Lil Bobby Hutton Day

I can remember walking down tree lined streets in suburban Connecticut chanting "Power, Power to the People, Power, to the People, the Peoples Party, the Black Panther Party, Power, Power to the People. Its the Peoples Power, Its the Peoples Party, the Black Panther Party, Power to the People..." to the shocked looks of suburbanites washing their cars and mowing lawns.
Back then the Black Panthers were the only domestic radical group that virtually everyone looked up to and respected or feared.
Once we went to a Unitarian Church in Westport, CT where the Panthers were doing a fundraiser, classic mau mauing. Big scary looking Panthers stood by each exit and the sisters had the buckets, no one got out of there without donating. And we stood right next to the panthers with our high school underground paper the Glass Onion and we told the rich people "Yeah and buy our paper if you want to know what is really happening.' We would give meaningful looks to the Panthers and the cover story of our paper was about the murder of Fred Hampton by the "pigs". Now the gangs are as well armed as the man. But do they have the political sophistication and theory the Panthers had?
Those were heady times, the only time I can recall when we thought there just might be a revolution in America. This is the first time since then when hopes are rising.

PERMIT ME TO HEAVE SOME ADVICE AT YOU- in this racist system, when guns are oulawed, then only outlaws will have guns- and that's the racist police state. If you read the ten point program of the Black Panther Party you will read where they said. WE WANT PEACE-WE WANT THE POWER TO DETERMINE OUR OWN DESTINY, ETC,. ETC,. YOU CANNOT HAVE PEACE IF THE PIGS ARE ON YOU ALL OF THE TIME BECAUSE OF YOUR SKIN COLOR. lIKE ALL OTHER PEOPLE, WE WANT THE FULL STATE OF HAPPINESS. bUT UNLIKE ALL OTHER PEOPLE WE HAVE BEEN MADE TO BEAR THE BRUNT FOR EVERYTHING THAT MOVES. ESPECIALLY IF IT IS UPWARD. dON'T MITAKE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES. iT WAS AN ARMY OF RELIGIOUS THUGS TO BEGIN WITH THAT SOUGHT TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION WHILE OCUPPYING SOMEONE ELSE'S LAND HERE. wHY THEN IS IT MADE SO HEINOUS WHEN PEOPLE OF COLOR HOLD GUNS IN ORDER TO DEFEND THEMSELVES IN THE FACE OF AGRESSION. lOOK AT CUBA, AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE. THE ONLY ARMY TO BEAT THE WORLDS SO CALLED GREATEST 'FIGHTING ARMY' WERE THE VIETNAMESE BECAUSE THEY HAD NO QUALMS ABOUT WHAT HAD TO BE DONE- REMEMBER MALCOLM SPEAKING OF THEM HEROICALLY WHEN HE SAID " RICE FARMERS, WITH NOTHING BUT GYM SHOES, AND A RIFLE- AND A BOWL OF RICE- TOOK HIM AND HIS NAPALM AND ALL THAT OTHER ACTION HE'S POSED TO HAVE- AND DROVE HIM HALFWAY ACCROSS THE ADELOU."...