Father buy a tv. Because tvs was not a come thing in households at that time. So in order to keep one the struggle in our home state in alabama my mother made my dad buy a tv and every day watch Walter Cronkite report what was going on in the south. And my mother used to get so emotional. So mad. Because she seen bull conners. Racist police. Our people being hosed down and dogs being sicked on them just for trying to vote or attend a rally. My mother used to get so emotional. Back in those days, later on i had nine other brothers and sisters but at the time i was the only child. And she would look at me and say boy dont you ever let nobody do that kind of stuff to you. So she just instilled that in to me. I went on with my life. And in my junior year, i was coming back from a track meet. I was on the track team for lemore high school in san joaquin valley. I used to fight every day in junior high school. And he was my physical education teacher. And he would see me fighting every day because of somebody calling me a name or Something Like that. And he came uhm to me one day and said bills you cant fight everybody. You have to pick your moments. And that is exactly what he did in 1968. So when he went to olympics and won that gold medal and i seen him standing up there and put his fist up said this is what hes talking about. Choosing your moments. So later on im still in california. We moved to were still in san diego. And so the panthers go to sacramento in 1967 and i see them on tv. And i was so kpiepted about that. I woke my dad up. He hates to be woken up after hes in his easy chair. And said dad look at this. And he was amazed to see black people was doing Something Like that. And these are the same brothers. Bobby seal in the middle. Emory douglas. These are the panthers that went to sacramento and changed history for black people in america. Because they stood up and took a positions were not going to take Police Brutality. And they started the organization to parole Police Officers in the black community. And did because huey newton was going to high scholaw school. And panthers would carry law book in their arms when they went to engage with the police. Because the police at that time, they didnt they didnt take much to be a police officer. Let me say that. It didnt take much. You didnt have to go to college. You didnt have to do any of that stuff. All you had to do was look tougher or know somebody. So a lot of these cops didnt even know the laws and we would cite the laws to them but historically that lawbook has been dissected out of our arms. Most people didnt even know we were doing that. We were citing laws. They didnt understand the miranda law. That was instituted in 1966 the same year the black Panther Party started and we were reciting to it people and they didnt even know what it was. Cops like this, oldtimers. Bad attitude people we had to deal with in our community. So the black Panther Party not only dealt with Police Brutality. We dealt with we dealt with various types of discrimination, you know. So most people just know the black Panther Party from dealing with the police but black Panther Party had a ten point program. Within that program we fought for fair housing, Better Living conditions. And what really attracted me was point six. We want all black men exempt from military service. I was a i was 17 and they started had lottery. When i read that, im like yeah im against the draft too. And the thing about it was black people was recruited, drafted to go fight a what are for democracy. There was no democracy for black people. Remember 1965 president johnson signed a bill called the voting right act. They were sending people before that. Black representatives and chicago represe chick knoothes war. At the height of our existence we had 51 offices in 30 cities. International support. An embassy in algeria. When Aldrich Cleveland was ran out of the country in 1969 he established an embassy in algeria. Later on we got an embassy in sweden, a support committee in paris run by Richard Wrights daughter t author of native son. We had support and north vietnamese, they gave us our embassy in algeria. Because they were mooifing to a bigger one. And these are many of the rallies that happened during that time. And theres been a lot said about Coalition Building. When we had rallies just couple weeks ago, a reporter asked well wasnt the plaque pane black Panther Party a racist . I said you hadnt done your history. How could you say that. They ran cleveland for president. Sds. The biggest antiwar group going, white group. So we had that solidarity is in the black Panther Partys dna. I do a lot of today i do a lot of exhibits, displays, and this is one of them. It is a combination of i call it the early years. You know we was marching and rallying around certain issues. Later on in 1969, this is something that people really dont look at or dont even know about the black Panther Party social programs. We had Something Like twenty and the most known is the free breakfast for School Children program. This is operated early in the morning and the reason why we started is because it opened young people opens level of poverty was below poverty level. You had blacks and chicano kids going to school hungry. And so we started this social program to feed kids and it took off in oakland. The black Panther Party was the First Organization do that. And just before i came here, i looked at the Agriculture Department and they claimed they feed 6. 