[ applause ] >> as we used to say, in all of our sloganizing, right on. power to the people. down with the racist fascist pig power structure. no more pigs in our community. party members they just blew my mind. i'm telling you, just the way that all happened, you know what i mean. it just -- i look back on that i says wow. you know, i was a young engineer

at space and electronics on the gemini missile program there, right outside of oakland. and i worked at night and i took 9 credit hours at merritt college. i was a design major. and one day i got interested in all of this civil rights stuff. walked across the street and guys over there all themselves the afro-american association come here today to tell it like it is. i walked over and started listening and i saw a guy i knew. william brumfield. i walked up i said william you part of this group. he said yeah, bobby. i said so william, what is this, some kind of communist stuff, afro america, what is that. you have to imagine now, this is

1962. phrases and references to black folks as african-american didn't exist. black folk still called themselves colored. colored and colored. you know what i mean. i'm just saying there i was listening to these guys, i asked william, what do you mean communist stuff. i said you are a socialist. they told me. your brother, told me you was a socialist. and i says i thought the fbi was going to arrest you one day. so he looked at me and he knew something about my history, he says bobby, who are the sioux. i said the name sioux is a french word that means cutthroat and got nothing to do with our african-american brothers here. it was something i knew at age 15 because his brother and i had officered with the la coda people. with custer and his battles t

native americans. this is a period of time, 15, 16, we didn't know anything. i didn't know anything about my people's african-american history. they didn't teach it. it wasn't around. you know, growing up at age 15, 16, 17. point is, is that with that, those guys that day on that street corner, caused me to buy a book called facing my opinion. i took that book to work to me, out at kaiser space and electronics. in between checking engine frames i sit down at my desk and begin to read this book by this man. jomokinyata, got degrees, went back and was instrumental in organizing his people out from under the yoke of english colonialism. wow, that blew my mind. here i was, i get a's in math, c's in english, a's in math and

all that stuff. i knew nothing about my african-american people's history whatsoever. and that's what caused me to begin to research and know my african-american people's history. next thing i know i'm digesting wb black reconstruction, works and publications by dr. herbert. one dealt with a documentation of all of the wars we had fought in the united states of america including the first colonial war. i mean, this was blowing my mind. herbert had another book of 250 slavery boats from 1800 to 1859. and what he considered a slavery boat involved 10 or more slaves, i was grabber gasted that black people resisted. prior to that they taught me black folks as nice and sit on a bench and play the banjo and basically happy and it was just the opposite. so i'm shocked.

i mean you know, it was a thing. so i'm really on a quest, a literal quest to understand, know and realize my african-american people's history and struggle. martin luther king came in town to speak the latter part of that year. and i'm there in oakland auditorium, 7,000 people in there, and martin luther king is castigating all of these businesses and stuff but for not hiring people of color, and he got to one point in his speech and he says and we're going to all so patrick's bread company and we're going to boycott wonder bread company and we're going to boycott them so consistently and so profoundly we're going to make wonder bread wonder where the money went. dr. king, that caused a standing ovation in that auditorium, 7,000 people and i'm one of the young students in the year 1962. he was the first person that truly inspired me. the next one was none other than

nelson mandela and his plight and the need to end apartheid which i wound up carrying signs that was over in san francisco, the consulate was the extension tfr united nations something. and so on. and the next thing i know, 1963, i'm in a situation, in a period where i'm in a situation in a period where martin -- no. john f. kennedy is killed and malcolm x leads the nation of islam and he creates the oau, and i vow that i'm going to try to get myself to new york at some point and join malcolm x's organization. to push the story on up, malcolm x was killed in 1965. i had a one-man riot. was nobody else on the street rioting. i'm talking about i'm coming down the street from my house with crocodile tears running down, i'm so upset that malcolm x has been killed, as far as i am concerned the racist power

structure killed malcolm x, i'm throwing bricks. and finally my little friends come up and got me and said man, you got to come. i went back to the house and got my books out. i said i'm going to find my friend huie. said man, you got to cool down. i said man, you guys a bunch of armchair revolutionaries. i need to do stuff you know what i mean. what happened to me is that's what i did. i found richard, he was japanese brother who was the first one, one of the first in the black panther party. i said where does huie live. i found where huie lived. i went over to huie's house with a copy of wretched of the earth. i had digested, written, rewrote, rehighlighted and over highlighted. that book. that material. you know what i mean. but i'm saying this was me, i needed to do something. really do something. and i was telling huie that you

