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Mhm. Good morning and welcome to Bay Sunday. I'm Barbara Rogers. Many people think that we lost the war on poverty. It would probably be more accurate to say we lost some major battles, but the war is still going on this morning. We'll tell you about one

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program that has been fighting that war and winning for 25 years. That program is the job corps today. We'll meet some people involved with it and find out how Job Corps has survived and is continuing to help thousands of young adults, Young and old alike have

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a summer treat ahead. It's almost time for the 17th annual examiner opera in the park concert this morning. We'll get a sample of what you will hear when the music begins. Plus this past week Pete Rose, one of baseball's greatest players, was banned from the game

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for life. To local sportswriters will be here to comment on the commissioner's decision and tell us whether they think it will keep Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame and then a very special treat from a very talented young lady who will be performing with

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the SAN Francisco Symphony Orchestra next month. But before all of that, we turn our attention to one of this week's biggest stories the death of Black panthers co founder, Huey Newton. Today, some of the people who were formerly involved with the black panthers will be here

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to talk about what it was like in those early days. But first, here's a background profile on Huey Newton from Liz Gonzalez In the mid-60s at so called Liberation School, supported by the Black Panther Party. He was a revolutionary hero. Wayne Newton spent a lot of

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time in jail to the police. He was a dangerous thug. In 1967, he was convicted of killing an Oakland police officer, but to retrials later ended with Hung Juries. In 1974, he fled to Cuba to escape prosecution for killing a prostitute. Then last March, he was

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accused of embezzling state funds. Today, Charles gary insist Newton was a victim, not a villain. The FBI killed him when I say killed him. I don't mean to put a gun who he's had. They destroyed him as a person where he became a paranoid sick person.

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It's a wonder that he was still alive, Huey. Newton helped shape the black panther party, but he also shared in its demise. While Newton was charged with various crimes, including murder and assault, the party was losing power and membership. Eldridge Cleaver, who himself was purged from

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the radical group, refused to comment on Newton's death. Johnny Spain, however, said he was not surprised to hear of Newton's demise. I think on the one hand, you he did a lot to illustrate some of the the wheels of our society. On the other hand, I

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think personally the pressure that came to bear on him for that very effort um might have lent itself to destroying him years ago. Newton was asked how he wanted people to remember him Well, I would like to think of them as a person who's very loved

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but just as people have debated over the effectiveness of the black panther party, so will they debate the life of Huey Newton Liz Gonzalez Channel five Eyewitness News joining me now are three women who were involved with the black panthers and who all once worked with

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Huey Newton. They are san Francisco state University lecturer, Angela Davis Concordia High School principal, ericka Huggins and managing editor and director of Black Scholar magazine, Janina Abram. Thanks for being with us today. This has got to be I suppose for you all three of you are

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very sad week because of what happened to Huey, no matter what had happened in the years intervening, I'm sure that all of you still had a special feeling for him from having worked with him in the early days. Tell me how how did you each become

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involved with the black panther party? Angela? Let's start with you. Well, first of all, During the late 60s when I was studying in Europe, I learned about the emergence of the Black Panther Party and was profoundly affected by that. As a matter of fact, I decided

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to cut short my studies in Europe and returned to this country in order to become involved in the black liberation movement of that period. I worked with the student nonviolent coordinating committee which during that period entered into an alliance with the Black Panther Party erIC and

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I worked together in Los Angeles in 1967 68. Many people would think that those two would not fit together. Student nonviolent coordinating committee and the Black Panther Party, which came to have an image that many people associated with violence. How how did those two work together?

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Well, during that period, both Snick and the Black Panther Party were responsible for ushering the black movement into a new era, I think. And it was especially the role that Huey and bobby and others played in establishing a new stance, a stance of resistance and all

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of us, who knows how many hundreds of thousands of young black people across this country uh were affected by that new militant stance. Uh that was assumed by the brothers and the sisters who went in the community, and who said we will no longer allow the

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police to brutalize us, We will stand up with dignity. We're gonna come back in a minute to talking about that, the climate at that time and how this came to be. But Erica how did you become involved? I was a junior at Lincoln University And I

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was 18 years old and I read a ramparts magazine article in which Huey was pictured strapped to a hospital gurney with a policeman standing over him laughing, Huey had a stomach wound, a gunshot wound in his stomach. And on the day when I read that article,

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I wondered what I was doing in college and why wasn't I out there supporting him and supporting black people. And so within a week, my friend and I john Huggins and I who later became my husband and was later killed by the FBI at U. C.

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L. A. In 1969 drove across country to aid in freeing Huey Newton. We joined the party shortly after we got to Los Angeles and I worked with it from that time until 1981. Now, the FBI does not agree that they killed your husband. I I suppose

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the official statement has always been that he was killed by a rival group. Their official statement was that they engendered the um, the interactions that caused the murder, but that they did not pull the trigger. There's a document that states this now Janina. How about you?

