videos
available if you have kids
or you're teaching a class.
There's a lot to be learned.
So I'd like to end it right now.
Thank you for
letting me come here
and talk about my
experience at Laney College.
KEVIN: Everybody
give Billy a hand--
Billy X a hand for his
presentation on depth
and the Black Panther
history and culture
here at Laney College.
I'd like you all to--
yeah, please take a
moment to touch in
and ask any particular questions
if you have any lingering.
He'll be happy to answer
to you, answer them.
And also, if you want
to get more involved
in honor of the
Black Panther legacy,
please touch in with him.
All right, moving on,
we're going to bring up
our next guest speaker.
She is a very prominent
lady in Oakland as well.
And I believe one of her
recent speaking engagements
was right across the
street at the museum.
And she basically
did a presentation
introducing folks
about the Black Panther
history and culture, and
telling her experience also.
So Billy X shared his experience
as far as his involvement
with the Laney College Black
Student Union and the breakfast
program.
So here's Professor--
Instructor Judy Juanita.
And she's going to give you
her story on the legacy.
Thank you.
JUDY JUANITA: Thank you.
So, I think we all need
to get up, you know?
Because it's cold in here.
Let's get up and let's
kind of walk around.
Because really, this is an
exhibit as well as just a talk.
And I'd like to, you
know, to kind of encourage
that kind of movement.
Because what Billy and I are
talking about is a movement.
So just on a personal
note, to show you
how involved we all
are with each other,
I started college here--
not here on Grove Street, and it
was called Oakland City College
then.
And I was 16 years old.
So, my locker-- we
had lockers then.
And my locker was right next
to Huey Newton's girlfriend's
locker.
Yeah, Margaret.
So Huey would come around
all the time, asking me,
where's Margaret?
Where's Margaret?
And that's some of
the history that I
document in "Virgin Soul."
So, I wrote a book about my
time in the Black Panther Party
and how I got into it.
So I'd like to just talk a
little bit about that today.
So there I was, at
Oakland City College,
which we referred to in a
very derogatory way City.
You know, where are
you going to college?
City.
And that meant you
didn't have enough money
to go anyplace else.
You ended up with City.
But however, it was an
extremely exciting place.
There were demonstrations.
There were speakers.
There were tables
from the SDS, Students
for a Democratic Society, WEB Du
Bois Club, Fair Play for Cuba--
which I didn't have
any idea what it meant.
But all along Grove Street,
which is now Martin Luther
King, there were speakers
just all day long,
all afternoon long.
So even if you
weren't revolutionary,
you were getting
it by osmosis, just
by being in the environment.
So I met Huey and
Bobby then, there,
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.
And I was one of those students
who was determined to transfer.
I didn't want to get
into any trouble.
However, they
intrigued me so much
that I did write articles about
them for the school newspaper.
I was a journalist then.
I was on the school newspaper
from elementary school
right on up through.
So I wrote about
all these militants,
including Ernie Allen
and Isaac Moore.
And they were all
influenced by something
called the African American
Association started
by Don Warden.
And that was way back when.
His name became Khalid Mansour.
But he was a prominent
attorney at the time.
And he influenced them.
He had people reading.
That's kind of like one of
the main differences I always
saw between now and then.
We were all reading.
We read all day long.
And then we'd go out
to these big events--
big events.
We'd go out to these--
go out to rallies and events.
And we know what people were
talking about, you know?
So it was a big thing to read
Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X,
and so forth.
We just read all the time.
I transferred from
San Francisco--
to San Francisco State
from City College.
When I went to San Francisco
State, it was more of the same.
It was an extremely
radical environment
with lots of students
from all over the world,
including many, many
students from Africa,
many, many students from--
many, many states.
San Francisco State
was a destination.
People wanted to come.
It was very hard to get
accepted into San Francisco
State at that time.
So it was very
exciting to be there.
And before long, Huey and Bobby
came to San Francisco State.
I transferred in '66.
In '67, Huey and Bobby came to
San Francisco State recruiting
in the same exact way that IBM
and Clorox came to the schools.
You know how the corporations
come and they set up a room,
and they have sign-up sheets?
Well Huey and Bobby had
the same thing going on.
So my roommates
and I went there.
And this was spring '67.
And we listened.
And my roommate
said, let's join.
And we went back.
And I had four
roommates at the time.
And I said, these guys
aren't playing hopscotch,
because I knew them from--
I knew how serious they were.
They were committed.
