The Black Panthers by Bryan Shih

Author:Bryan Shih
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781568585567
Publisher: Nation Books
Published: 2016-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

“Everything just stopped, the meetings, the teaching. Everybody just dissipated and went their own route.”

Patrice Sims (b. June 26, 1951) joined the Newark, New Jersey, Chapter of the party. She later worked as an arts teacher.

I FIRST MET UP WITH PARTY MEMBERS WHEN I JOINED RUTGERS UNIVERSITY Black Student Union. Some members were classmates and friends from my high school. We started studying the history of revolutions in other countries, such as Cuba and China. We were studying the teachings of Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara and also about the Black Panther Party, its missions and ideas, because they were just coming out at this time also.

Mainly, I was learning about what they were about and tried to find out for myself what was really possible to do. I became involved mostly with the political education classes, which comprised studying other revolutionary countries and their theories and trying to compare and contrast them with what was going on right then and there with the civil rights movement. I also worked a lot with rescue programs for children in the community, and I sold a lot of papers in Newark.

I got to talk to people and teach them about what the party was about and also raise money. I was a quiet person, and that’s one thing that brought out the confidence in me. Sometimes I would stand on the street and talk for maybe thirty or thirty-five minutes and get a feel for what a person was like and interested in. Then they’d buy a paper, and I would get them interested in the party too. I felt a sense of worth that I was actually doing something for the community. For me, the Black Panther Party was this moment of personal growth. I was exploring new ideas, new learning, and new ways of looking at things and had to roll all of that information into one.

What really stood out was when the Black Student Union and the Black Panthers here in Newark got two buses to go to Washington, DC, to attend a protest rally against discrimination and racism and poverty. There were thousands of people standing up and saying, “No more.” It was really awesome to see all those people there for a common cause. That’s one thing that stayed in my mind a long time.

The other was the “split” of the party. It was shocking and devastating that two of the men so vital to the party (Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver) came to disagree so much. In Newark, we didn’t know which way to go. The party was gone as far as we were concerned. It was like a bad, bad breakup. Everything just stopped, the meetings, the teaching. Everybody just dissipated and went their own route.

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