need to help me start a new organization because we got to get something going. huie was saying i don't know, man. it's hard to organize black folks. they don'ts know enough about the black history, et cetera. blah, blah, blah. and so the next week or so i'm up at merit college organizing people to put black history into the curriculum at merit college. huie and i both went. huie had graduated and was in night law school. that's what happened. i created that organization and my house, some 16 of us young black folks, sisters and brothers, with me culture and others helping wrote four different courses on black history, two on african history. this is the backgrounds of where i was coming from. it was another point a year later in '63 in there, no, another point in there that i got huie to come to the class with me. and argue with my anthropology

teacher, you know what i mean. she made reference to black folks she would say negroid. she would say mon go lloyd. and make reference to white folks say caucasian. and i'd say i'm tired of this ne grrks roid stuff. to make a long story short i came back and got another meeting in there and i got hue tee come in class, richard to come to class, and i'm arguing again. some of the other black students. you're running around with this afro black talk, man. i'm trying to get educated. huie gets up in the back of the room and says i'd like to make a suggestion that for correct social science reference, who are you, the teacher says. i'm here to support bobby's argue bumt the need for correct social science reference and i want to suggest african roid to

negroid. i stood up. i said that's it. she said sit down. she wrote on the board. underlined. okay i accept this. i said wait, we got to equalize this terminology. what are you talking about. you're arguing for two weeks. i said no. you don't understand what's happening here. first we don't want negroid. now we'll accept a african oid. the people of color, they are either monogoloid. so all are a bunch of noids. the white folks they are caucasian. what are you trying to say mr. seal. from now on to equalize this terminolo terminology. this will give you the psychology of what's happening in development, understanding, trying to expand, making argument. well, i took the black history group, once i got it in the

class, turned it into a council, organized a giant rally 750 people at the campus, against being drafted into the war in vietnam. and with that huie came to the tail end of the rally, i recited that poem called uncle sammy call me, and huie saw this 750 people and i came out the door, he says you organized all of these people. i said yeah. i keep telling you man we can organize across the country. i don't believe this. you got this many. yes, huie. we got 250 people signed up for the council. now you should come on into our new organization. he said yeah, i'm with you. so from that day on, that's where huie and i were running together making things working things out, wound up fighting the police over -- stood up in front of a judge, judge gave us probation, one year probation. huie was in law school.

he said we're going to get 1 to 10 years. we did a no contest plea. we got one year probation. we got down in the front. i said huie, meet me at the war and poverty office now. by now i'm working for the city government of oakland. i run all of the youth jobs program. i says huie, meet me there. and that night october 10th, i wrote it in jail under pressure, i forgot the date. it was really october 10 because i went back and relocated up the court date that we were sentenced. huie and i wrote the first draft but we didn't have a name for it. we had no name for it. the 10-point platform and program. we want full employment for our people. we want decent shelterment we want decent education tell us about our true history. we wanted our black communities. what was it.

we wanted all black men and women to be exsem from military service. we changed that later on to free preventive care. eight, right to have juries of our own peers. so on. and summed the program up with the first two paragraphs of the declaration of independence. i said huie, look at this, man. it says when in the course of human events it becomes necessary, i said we can change this a little bit and paraphrase it. when in the course of human events, listen to it. becomes necessary for any one people to dissolve the political bondage which are connecting them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth and equal station to which the laws of nature entitle them a decents respect to the opinions of human kind dictate that they should declare the cause which impell them to dissolve the political bondage when a long training of abuses, pursues and

evince as design to reduce a people under absolute desire pottism, then it is the right of the people to change that government and provide new guards for the future security and happiness. the declaration of independence. used to say, just a white man's knowledge. i said no, that's my knowledge. how come you can say that. i said 1 plus 1 equal two white man's knowledge. i said that's a fact. you know a mathematical fact. law. i always taught, we use dialectics. we like to do research. quantitative increase. you had to know and understand that when you came around me and doing organizing in the community. the increased amount of time you saw an area where you sell it and over and over you sell it 18en increased amount of time you talk to the brothers and

sisters you are decreasing the apathy and increasing the consciousness. how do you educate the people about programs, about organizing. and unified the people. and we came up with all of these programs beginning with the free breakfast program. testing program, preventive health care clinics, that's what we started with. but party members from c.l. washington to winston-salem, north carolina to boston, with archie jones up there, to chicago, got creative with the whole concept of grass roots community programs. i looked up and winston-salem has got a free ambulance program. i hadn't even thought of that. i said right on. i looked up in boston and sister jones got a free pharmacy program. hey, right on. richmond, virginia had a free pest control program. the next thing you know we are