And they weren't playing.
And it was what the
mayor called the--
the summer of love, OK?
That was a newspaper term.
It wasn't called
that at the time, OK?
Those of us who lived
in the urban cities
knew all of those
summers in the mid '60s
were the long hot summers.
And that was a particularly
long hot summer
one where they have nine and
10-day urban riots in places
like Detroit, Los Angeles.
She's shaking her head.
She knows what
I'm talking about.
So by August of that year,
I joined with my roommates.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I joined, yeah.
So, each of us--
like Billy is saying, Billy
Jennings, we all had roles.
I went and helped Eldridge and
Kathleen with the newspaper
because I had all these
skills as a journalist.
My roommate Joanne was--
corralled the troops.
She handled the troops.
She was tough.
My other roommate, Betty Carter,
who's now dead, ran the office.
Janice Forte--
Janice Garrett Forte
was Bobby Seale's scheduler.
And Evelyn Proctor
was the treasurer.
So we all had a function
to do, you know?
And our parents were
very afraid for us.
They knew.
Particularly my
parents in Oakland,
they knew about the
Oakland Police Department,
and that it was rotten to the
core, and that it was corrupt.
And my father had had encounters
with the Oakland Police
Department.
So it was not unusual for the
parents of all these children
who were involved to know about
police brutality and police
oppression.
And many of our parents had
come from the South anyway.
So I worked doing whatever they
told me to do on the newspaper.
However, Huey Newton
then was involved
in the shoot-out with the
Oakland Police Department.
And right after that--
and he was jailed.
And the free Huey
Movement started.
So what happened
was all of a sudden,
the Panthers became
internationally known.
And we started getting donations
from all over the world.
So all of our activities
stepped up then.
A lot of that, I detail in here.
So that was in the fall of '67.
And then in April '68, it
was-- a lot of things happened.
Martin Luther King was
assassinated on April 4th.
And then three days
later, little Bobby Hutton
was also assassinated
in West Oakland.
All of a sudden, there was
what I call a long black line.
Yes, the Panthers were holding
it up with direct action,
self-defense on one end.
But everybody fell
in at that point
when Martin Luther
King was killed.
And so, a lot of the party
leadership was jailed.
We had a meeting
in Mosswood Park--
you know Mosswood Park
across from Kaiser?
Yeah, OK.
So we'd meet in parks
because we were avoid--
we were avoiding
surveillance from the FBI.
And during that meeting,
Huey reorganized the Party.
And at that point, he said--
my name at that
time was Judy Hart.
And my boyfriend
was Buzz Thomas.
And he said, I want to
appoint Judy Hart to be
editor in chief of the paper.
He said she's the
together sister.
And I know her from
Oakland City College.
And she's a journalist.
So all of a sudden,
my whole life
changed from then,
like, instantly.
And I became one of a series
of editors of the Black Panther
Party newspaper.
So that was '68.
So then at that
point, all of us who
had been Panthers
and students, we
went back to San
Francisco State.
Many of us had either dropped
out or had stopped registering.
We went back to
San Francisco State
and we became the Black
Panther Party on campus.
My-- by then, my
husband Clarence Thomas,
not the fake Clarence Thomas
on the US Supreme Court,
but the real Clarence Thomas,
the labor leader who has led
strikes here for the ILWU.
And we all knew him as Buzz.
Buzz became the
campus coordinator
for the Black Panther Party.
So we took all of the
principles that we were learning
in the Black Panther Party.
And we organized at
San Francisco State.
And at San Francisco
State, we eventually
then organized, as Billy
pointed out to you, the strike.
And it was the longest
student strike in history.
I was the editor of
the "Black Fire," which
was the student newspaper.
the student strike newspaper.
And then we-- after a four
and a half month strike,
which was pretty violent and was
covered in all the newspapers
so forth, we had
our demands met.
And we established the first
black studies department,
which led to ethnic studies.
So, the first black studies
program in the nation.
And so, you know, there's
a rich, rich history.
I wanted to point
out something to you
that I think is
very, very important.
I have my books up here.
But I wanted to point out to you
the black scholar, Dr. Nathan
Hare and Robert Chrisman started
the "Black Scholar Magazine."
It looks like this.
I'll just pass this
around, please.
Dr. Hare was the first
chair of the black studies
program at San Francisco State.
And they started this
scholarly journal.
And it's still in
existence today.
