Some Thoughts For Upcoming Black Nation Day: New Afrikan Spirituality Perspective on the New Afrikan Personality

by Kwado Cinque Akofena

As Black folks due to our long history under white supremacy ‘racial oppression and economic exploitation’ elevating our national identity to be ‘New Afrikans’ is a challenging process to say the least.

From my perspective as a New Afrikan Spiritualist, by this I mean the spirit ‘essence’ of being a New Afrikan and for me this is embodied in Points #1 and #14 of the New Afrikan Creed:

#1. i believe in the spirituality, humanity, and genius of Black People, and in Our new pursuit of these values.

#14. i will keep myself clean in body, dress, and speech; knowing that i am a light set on a hill, a true representative of what We are building.

Indeed, becoming ‘gaining’ a New Afrikan personality is an internal cleaning process because we have been dirtied ‘stained’ wounded deeply by white supremacy. Thus from a New Afrikan Spirituality perspective the New Afrikan personality is foundated on the pillars of ‘self-healing’ (internal reparations) and external ‘self-determination’ (nation-building).

Yes, becoming “a light shining on a hill” is a ‘uphill’ daily cleansing process to overcome being tainted by internalized trauma and oppression. Slavery's dirtiness was imposed on our enslaved Ancestors, the light of their specific Afrikan traditions was forcibly covered with the darkness of inferiority and lowliness.

Our Ancestors were debased to the fullest, significantly losing their traditional Afrikaness position of worth, value, and dignity. This dirtiness devaluing caused inner darkness: the darkness of self-hatred, the darkness of mental disorders, and the darkness of negative emotions; this darkness would also come to entail alcohol /drug addiction and criminality.

Overcoming this inner darkness requires much more depth and comprehensiveness than just transforming a criminal mentality into a revolutionary mentality; requires much more than just reading books ‘revolutionary intellectualism’ as a form of political cognitive therapy.

Part of Point #14 of the New Afrikan Creed says “I will keep myself clean in body” which means the whole body that includes the mind. Expanded current research shows the body has 4 minds: a mind in the brain, a mind in the heart, a mind in the gut, and a mind in the body.

The field of neuro-cardiology shows that the heart sends more information to the brain on a daily basis than vice versa; that a lot of our genetic inherited negative emotional state 'post traumatic slave syndrome, is embedded in our hearts that's communicated to our brains. 

What this research shows to us as New Afrikans is that consciousness is not one-dimensional; that healing the mind ‘mentacide’ has to include an expanded view of the mind that is expressed in a holistic mind-body conscious raising and healing practice.

For over 5 decades I’ve witnessed many New Afrikans spew revolutionary New Afrikan theory and cultural consciousness but minimized addressing their relationship sabotaging individualism, opportunism, cronyism, narrow-mindedness, negative emotions, insecurities, thin-skinned, and character flaws.

The second part of Point #14 of the New Afrikan Creed says “knowing that i am a light set on a hill, a true representative of what We are building”, this Point is about the excellence of total character, not about just excellence in theory and rhetoric!

Earlier I mentioned that from my perspective that the spirit ‘essence’ of being a New Afrikan is embodied in Points #1 and #14 of the New Afrikan Creed, that I believe is a prerequisite to the comradery and citizen relationship practice of 6 other Creed Points (#2, #3, #4, #12, #13, #15):

#2. i believe in the family and the community, and in the community as a family, and i will work to make this concept live.

#3. i believe in the community as more important than the individual.

#4. i believe in constant struggle for freedom, to end oppression and build a better world. I believe in collective struggle: in fashioning victory in concert with my Brothers and Sisters.

#12. i will love my Brothers and Sisters as myself.

#13. i will steal nothing from a Brother or Sister, cheat no Brother or Sister, misuse no Brother or Sister, inform on no Brother or Sister and spread no gossip.

#15. i will be patient and uplifting with the deaf, dumb and blind, and i will seek by word and deed to heal the Black family, to bring into the Movement and into the Community mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters left by the wayside.

