I LOVE THIS LIST I don't read everything but I read lots of it. when the
list stopped I missed it very much I tried to find out why it disappeared.
Thank you moderator for taking on the job. I know the job is perhaps more
than you expected. Is there a way we can make sure that it won't just
disappear again?
<<Christie, has echoed my thoughts almost word for word. Doesn't anybody
on this list have a job? Or a life? For better or worse, the past is gone >>
<< I must add my suggestion to those flogging the
Panther subject. Please go take a nice nap and then on awakening have a
little snack, then go out into the sunlight looking for a better place to
spend your seemingly amazing amount of spare time.>>
Did you forget that this is a Sixties list, not a eating snacks or sitting in
the sun list which we all do.
My specialty is the Black Panther Party. I am thrilled that we are talking
about Black Panthers. They are only a moment in history. Depending, where
you lived, what you did, and who you met in the late Sixties to the early
Seventies may have formed how you think about the Black Panther Party. I
know, it did for me. I don't <"sit on my ass obsessing with the Panthers">.
I live in Vermont, have few folks around to discuss Black Panthers. I teach
at Burlington College , sometimes I am lucky enough to teach History of the
Sixties, History of the Civil Rights Movement, or History of Women in North
America.
Last semester I was teaching a class at the University of Vermont . I asked
for a show of hands from about 60 students.
" How many of you ever heard of Huey P Newton? 2 hands
" How many of you ever heard of Bobbly Seale? 3 hands
" How many of you ever heard of SDS? 4 hands
" How many of you ever heard of Abbie Hoffman 6 hands
" How many of you ever heard of Jerry Rubin 3 hands
" How many of you ever heard of Black Panther Party? 9 hands
" How many of you ever heard of the weather men? 2 hands
One student knew everyone , when I spoke to him after class I found out that
his father was a member of a small group ( like the weather men) and is
spending life in prison.
Im a Red Diaper baby, my mother, Edith Berkman aka "The Red Flame" was a
union organizer and leader of the 1932 Lawrence Mass. textile strikes. A
catholic priest gave her that name. One Sunday, while preaching he said she
was a "red flame direct from hell". She spent 2 years in jail and
detention . She use to say things to me in the Sixties like "That's the
same slogan we used in l944." Speaking of history.
For those folks who worry that we are not doing anything in life but talking
about the Black Panthers , Forget it. I was a political activists in the
Sixties and am a political activist in the year 2000.
I am on 6 boards in my community : Among them are , Vermont Legal Aid (
helps poor folks get lawyers), Vermont Law Line (Helps poor folks get legal
advice via phone), Vermont Jobstart ( we give $ to poor folks to start and
improve their business , Burlington/Bethlehem/Arad Sister City. We were
the first city in the USA to have an Israeli & Palestinian sister city,
almost 10 years now.
I returned last week from California after interviewing white folks
about their support work around the Black Panther Party. I videoed
members of Los Angeles and San Fransico Newsreel who worked w/ Panthers and
made early Panther films, Mike Meyer a lawyer for the Detroit Panther 13
case , Beverly Axlerod , the attorney who put together Eldridge Cleavers
book Soul on Ice & attorney at Wounded Knee. She typed the first 5-6 issues
of the Black Panther paper in her house . The first issue was a mimeograph.
I saw one of the shields that was in the famous picture of Huey P Newton
sitting in chair that belonged to Beverly. For the past 7 years I've been
collecting stories of folks who spent a moment or so with some of the Black
Panthers . I have collected stories from Field Marshall of the Black
Panther Party Donald Cox in exile , Retired FBI Agents Wendell A. Cohendet
of the SF office who opened the files on the Black Panther Party, Retired FBI
Agent Wesley Swearingen, FBI Agent Charles Bates who was director of SF FBI
office, Bob Bloom attorney for the NY Panther 21 case, Marilyn Buck. a
prisoner in Dublin, who was a Newsreel member and worked with Panthers , she
later joined the Black Liberation Army, I have video stories from 10 folks
from Newsreel who worked with and made films for and about the Black
Panther Party and more
I was a member of New York Newsreel (l967-l972) . I have about 50
Newsreel films in my archive, thousands of photos, small press booklets,
newspapers, magazines, buttons and posters etc. I spent a portion of the
sixties working with Panthers on various programs in NYC. I would go to
the Panther headquarters via subway carrying a projector and film under my
arm to Panther education classes and show and discuss films about the war in
Vietnam, Peoples Park in Berkeley etc . to the new younger members of the
Panthers. The Newsreel members van was loaned to Panthers to pick up food
for the breakfast program and to distribute the Panther newspaper etc.
I sell footage and video copies of the Newsreel films. My largest seller are
videos on the Black Panthers.
In the Eighties I read and computerized an indexed to 350,000 documents
from the FBI files and FBI cointelpro files on the Black Panther Party and
Black Extremists . I completed a law clerk program and think how naive
some of you are to tell us to <"get a life." >
The Black Panthers were an important part of the Sixties movement and in my
life .
The war in Vietnam was an important part of our lives. This is a list to
discuss Sixties issues.
Those of you who do not like the exchange about the Black Panthers can write
what interests you but why would you want to stop an intelluctual, emotional
exchange .
I still have time for fun and games, parties, dinners, dancing, music, hang
w/ my friends and family, growing large gardens and much more. I won't
write until after July 4 as we have a big wedding of Rain & Matt , our
commune kids.
my best , Roz Payne
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