And what it has meant is that
many of the black scholars
that we know today, from Henry
Louis Gates to bell hooks,
so forth, Angela Davis, were
published in the "Black Scholar
Magazine," which was a direct
outgrowth of the black studies
department, and the
black student movement,
and the Black Panther movement.
So it means that a lot
of black professors
and black chairs of
departments of African Studies
departments throughout
the United States
were able to publish their
work in "Black Scholar."
And because they were
able to be published,
then they were able
to obtain tenure.
So that's just one
offshoot of the movement.
This movement was so important.
And you could probably
spend a lot of your time
on campuses writing
dissertations
about all the offshoots of
this important movement.
So I'm really happy that
you asked me to come today.
And I'm really happy that
I'm at Laney College, where
I've been able to really keep
so many of these ideas alive.
And I thank you so much.
KEVIN: One more, give it a hand
here for duty Judy Juanita,
Professor Juanita.
Yeah, all right.
All right, now just
further in the program,
before the last moment,
before we release and we just
kind of give you
a moment to browse
and mingle with
the guest speakers,
we will have a
question and answer.
So we will ask Billy X to come
on up, and Ms. Juanita as well.
And if anyone has any questions
about the Black Panther Party
legacy, and history,
and culture,
please feel free to come
and ask about the breakfast
program and the legacy.
All right.
Is there any
questions for Billy X?
Any questions for
Billy X, Judy Juanita?
AUDIENCE: At the
end of your speech,
you said that was the end of
the Black Panther Movement.
My question to you is,
what happened to the cubs?
We're not dead.
BILLY X: No, and you're
not organized either.
AUDIENCE: So, but
the leadership--
you know, we take our
[INAUDIBLE] to the leadership.
We're those students
you see right there,
we're those children.
So how did it end?
And how do we begin again?
Because the work
is not done yet.
BILLY X: The sister asked--
I made the comment saying
the party lasted until 1980.
And she was saying, what
about people today, you know?
Well, as time moves on,
right, and every generation
has to make their state, has
to make their stand in society.
And just like the
Party made its stand,
young people today are going
to have to make their stand.
They got to figure out and
organize amongst yourselves,
and figure out what's
important, how you're
going to go about to do it.
Every generation had to do
the same thing, you know?
So I would say there's
work that needs
to be done dealing with racism,
discrimination, poverty.
There's plenty work to be done.
And I would say
when I went to see--
when I was in Cuba,
and somebody asked
[INAUDIBLE] said that
when you have problems,
you start from where you're at.
You look to your left.
You look to your right.
And start from right there.
You find people who
have your common ideals,
and start organizing.
You know, one step at a
time, one step at a time.
Find somebody who
thinks like you,
who see the problems like you.
Start from there.
That's when the Black
Panther Party started,
there was only Huey and Bobby.
Questions?
AUDIENCE: So many parallels
on what we're seeing today
and what you were
seeing in the 60s
during the time of the Panther
Party, even listening to you
read the 10 Points of what was
being required or requested.
And, you know, same
things are true today.
So what do you see as
the difference in terms
of why we don't have--
I guess I think of Black
Lives Matter as probably
the strongest organized
group representing
black people today.
But what do you see as the hope
for organizing and continuing
the kind of work that was
done by the Panther Party?
Because Black Lives Matters
is really focused on--
BILLY X: Policy brutality
and discrimination.
AUDIENCE: Yeah, brutality,
and discrimination,
and death of black people.
Not as holistic as the
Black Panther Party.
So, what do you see as hope?
BILLY X: Well, as time
moves on, things change.
But more or less,
they stay the same.
So when we're read
the 10-Point Program,
we talked about decent housing.
That is one of the biggest
issues dealing with people
in the Bay Area today--
affordable housing, places
to live, homelessness.
So there are some
groups who are out there
dealing with the problem.
So I suggest people who
want to deal with housing,
discrimination,
there's groups that you
can Google that are doing
work in the community.
Like for instance,
Black Lives Matter,
but the Black Lives Matter
deal with only a few problems
like police brutality,
discrimination, racism,
and so forth.
So there's many things
to get involved in.
But you have to go
look and find a group
that you're comfortable
with, and start
working in the community.
It's not an easy solution.
Just like-- the
Black Panther Party
was a one of the
kind of organization.
Black Panther Party was a group
that dealt with everything.
We dealt with organizing unions,
we dealt with rent strikes,
we dealt with starting
clinics, breakfast program,
we started-- actually, we
started patrolling the cops
so they wouldn't kill and
brutalize black people.