2 million kids a year. They call it their nutrition program. But it is the same thing the black Panther Party started. We embarrassed them into starting that program because at that time the government was busy shooting rockets to the moon. Dogs and among keys to the moon when our people here were starving. So later on in 1971 they started had Free Breakfast Program and feeding kids throughout the country. So we started doing that. Also at the same time we took up where snic left off. They had summer schools and we had liberation schools. Early stages there was no black history classes. None taught anywhere except make a black college down south. But in metropolitan cities there was no history being taught. Even i came up without even know the full potential of our people. And when you dont know that you are really lacking. So we took it as a very important thing to educate young people. And that was a whole focus. Educating young people. Feeding the kids. Giving them a better chance of life than we had. Free food program. Were known for that. At various stages of our organization we gave away tens of thousands of groceries. Wed give away food, register people to vote. This is the first time grown people had ever been asked to reg store to vote. Black Panther Party did that. We just cant do it in california. We did it throughout the country. We would give away 10,000 free bags of groceries, register people to vote and do sickle cell anemia testing. People didnt know what that was. Doctors didnt know what that was, the government didnt know. Until the black Panther Party made it known. Even in 1972 richard mill house pig nixon brought up that in the state of union speech in 1972. And we have to do more to conquer sickle cell anemia. I wonder where he got that at. So we started these Community Centers throughout america. Right . So in this particular picture you can see people from the community. We have a Voter Registration there. You see one guy with a big box of cereal hes taking home to his family. And there was a Meeting Place for people in the community. So we provided services 24 hours a day. And because we did this, a whole purpose was to bring the social consciousness of people to a certain level so they could start to finding their own situation and start taking more stern action. So we got involved in rent control. We got control we also did a lot of protesting. Because at that time in america it was very common for landlords to use leadbased paint in their apartments. And many young kids start chipping start eating that and got lead poisoning. So we protest against that, bad conditions. Also black Panther Party was at the vanguard. Women were 50 of our organization. Women had just as much right as any male in our organization to be a leader or be in charge of an office. We have a number of offices throughout america that was run by women. The boston office. You know the Mount Vernon Office down in new york. We had different offices in memphis tennessee that was run by women. You know they were they were the word. Not only that, during the course of the black panether party era we had like 14 free medical clini clinics. Two still open to this day in Seattle Washington and portland oregon. And we provided services. We didnt ask your last name. Is your mother and fathers last name the same. We didnt ask how much money you made. We said if you have an ailment come down to the clinic. So we employed women as well. Which is a very good image for young women. Now this is Sickle Cell Anemia Program in l. A. It was named after aapprentice Bunchy Carter who was murder in 1969. We talked about that earlier, i think carlos did. Now, this right here, east 9th and 26th. Called jingle town in oakland. Like an undeveloped area. Its close proximity to a dell monty cannery. And back in 1969 a lot of Migrant Workers came through jingle town and were bringing their kids. And so we set up a Free Breakfast Program at the marys help for christian church. Most of the kids were chicano but we didnt care because they were hungry. So in working with the local people there, a brown beret unit established itself in that area and started working with us on a daily basis at the free breakfast for School Children program. So eventually within 6 months they were able to take that program over theirselveses which relieved us to go do other organizationing abilities. So we worked hand in hand with the brown beret, United Farm Workers, any group that was moving forward. Moving up to 1972 people talked about bobby seals campaign. I ran the Main Campaign office. And during the campaign there was talk about proposition 22. Proposition 22 was a proposition that the growers wanted to put on the ballot. So i worked directly with United Farm Worker people because they would come to our office and i was sited and precincts to work in. So i they worked hand in hand with panther members. We might send six out to precincts. Three chicanos and three members of the black month Panther Party. During that campaign to me personally i thought it was the best thing to ever happen to oakland. We rescued tens of thousands of people. We gave away food. Even though we didnt win the election, the fact we almost did. We got into a runoff. There were nine other candidates. Some was city council. Some was millionaires. We kicked all their butts and we got into a runoff and we scared the mess out of oakland. And so they ahead to come out real racist to us. They e shoed old time bobby seal with his. 45. And