This comradery and citizen relationship practice will determine 2 other Creed Points (#5, #6) that advances our progress towards national self-determination:

#5. i believe that the fundamental reason Our oppression continues is that We, as people, lack the power to control Our lives.

#6. i believe that the fundamental way to gain that power, and end oppression, is to build a sovereign Black nation.

As New Afrikans our failure for over 5 decades to significantly cleanse ourselves internally from the dirtiness of internalized oppression including our own inner weaknesses and character flaws has undermined us as New Afrikans from realizing and putting into action the tremendous potential intelligence and power to create Self-determination, Land, and Independence.

On a citizen and governmental representative level our internal weaknesses has been a major ingredient in the distressful and unworkable relationships which we so often have with each other. It has specifically resulted in factionalism that has proven to be the fatal stumbling block of every promising Provincial Government of the Republik of New Afrika (PGRNA) reform initiatives and has severely limited the effectiveness of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) in general. 

Unaddressed and unresolved internal weaknesses will prevent the "Rebuilding of Unity on the Way to Plebiscite." Becoming a conscious cleansing New Afrikan personality does not come as a result of just saying Free the Land, periodically reciting the New Afrikan Creed, reading revolutionary theory, and attending Nation Day annually. 

The development of the New Afrikan personality must consist of the daily struggle to practice a transforming behavior modifying ritual to keep ourselves ‘clean’ so We can be ‘lifted’ and ‘lighted’:

“I will keep myself clean in body, dress, and speech, knowing that i am a light set on a hill, a true representative of what We are building."

 *Daily New Afrikan Ritual of Remembrance:

“As New Afrikans We are responsible to recover and revitalize our Ancestral tradition for healing ourselves and preparing future generations for independence and nationhood based upon the best of our heritage.” - Vodunsi Alisogbo

New Afrikan Summons:

Free the Land! – Free the Land! - Free the Land!

Calling all New Afrikans – Ancestors and Descendants

Both Old and Young, those Far and Near, in every direction

Let Us come together for Our Ritual of Remembrance.

New Afrikan Ritual Remembrance:

*i begin by standing steadfast, facing the South toward the National Territory

       *i raise my arms toward the sky palms up acknowledging the vastness and creativeness of Life; gazing upward to keep a sense of loftiness

*i lower my arms down to my chest palms outward having thankfulness for Life and vowing to

to live responsibly, respectfully, and with remembrance

*i bring my arms inward with prayer palms symbolizing faith and devotion to the New Afrikan Creed reciting it

*i lower my arms to my sides reciting salutations, affirmations, and atonements

*i bow my head to remember our Freedom Fighting Ancestors and Fallen Comrads; being inspired 'uplifted' by them

*i lift my head holding my arms in front of me because self-determination is our National Salvation

*i extend my arms in front of me hands clasp together representing Unity and Struggle

*i bend over hands on knees reflecting Spiritual Humility and National Loyalty

*i kneel down touching the ground because Land is the basis of Independence

*i rise with the right clenched fist salute representing the struggle for Black Power and Nationhood

*i bring the right fist down over my heart and left fist up to the side reciting the New Afrikan Oath:

“For the fruition of Black Power, for the triumph of Black Nationhood! i pledge to the Republik of New Afrika and to the building of a better people and a better world, my total devotion, my total resources, and the total power of my mortal life.”

*Ritual of Remembrance is done 3 time a day (morning, noon, and night)

Political Philosophy of Black Nationalism

 

No Power And Just Black Visibility is Not Black Power

BLACK INTEGRITY NOW IS ALMOST NON-EXISTENT

A Dispensation of No Valor

by Quincy Stewart III, War Correspondent

"Without Black leaders with principle integrity and courage there will only be duplicity, treachery, and check cashing!" – Kenny Anderson

During the 1950's and 60's in particular, the times were ripe for a Dr. King, Malcolm X, Black Panther Party, NOI, and even the Republic of New Afrika. The demarcation line was socially clear with separate public facilities, Jim Crow in full display without apology or cover, and very small to no black representation in government. 

