{"id":1973,"date":"2009-10-15T08:19:20","date_gmt":"2009-10-15T14:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2013-03-25T09:41:15","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T15:41:15","slug":"kathleen-cleaver-high-priestess-of-the-peoples-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/kathleen-cleaver-high-priestess-of-the-peoples-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathleen Cleaver: High Priestess of the People\u2019s Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Issue 346 of The Black Commentator on October 15, 2009<\/a>
\nRepublished in Assata Shakur Forums on October 15, 2009<\/a>
\nBy Larry Pinkney<\/p>\n

Black Panther Party History Month<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the African people say, in their plain language, that \u2018no matter how hot the water from the well, it will not cook your rice, \u2019 they express with staggering simplicity a basic principle not only of physics but also of political science.\u201d
\n-Amilcar Cabral<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Black Panther Party [BPP], from its very beginning in the struggle against racial and economic oppression, believed in the \u201cbasic principle not only of physics but also of political science.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>The BPP may now be\u00a0physically<\/em>\u00a0gone, but it is by no means forgotten; for its legacy lives on to this day even as the struggle for economic and social justice\u00a0continues unabated.<\/em><\/p>\n

To be sure, there would have been no viable Black Panther Party without the leadership, brilliance, and tenacity of the women who were an integral part of the Black Panther Party. Immediately the names of Assata Shakur, Tarika Lewis, Afeni Shakur, and Ericka Huggins,\u00a0to name but a very few<\/em>, come readily to mind. These \u201csister\u201d \/ women Black Panthers were, in their own extraordinarily important ways,\u00a0the backbone and\u00a0female<\/span>\u00a0political giants of the Black Panther Party.<\/em>\u00a0If<\/em>\u00a0indeed any one Black Panther Party sister embodied the genius, strength, leadership, tenaciousness, and revolutionary beauty of the women of the Black Panther Party collectively, she must assuredly be Kathleen Cleaver.<\/p>\n

The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in October<\/em> of 1966, in\u00a0Oakland,\u00a0California. Thus, the month of\u00a0October<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0Black Panther Party History Month<\/span>,\u00a0<\/em>but I reiterate that without the invaluable\u00a0rank and file, and national leadership of women,\u00a0<\/em>there would have been\u00a0no<\/em>\u00a0viable Black Panther Party.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Cleaver was not only the revolutionary balance to her then spouse, the dynamic, fiery, and prolific Black Panther Party Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver, she was\u00a0also<\/em>\u00a0in fact the visual revolutionary inspiration and actuator\u00a0for and to<\/em>\u00a0the\u00a0entire<\/em> Black Panther Party –\u00a0women and men alike<\/em>.\u00a0Sister Kathleen, as a member of the national governing body of the Black Panther Party known as the Central Committee, and as Communications Secretary of the Black Panther Party nationally, provided on a national level what rank and file women<\/em>\u00a0Black Panther Party [BPP] members\u00a0in chapters across the nation<\/em>\u00a0were doing on a regular and daily basis – ; she provided the implacable\u00a0vision,<\/em> and simultaneously a glimpse, of what the egalitarian unity and political struggle by Black women and men together\u00a0might actually bring about and\u00a0be<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whereas it was the \u201cbrothers\u201d who may initially have brought together some pieces to form the Black Panther Party [BPP], it was\u00a0beyond all question,\u00a0<\/em>the BPP \u201csisters\u201d\u00a0who honed, refined<\/em>,\u00a0and actually made those pieces\u00a0coherently work together<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this the 21st century, it has been correctly written that Kathleen Cleaver is \u201ca major voice in the Black Liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s, [and]\u00a0continues<\/em>\u00a0[presently] to speak out against racism, sexism, and economic inequality.\u201d However, perhaps just as importantly, Kathleen Cleaver has always possessed and\u00a0still possesses<\/em>\u00a0today that critically crucial and delicate balance of knowing when to\u00a0immediately<\/em>\u00a0cut to the political chase, and likewise when to bide her time, and with stunning and\u00a0straight-forward intellectual alacrity<\/em>\u00a0proceed to educate, expose, and if necessary, intelligently obliterate any who dare challengethe legitimacy of the struggle<\/em>\u00a0in which she and her former comrades in the Black Panther Party gave [and many continue to give] so very much mentally, emotionally, and physically. This is the essence of Kathleen Cleaver: audacity, intellect, integrity, and no nonsense. This also continues to be the essence of\u00a0the legacy<\/em>\u00a0of the Black Panther Party as a whole.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Ten-Point Program<\/span>\u00a0of the Black Panther Party succinctly and clearly laid out the objectives and beliefs of the Party. Moreover, despite the ultimate\u00a0physical<\/em> decimation of the Black Panther Party by the end of the 20th century, the BPP Ten-Point Program\u00a0remains<\/em>\u00a0as one of the best examples ever of a precise and forthright political platform that persons can easily understand and relate to\u00a0right up to the present.<\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to the\u00a0Ten-Point Program<\/span>, free breakfast, free medical, free busing, free ambulance, free shoes, and free school programs\u00a0were but a few<\/em>\u00a0of the programs instituted by the Black Panther Party in service to Black communities throughout the United States. The activism of the Black Panther Party translated into\u00a0tangibly<\/em>\u00a0serving the people \u201cbody and soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Kathleen Cleaver is\u00a0today<\/em> an author, a law professor, and a resolute political activist. Among other books to which Kathleen Cleaver has made major contributions; she has co-edited the book titled, Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Panthers and Their Legacy<\/a>.<\/em> It needs to be read by any and all serious students of the Black Panther Party and\/or of people\u2019s political struggle in general.<\/p>\n