So there are people
out in the community
who want to do things.
But, you know, you just
have to look for a group
that you're comfortable with
to start working with them.
JUDY JUANITA: Yeah,
I agree with that.
And I remember that at
the Million Man March,
Minister Farrakhan
told everybody,
this is very good
that you came out.
Now go home and work
in an organization.
Don't care which one.
Work in an organization.
And I think that's
what-- if we get up,
like I said, and walk
and look at this,
we'll see that
people were working.
People were working
in the organization.
And there's plenty--
plenty of work still to do.
BILLY X: Yeah, there's a lot
of history with the Party.
For instance, the
Black Panther Party
was the first group that
kind of put community
control as the main issue.
Matter of fact, in
the city of Berkeley,
the Black Panther Party along
with other organizations
were able to put that
on the ballot in 1970--
community control of the police.
The first time in America
people had a chance
to vote for what kind of
police department they wanted.
Even though our measure lost,
it was an educational lesson.
And many communities learned.
Many communities started
forming police commissions,
you know, police,
review commissions.
They started hiring
more black people.
You know, one of the things
about the Black Panther
Party, the growth of
the Black Panther Party
came about in 1965.
1965 was how the Black
Panther Party was
able to come together in 1966.
Because some of the
things in 1965--
for instance, the murder of
Malcolm X in February 1965,
the March on Selma where people
were beaten and brutalized
for registering to vote.
Also that particular
year, there was a law
passed called the Miranda Act.
Everybody know what the
Miranda Act is, right?
The Miranda Act is when
a police arrest you,
he has to warn you that
you can have a lawyer,
you don't have to say thing
against yourself, and so forth.
Also in 1965, we had the passing
of the Voting Rights Bill.
And also in August 1965 , you
had the Watts Riots in '65.
In 1965, President
Johnson passed a bill
called the Voting Rights Bill.
And so in a place
called Lowndes,
Alabama in November
of 1965 black people
had a chance to vote
for the very first time.
And so what they did to educate
the black people there, they--
during the previous elections,
the Republican Party
used a white rooster for all
the Republican candidates
they wanted the white
people to support,
even if they couldn't read,
they recognized the rooster.
So when black people were able
to vote in Lowndes County,
they looked around for a symbol
and they found the Panther.
They put the Panther
on the ballot.
So when black
people went to vote,
they had seen the panther,
they would vote the panther.
So that is how-- that's where
we got our Panther from,
1965 down in Lowndes County
where black people first
began to vote.
Now, I had some
young people ask me
about the movie, "The Panther."
You know, was the party
inspired by the movie
"The Panther," the
comic "The Panther?"
I said no, the comic
came out in 1967.
We got the Panther from--
came out in 1965, you know?
So it's historical, you know?
I told him no, Huey
and Bobby was not
reading "The Panther"
comic book at that time.
They were reading the "Red
Book" and books by Che Guevara.
Any questions?
AUDIENCE: I just want to make
a quick comment that the legacy
definitely lives.
In my travels abroad, and
both in Turkey and in Germany,
I had two different
people come up
to me on two
different occasions,
and talked about the
breakfast program,
and that because they were so
inspired by the Black Panther
Party, that in their
countries today they
have the breakfast program.
So it's a legacy that's
around the world.
Oh.
KEVIN: Any more questions?
All right, well, just the
end out and close out,
we want to let you
know that we have
small refreshments in the
back, some waters, some turkey
sandwiches, and veggie
sandwiches as well.
We appreciate you
coming out to the event.
And one more time,
can you please
give a round of applause for
Billy X and Judy Juanita.
Thank you for coming
out here today
and representing on behalf
of the Black Student Union
and the Black Panther Party.
We really respect and
appreciate your wisdom
that you shared with us
today, and the history,
and the legacy.
You can only find that here,
y'all, right here in Oakland
where they started.
You know, the whole
movement started.
And is not dead.
And it's not over.
And we still got a lot of goals
and destinations to strive to.
So we just don't continue
to honor the legacy
all throughout
Black History Month.
I really appreciate
you coming out
and taking some time
hear some of the legacy
and culture from our city.
And we hope to see you at future
events for Black History Month.
And please, feel
free to take a look
and get a deeper
look at the exhibits,
and ask questions to
our guest speakers.
Appreciate y'all
coming out today.
Thank you very much, on behalf
of the Black Student Union.
Black power, all
power to the people.
