Black People : Black Panthers, 1968,..where were you then?

[Keita Kenyatta]

We were between North Carolina and New Jersey then and neither was really better than the other. I didn't know who they were because the media kept King in our faces and the N.O.I was just making headway in south Jersey. I became aware of them through Angela Davis and some of the brothers wearing their clothes with the insignia on them. In 1968 the police was escorting us to school because the school we had to go to was right on the boarder of the black and white neighborhood depending on which way one walked. I never thought white people could punch until a group of them caught me and my other two friends after school. I didn't sweat it too much because a few weeks later we caught a few of them and baseball batted they @ss near the trains.

 

[MsVeraisblessed]

And for some reason due to some issues going on right now, I have this strange feeling that we might be going back to those days when Black people pulled together to deal with and overcome so hard issues of having our human rights abridged. Anyway, that's what I'm hoping for now.

.

mmm,..i'ono, that means more violence and more killings. I don't know if i could face anymore of that. If they could train some of these gang bangers, help those off of drugs, put some people to work and still train them to protect themselves then maybe...

 

[Chevron Dove]

We were between North Carolina and New Jersey then and neither was really better than the other. I didn't know who they were because the media kept King in our faces and the N.O.I was just making headway in south Jersey. I became aware of them through Angela Davis and some of the brothers wearing their clothes with the insignia on them. In 1968 the police was escorting us to school because the school we had to go to was right on the boarder of the black and white neighborhood depending on which way one walked. I never thought white people could punch until a group of them caught me and my other two friends after school. I didn't sweat it too much because a few weeks later we caught a few of them and baseball batted they @ss near the trains.

Ouch.

This might be what Ms. V just echoed...

 

[Fagunwa]

At Panther HQ in brooklyn having breakfast, singing them songs and learning how to study and think for myself from Bro. Jamal.

 

[info-moetry]

peace

By the time i had heard the words Panther and Black in the same sentence i was well into my teens even though, as it turns out i knew one of them for a few years. He was a member of the local branch of the NAACP that my mother was the President of. He kind of looked like a thin maulana karanga (whom i didn't know of at the time) and everyone kinda kept him at arms distance because they said he was a little crazy.... Probably only because they knew he was an ex-panther. I didn't see him as 'crazy', but i would always catch him staring at people real hard without saying anything to them, almost like he was trying to read their minds. WHen he would do it to me, i just stared back........ like 'what, i'm crazy too' lol

When i started to research the black panthers on my own i was blown away at the things they had done and taught. Especially, at how young they were since i was maybe 15 or 16 at the time. They were my first teachers on law and how to deal with police and gave me what i call my '5-0 stare' where i read the cops, i mean 'pigs' mind real quick to see if he's really friend or foe.

I often wondered which group back in the 60's i would have been apart of knowing what i know now because it seems they are all apart of my make up which internally makes them all one. Just different arms of each other, imho.