showed with his robe on and said which do you want to be mayor . Coldblooded. But even though we lost the election it opened had door and swung the door wide open. And next election we had a black mayor. We had chicanos on the city council. So there was a positive result behind that. So this is bobby and elaine during the campaign. The black Panther Party, the paper was very important. Right here on the front cover is lettuce from the lettuce strike. And also during 1969 it was seven chicano brothers in San Francisco that was arrested. They were called las iete. The Organization Grew so fast they cant have the personnel or equipment to mobilize people. So the black Panther Party newspaper, already a million seller, you know, on the back we decided to butt basti ya, and the panther paper until they were able to get their own paper. Which started i think in october 19 old it up again. Basta ya. So working with different people with different interests was not anything new. Now also this is a personal picture from our archives and Caesar Chavez. I was given a bunch of negatives from a former photographer before he died. And in the box was a negative. You see this chair in this negative. You go from frame to frame. And see this chair out in the field. They are having a rally out in the field. And you see this chair moving about each frame. And then the last frame you cc sar sitting in the chair. Caesar sitting in the chair. This is the black Panther Party newspaper boycotting safeway. I still dont shop that safeway [ applause ] i still dont shop that safeway. And this is myself right here holding the United Farm Worker sign. I always wear a straw hat. Thats where my grand kids are able to find me in these pictures. Also same time in 1968 there was a National Strike of auto workers. Gm and ford gone on strike to black Panther Party members supported them. They supported students on camps likes i was. Growth street college. Now in todays era we started a number of programs called black panther history month. And every october we have the speakers coast to coast. This is myself in chicago. This is myself and huey newton. Straw hat again. That was my job 1971. The Central Committee t governing body of the party used to say to to this. Whatever happen to huey, it better happen to you first. So we had World Connection with different groups. Last year i went to australia and i was there with the aborigine panthers. Ive been to portugal, london, all around the world. Because we have panthers in the east [ cell phone ] we have panthers in all of those places because we were able to adopt our fraprogram to fit the needs. These are fallen members of the party. During course of the party 28 members were killed. There was a thing that the fbi started called cointel pro. Counterintelligent program. Killed a lot of people. Jald a lot of people. Something like 19 Political Prisoners still in jail and one is this guy right here. Hes not in jail. He got away and hes in African American for 40 years. But he has a lot of programs there as well. So there is a number of people whos done positive work. Even today, even the city are starting to pull up historical markers of what panthers had done work in the community. And this is our 45th year banner. You can see right under the free all Political Prisoners, there is a that is lettuce. That is let frtuce from the lete strike for the farm workers. So we always keep that in memory. I do a lot of speeches at the high schools and clenls and the colleges and these are some of the collages ive done. And in october 17th and 19th were vig a big panther reunion down in kansas city. So im going to end it there. If you are any questions or suggestions you can come to our website. Website is full of information. So id like to end it right now. Our 50 years is coming up in 2016. All right. Thank you. [ applause ] so lauren, if you and kathleen would join us on stage. Well it is such an honor to be with you two here today and thank you so much for your wonderful presentations lauren and bill. I think this first question, i had it planned, but i think carlos really inspired me to frame it the way im going to frame it. I want to ask you what are the less lessons that were drown from these coalitions and efforts to reach across racial and cultural movements in the california area. Okay, you, lauren, explain how you know, how the beginning of this coalition was inspired. The recognition of the shared repression. But im interested in the transformational process and the blow my mind mome moments of union throughout the years. I think proposition 22 was one of those moments for sure. But what were the moments of a learning from each other, the discoveries i guess of this union . Well i could say that we we set the table for people to come after us. Because we showed that this can actually work. You know, solidarity works. In 1971 we put the initiative on the ballot in berkeley called the Community Control the police. At that time berkeley was like a center for the activities. College kids and people from Interest Community beat up from the police. We 16,000 signatures and put that on the ballot. Even though it lost. We had 38 , it showed that we could do that. That if we could concentrate a little bit harder we could bring people to the poles and get them to vote. And that whole effort is a learning effort. Black Panther Party believed in revolution. And we knew that the way to do that is to raise peoples political consciousness. And that is what