22, 2400 expanding out after that programs in the community to organize and unify the people around. all growing out of the foundation of the 10-point platform and program of our black panther party. that 10-point platform and program is probably -- you know even when we wrote that program, i said now huie, we don't want to write some long dissertative kind of stuff. he said what are you talking about. i said you know how some brothers and sisters, they are educated and stuff but try to talk to the grass roots people and they say the basic socio-economic structure and the adverse conditions and considering sociallogical and psychological facts and you know, and the brother -- brother bobby, what you talking about, man. when you get down and plain with brothers and sisters they understand you. that's why we wrote the 10-point program and tried to stay away

from that dissertative lingo and language. but that program as has been said tonight already, is just as relevant today as it was then. and i mean that in a more profound way. this particular movement -- [ applause ] this particular occupy wall street movement and that in my last three speaking engagements this fall, i mean i walked in and the tirs thing i say to these 5 or 6 or 700 student who is i'm speaking at, occupy wall street. and the whole crowd jumped right on and it's a thing. and then finally on the internet they put out the first what, 40 some points of what they were issuing about. i read them all. i said wow, what these guys are talking about, every point and the 10-point platform and program fits right into everything they are talking about. unemployment, the decent housing, et cetera. it's right there. so you know, our party evolved

to have a broader class analysis. rather than a race only analysis. we understood how to look at the broader class analysis of what was happening. so that became literally a stepping stone point for us to really begin to expand, the great characteristics of the black panther party was so great when we got coalition going, other organizations such as the red guard with the young chinese asians, and asian student alliance, aye and richard started them. it was another organization. the young lords political party. and then aim, american indian movement wrote their own programs, modeling after what we had written but more specifically to their culture and their community and what was happening. so that 10-point platform and program is basic.

i mean, it's really no different from a lot of civil rights organizations and other organizations except that we in the black panther party really says we believe in the right to self defense. and i guess that's what captured the imagination not only a lot of people but captured the imagination of the white racist power structure. talking about defending themselves. well, i'll be darned. you know what i mean. they call me one day over to do a television show in san francisco, race relations in america, and i take my 10-point platform and program but i took 500 of the 3,000 racist letters that had been sent to us in the black panther party. i had given it back there all racist letters to all chapters have to be sent in so we can give to the our lawyers because that would be evidence in a courtroom for our right to defend ourselves. so i took these letters and i dumped them out. he said why you dumping these.

you the one that got a program called race relations in america. be everybody here talking about killing and murdering us black panthers. they are goingklux klan, they'r going to hang us, do whatever, blah, blah, blah. now what you need to do, i told the host, look at these letters. there ain't no return addresses on none of them. no return addresses on none of them. i says, now, all you peace-loving people, whether you're white, black, blue, red, green, yellow, polka dot. i'm about to say something. you peace-loving people, ooh im not talking about you. i'm talking about these hard-core racists here. first, my home address, you ain't got no address on yours. headquarters address of so-and- so-and-so. i gave about ten addresses of the black panther party. when you come to shoot, kill and murder us, when you come,

remember, we have shotguns, we got pistols and we will exercise our right to defend ourselves. so when you start shooting at us, we're shooting back. my point is, we have to stand up to defend ourselves. we were talking about defending our constitutional democratic civil human rights to raise the consciousness of our people, to unify people. that's all we were talking about. this wasn't no macho stuff. i'm bad. uh-uh. you had to be disciplined. the first guns out on the streets, we disciplined all them brothers and sisters, how can you not point the gun. you have to know about the guns, do not point a loaded weapon and all this stuff. this is the kind of stuff we taught them. i will never forget that day when we first went out there and got that first real disciplined organized patrol together and the cop says you have no right to observe me. 56 people standing on the sidewalk and california state supreme court ruling says any citizen has the right to observe

