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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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
,
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