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How did you become involved with the black panthers? I joined the party. I guess you were saying the sort of middle period in Detroit michigan in 1972. Uh, I married a man who had joined the party and both of us for a long time had talked

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about the importance of being in an organization that was fighting for black people's freedom and that we needed to be in an organization. And so I got involved in Detroit michigan now, as all three of you look back at what has happened, Look at it now

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through the sort of the periscope of history. Um, do you think that the way it was done was the only way it could have been done? Or could you have done things differently? How how do you view it now in retrospect? Well, of course, with historical

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hindsight, we can say that there are all kinds of things that we would have done differently, but then we did not know what we know now. I think that um, the legacy of Huey Newton is that he sensed what the sentiment of, of especially young black

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people must have been at a critical moment in the evolution of the civil rights movement. And two understand that there was a historical need to bring forth a new posture was, I think quite brilliant. And of course there were many mistakes that were made, uh, tracks

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have been written analyzing, uh, the mistakes, but there can be no doubt about the fact that we would not be where we are today, had not that moment been seized by those who understood what I would call the historical necessities. Part of the manifesto of the

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black panther Party said that, and I don't know if this is an exact quote, but that it would give people the black people the power to control their own destiny. Uh, Erica do you feel that it did that? Uh, and how do you look at that

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now in terms of what's happening in black communities? Harriet tubman once said that he is not a slave who strikes a blow against for freedom. And I've never forgotten that. And what I feel about all of what we did was that we allowed for people to

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raise their consciousness, their understanding of themselves and in a way that understanding was a surface understanding. But the language changed the way that black people carried themselves changed. What I felt was that something transforming was happening in the hearts and minds of people whenever changes occurring,

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it doesn't taste good. It's not necessarily pleasant, but in effect, the result is quite wonderful. I would say also that things are similar today. You know, those things are similar that were happening then, but I also have to say that I know because of the black

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panther, black panther party, not only did my life change, but my mother's life changed my sister's life, my brother's life, the all of the people that I knew, whether I knew them well or not, their lives changed dramatically because a stand was being made. We were

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saying yes, there was an emancipation proclamation, but it was a piece of paper. Now, we have to really become free of those bonds and we're willing and courageous enough to do it. And Huey was very, very courageous man. Do you think that courage and the benefits

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that it it gave to you? And like you're saying, your mother's generation and many other young blacks, uh, and older blacks was wiped out somewhat in these last few years because of the kinds of negative publicity that he we got. Does did that counter it in

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other words? Or do you think that legacy will continue? I think that the legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of people, as long as there are people, we all have our demons to fight you and I as well. And so to say that

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because people battle their demons, History changes, History should be changed. And perhaps a piece of history is lost isn't true. Um what this week brought up for me were all kinds of wonderful memories of things that changed because of the courage of two men, one of

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them being Huey Newton. And it created in me on new courage and new strength. It took a lot for me to leave school and travel across the country and literally put my life at the hands of people who weren't so mm hmm. Happy that I existed.

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So that brings up another another point. You said it took courage for you. Do you think something like this could happen today, Janina? Maybe all of you could just very quickly tell me your feelings on that. Looking at what's going on in black communities today. Do

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you think something like this could happen? And is something like this needed again? Like the black panther party? Well the party, you know the way the party was, in the way it was organized, It developed at a particular point in history and it responded to a

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particular need. As Angela pointed out, I think if we have something else like it in the future, it won't be exactly like that because we cannot go back to 1966, we cannot recreate that moment in history. But if the if the people see that there and

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feel that there is a need for something like that similar to it, people will create it. I mean bobby and Huey did it because they saw the need. If we see the need again, I think that it will happen. Yeah. And I think that given the

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setbacks that we've experienced, the composition of the Supreme Court, the assault on all of the victories that we've won over the last three decades or so. It's very clear that we do need uh to fight to revitalize our mass movements. The black panther party was a

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mass movement. It attracted young people all over this country. We do need, as I totally agree with joe Naina, it cannot be the same because we have transcended that moment in history, But but we definitely need to regenerate our mass movements. And I would also like

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to say that oftentimes people speak as if there was that movement in the late 60s, in the early 70s and it died and nothing occurred during the intervening period. But I see what's happening now as a part of a continuum. If we look at people like

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Ron Dellums and the role that he's playing uh in Congress, uh Ron Dellums uh developed during the early stages of his career as a person who defended the Black Panther party in Oakland. Uh bobby Rush, who was one of the leaders of the black panther Party

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is a is a council person um in in Chicago. So I think that that we need to recognize that uh that we are still a part of an evolving um pattern that was initiated during the 60s by the Black Panther Party, by um Huey Newton bobby

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Ceo and others. When Angela was talking that brought to mind, you know, you're talking about a continuum and Angela and I are both involved in the National Black Women's Health Project. You know, one of the points of the black panther party program was we demand decent

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health care for for black people. And I see my own involvement in the Black Women's Health Project. As you know, part of that continuum. I'm still, you know, in my own way trying to work on that particular part of the problem. Well, thank you all three.

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And I must apologize somehow. I got a tickle in my throat there and I couldn't stop it. Thank you all three for being with me today and for giving us sort of a different perspective on the life and work of you. Thank you. Thank you. Now

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don't go away. We'll be right back with the Job Corps, celebrating 25 years of putting young people on the road to success. Stay with us.