THE PARTY'S Ten point
program, concise statement of
what minorities need and want
provided services for the under:
privileged like Free Breakfast
for Children and sickle-cell ane
mia testing, both of which the
federal government adopted;
Free Health Care; Food Distri
bution; and Housing for the
Homel .
They were also responsible for
the election of Oakland's first
Black mayor, installed Blacks on
all levels of the city.s government
while subduing police brutality.
A survivor of the "revolution
ary war", Hilliard earned his
battle scars and triple-striped in
signia (red, black and green)
fighting drugs in the Black com
munity, poverty and oppression,
racism in America, and the U.S.
government.
This Side of Glory, is a testi
monial of what it means to be a
Black man in America, and, in
his own words, "a ray of hope."
. David "Doc" Hilliard join the,
party at its ineeption] 1966 at
age 24, a time when Black youth
were leading civil rights move
ments in the south like the Stu
dent Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) with Stokley
Carmichael" H. Rap Brown and
James Forman, and the South
ern Christian Leadership Con
ference (SCLC) under the
direction of Dr. King, along with
embattled youth kindled by Mal
colm X and Huey Newton, who
were not willing to embrace the
turn-the-other-cheek ideology as
a tactic, serving as a contrasting
equilibrium.
NEARLY 30 YEARS later,
Hilliard compares the state of
affairs. "It's a very dismal state.
As I look around, I don't see any
thing positive happening for
Black folks, except for the N a
tion of Islam (Min Louis Farrak
han). I won't say it spells doom,
I think it's just a lull, but I'm
disappointed that there's not a
lot more coming from the youth, "
said Hilliard.
All too often the media por
trayed the BPP as radically vio
lent gun-totin' youth ready to
overthrow the government.
"They called us Militants,
Black Nationalist, EXtremist.
But we were revolutionaries,
plain and imple. No more revo
lutionary than when the Ameri
cans fought the British in the
war of Independence, no more
revolutionary than when the Af-
- ricans ran the Portuguese out of
their country, or the Vietnam
the Americans out of theirs. We
were Black men and women
armed with a platform and an
ideology ready to defend our
selves ... 'By any m ans neces
sary'," Hilliard said.
Mr. Hilliard descri a dire
need for th Black youth of
America to organize, otherwise,
they won't survive. "The odds are
against you," he contends.
"There are no jo (even if you
get a college degr ), you die
from having s x (AI ), there'
Black on Black crime (homicide),
you can't b th th air, can't eat
the fish, toxic w di po ed in
your communiti (Environ-
mental Raci m).
T 0 of
the Black Pan her Party ays
he's not so charged up when
Black youth just it round
wanting to h r what happened
27 years ago, but th r wh n
union
, Cali-
7
- Ou' Hill contribu
port.
til;.. ,..
We appreciate your
letters and comment .
Plea e nd them to:
Michigan Citizen
12541 econd
Highland Park, MI
48203
JO EPHINE BAKER
DR. JOEL E. SPINGARN
d community or iz tio .
chute • unicn
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,
....
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-
CONNECT WITH US
tiona} Rainbow Co lition
Offic ofth Field Dir ctor
1700 K Str t, .W. # 00
Wa hin ton, DC 20006
Vol :
202 728-1180
Fax:
202 728-1192
TN
DAI Y BATE
MUDDY WATERS
k
MUDDY WATER
FROM SCIENCE TO LITERATURE,
CIVIL RIGHTS TO ENTERTAINMENT,
BLACK MEN AND WOMEN HAVE MADE
SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR
HISTORY,AND DEVELOPMENT.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH IS A TIME
TO RECOGNIZE THEIR INSPIRATION,
COURAGE AND ACHIEVEMENTS.
ALTHEA GIB ON
Tcnniv 'tar' lthea ;ih on
had h 'r fir t t mm t urn ment
"i {Or in 1942. hut In 1950.
H RL DR W
At H A
Churnpion ... hlp, Jt F( r • ... t l Iill-,
'-,Y In 19"7 ... he I "lam' the
tiN hlJ k til w In the meted
Wimbledon nrl ., Althea won
nun ·rou, tournament, nd \ 'a
named to the tiona I I.J,\-n
Tcnruv l lall of Fame In 197 ..
DR. JOEL E. SPINGARN
Thi internationall known s ·holar
hard hairman of the
r r. Joel E .. pingarn in, tirut d the
Spingarn Medal to be awarded nnuall
forbla k a .hie ement .. orne of the
winner of thi prevrigiou med I
in .lude I r. George \Va�hin�t:on Carver,
I r. 1artin Luther King, jr., Jackie
Robin on and I ai . Bate"
D.R. CHARLE DREW
Million ... of peopl her' .civcd blood
pia m transfuvion thank to the work
of Dr. Ch ric, Drew. Ilc wus a pioneer
in the field of blood plavrna r carch
and in the vcloprncnt of blood bankv.
Charlc al () trained hundred of bla ·k
dl nncti n of being th fir ... t bla .k in
the l .' '. to . rn th d. '�or of rncdi al
., ·icn .e degree (S ',1).), \i hi ·h he '
rc ci d from Columbia In.,, 'r,it ,
Tragi .. II ,he died In 1950 at the age
of 4S rom iar . .idcnt Injun .,. '
CELEBRATE BLACK
ISTORY MONTH, FEBRUARY t 994.
HUDSO
,
S