Today the\u00a0genius<\/em>\u00a0of sister Kathleen Cleaver, as well as of other former Black Panther Party members including (Black Panther Party Legacy & Alumni curator and historian) Billy X Jennings, exiled sister Assata Shakur, Elbert \u201cBig Man\u201d Howard, artist extraordinaire Emory Douglas, and teacher \/ educator Ericka Huggins is with us\u00a0still.<\/em>\u00a0Moreover, the\u00a0determination and vision<\/em>\u00a0of former long time political prisoners Robert Hillary King (aka Robert King Wilkerson) and Elmer \u201cGeronimo\u201d Pratt are also with us\u00a0still.<\/em><\/p>\n

The revolutionary spirit of the many martyrs of the Black Panther Party, including Alprentice \u201cBunchy\u201d Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, Bobby Hutton, Welton Armstead and so\u00a0very many other<\/em>\u00a0women and men of the BPP continues to live on. The Black Panther Party\u2019s\u00a0casualties of<\/span><\/em><\/strong> the vicious U.S. federal, state and local\u00a0war<\/span><\/strong> against it<\/span>,<\/em> including (but not limited to) Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, are reminders of the enormous\u00a0emotional and psychological<\/em>\u00a0price and carnage that have been, and continue to be, put upon any who dare stand up against the avaricious and vampiric oppressors of humankind; and should be understood in this context. The\u00a0physical, emotional, amoral viciousness and fall out<\/em>\u00a0of the war against the Black Panther Party can, to some extent, be summarized in the despicable and illegal \/ unconstitutional U.S. Government program (known as COINTELPRO) to \u201cframe, discredit, disrupt, imprison and murder\u201d BPP activists.\u00a0Real<\/em> change is\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0brought about\u00a0without<\/span> severe and<\/em>\u00a0real<\/span><\/em>\u00a0human prices to be paid. There is simply no such thing as a genuine\u00a0painless<\/em> revolution.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Cleaver has also been, and remains, active in legally supporting many political prisoners from the Black Panther Party, many of whom\u00a0remain imprisoned today<\/em>, after\u00a0decades<\/em>\u00a0of wrongful incarceration. She has not forgotten the lessons of exile which she herself personally experienced.\u00a0She has not forgotten<\/em>\u00a0the struggle.<\/p>\n

There is a relatively recent television program on the Black Panther Party, which includes sister Kathleen Cleaver and others. It is extremely informative, expertly done, and\u00a0well worth watching<\/em>. The name of the program is:\u00a0Lords of the Revolution: The Black Panthers.<\/em>\u00a0It was televised nationally by the VH1 channel and is only approximately one hour in length and will hold your attention to its conclusion.<\/p>\n

As sister Kathleen and other former BPP members made crystal clear, each in their own fashion, on the above mentioned VH1 television program; over forty years ago the Black Panther Party understood that the only way to bring about\u00a0real<\/em> systemic \u201cchange\u201d was through and by the people – we ourselves.<\/p>\n

Sister Kathleen Cleaver so completely encapsulated this when she so poignantly summarized the program,\u00a0Lords of the Revolution: The Black Panthers,<\/em> by simply stating, \u201cWish we could have done better. We should have been smarter. We should have been stronger. We should have been more organized. We were up against a\u00a0very, very<\/em>\u00a0powerful opposition. We didn\u2019t know\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0powerful our government was. We were\u00a0ready to change our world. We\u00a0still<\/span><\/em>\u00a0want to\u00a0change<\/span>\u00a0our world.<\/em>\u201d Indeed.<\/p>\n

Thank you sister Kathleen. Thank you so very, very much.<\/p>\n

All Power To The People.<\/p>\n

Onward sisters and brothers! Onward!<\/p>\n

Larry Pinkney<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil\/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil\/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania\/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book,\u00a0Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker<\/a>, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to read excerpts from the book.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in Issue 346 of The Black Commentator on October 15, 2009<\/a>
Republished in Assata Shakur Forums on October 15, 2009<\/a>
By Larry Pinkney<\/p>\n

Black Panther Party History Month<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the African people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1979,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions\/1979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}