a police officer as long as they're standing an appropriate distance away. and some sister on the sidewalk said well, go ahead on and tell him, brother. the cop said -- the cop says, is that gun loaded? i said i have it right here. he said step back. you have no right here. went off, such and such supreme court, so-and-so. private property, you cannot remove my private property due process of law. step back. you cannot touch my weapon. tall brother standing at me and said, man, what kind of negroes is these? that was that night. i never forgot that. but we organized and educated them brothers. they had to know the ten-point program. myself and two others were the only ones that were ex-military. we trained huey about the weapons, how to break down the

weapons and this was the kind of method. you had to know your p.e. malcolm x's autobiography, with a highlighter and dictionary and taught him how to read. taught that brother how to read. you ever tried to read -- that's tough material to read. but let me say something more here about our ten-point platform and program and its relevancy. our new organizational framework here, the national association of black panther party with brother billiacks and all the other brother, it's about time bpp program and the programs they're doing and all the other brothers and sisters, all the businesses, our brother bobby rush, congressman united states of america, he and hampton found

and put together, you know, it's very important. the black panther party and elect oral politics, that characteristic was important because we ran with our names on the ballot. we were coalition with 38, 39 different organizations. by running for political office, what were we talking about? we were trying to implement -- huey and i had discussed about the need to change the laws. he was in law school, too. so, we were looking at the laws and beginning to understand and see that the crux, the foundation of institutionalization of racism in america was in the laws. shadows of freedom, he publishes about 10, 12, 14 years ago. it gives you a rundown of the history of racist laws in

america based on the precep of white supremacy along with the precep of so-called black inferiority. that's important to read. you understand the nuinstitutio. by the end of 1969 jumping into -- '69 what we have, 49 chapters and brarchls of black panther party and 20 something ncff branches around the country. 68 different operations and offices. it was nothing but an extension framework of the black panther party. we created, et cetera, so on. that was important. what we were talking about is getting some elected offices, if we had city council and you got racist experts of law in that city council charter, if you got

seats in there, we can wipe those laws off the book. mentality is another thing but to get the laws off the books, that was the key. nowadays, all these years have passed. we did a lot of things, all of us. you know, programs, party members, come out here and working on mayor good's campaign. i dived right on in over to help him out. he did that but sit there and wound up running the philadelphia parking authority. i said that's fantastic. bobby rush is telling me about all kinds of brothers and sisters in government, in politics, in the frameworks. i used to dream of having multi, multi, thousands more so than even we've got now of black folks, people of color folks, other young progressive white folks all in these political changing this system.

well, there's still some work to be done. there's some unfinished and uncompleted business that's got to be done. so every organizational framework and any kind of progressive mode and move, we've got to help out and we've got to help young folks, young folks take these political seats, evolve. i'm talking about in the multi thousands all over the united states. there are 500,000 political seats that one can be elected to in the united states of america. all the states, all the county seats, legislative seats, city council seats, part time, full time, what have you, et cetera. think about that. when we started in the 1960s, you know when i mean? i don't know if we had 10 black folks elected to political office anywhere in the united states of america at that time. a lot of them have been. i'm not saying all of them are perfect, et cetera. but we need more and more

progressive folks. that's the real term, the word, the meaning of where we've got to go in the future. we're going to take this ten-point platform and program and add it to any and all points of protests, points of debate, points of trying to organize and unify people. and we're going to have to work for that future. and that's what the naabp is helping to do with our unfinished business. this is where we're going to go. it's about our future world, present to future world in cooperational futurism. politically, economically, social justice wise. getting to that future world of cooperation. 6 billion living human beings, rapidly getting ready to be 7 billion living human beings on the face of our earth. and that's important. african-american people and other people of color and other

peoples of interest have to work together to ultimately really totally change and push the capitalistic system back. capitalists are are going to be here for a while. minimally, if we could get more legislative frameworks to get rid and get legislation and policies to cut down aboritionists. that is alive and it's going to -- we have to make it alive with our youth, panther cubs and other panther people and youthful people to understand that we want to get to that future world of cooperational humanism. power to the people. thank you very much. [ applause ]