The clear runway for King, Malcolm X and even Fred Hampton to land and hit the ground running plus get support was open and ready. The groundswell of public support from the black community and the liberal white community came from what turned out to be world-wide revolution. Whether it was S. Africa, the Congo, Cuba, the former Soviet Union or Birmingham, Alabama upheaval and the energy to sustain it was there.

Today, now that black folks can marry "Beth" ( or "Bob"), live in certain once restricted areas, hold jobs previously exclusive to whites and hold political office we think we have arrived. Now that we can join organizations like LGBT, Women's Rights, and so forth that excuse us from focused black causes, the demarcation lines are blurred into an opaque social no-man's land; an ambiguous black purgatory which yields satisfying steps for the scripted dance of brotherly love we do between choruses of bludgeons, guns, racial slights and outright white supremacy. 

It is far more difficult in this dispensation of our struggle here in Amerikkka for black men and women of integrity to establish any momentum toward the true struggle for liberation. It is very common these days for high profile black talking heads on CNN and other networks who are called upon by the white controlled media,(even if its liberal media)-to say just enough to sound "conscious" but never enough to sound too rebellious or revolutionary. 

That could mean FBI investigations, loss of income (as many are now paid adjunct staff of these networks; paid to be just black enough for ratings and the appearance of equity), possible firings from their Ivy-League colleges they are proffing at and even loss of "friendships" from their liberal white supporters. It's not polite cocktail party conversation to suggest self-defense against police brutality or explicit recitations of historic white on black barbarism. 

In order to be a true leader in this struggle, one must be razor sharp on his or her integrity. To always speak the truth and consequences be damned. Relationships will suffer greatly as a result of true integrity, as they did during the heyday of the struggle. Corretta didn't always support King nor did Betty, Malcolm. 

Children will turn against their parent(s) that is conscious, citing every reason they can find, but will find no reason to reject, fight against white supremacy nor support black liberation save piecemeal, safe struggles that garner pats on the back from the Establishment. Friends will distance themselves in those times where confrontation is direct and risky. 

If its a man that is conscious, his own wife, girlfriend or lover will want them to focus on them and not the struggle with the intent of whipping them into some harmless puppy-dog state and then say, "I have a good man." Now that he is lamed out, un-resistant and compliant with both the system and she, now he is a "good man." She, in all practicality, is an unwitting agent of the State. 

If its a woman who is conscious and revolutionary in her actions and thinking, the man is a lame and bares all of his deepest insecurities for mama to be re-realized in her. He is a baby boy, who can't get off of mama's titties and drink milk on his own. He, in all practicality, is an agent of the State. 

A conscious black man or woman will ultimately realize in this utter dispensation of inertia, selfishness and apathy (and cowardice) that he or she is alone in many cases as King discovered right before his death in 1968. (Why do you think nobody else who was with King was killed except King AND nobody since?) Malcolm did have some few who were loyal to the Cause at the time of his murder but his revelation of shocking alienation and betrayal came during the course of a year which culminated in his death.

The list goes on, be it Fred Hampton (Bobby Rush became a sell- out politician), the Republic of New Afrika (Milton Henry became a Presbyterian minister of all things), The Black Panther Party (Huey Newton became a drug dealer and street brute) and the list goes on. We will never be able to call someone a Revolutionary in total until they die. The finale. If one can hold fast until their last breath as King did, and Malcolm and Chairman Fred or Mumia Abu Jamal (who languishes in prison today totally committed and struggling from the bowels of white-hell), then one can wear the moniker. As the Bible says, "the race is not given to the strong nor to the swift, but he(or she) who endureth to the end." 

Today too many of us black folk are afraid of being a monolith. It's hip these days to be all over the place and nowhere at the same time. Our issues are monolithic and affect us all the same. We are afraid of what white America might think, or plain scared of white folks period and choose to stay uniformed, uninspired, unmotivated (other than chasing skirts ( or trousers), chasing money and some form of psychological comfort to avoid the stark reality of our beleaguered state. We go shopping for causes to be a part of to make us feel like we are doing something or assuage our fear and cowardice but unless its liberation for us, it might be cool to post up with but it won't get us free. 

Our elected leaders are almost all some form of neocolonial. They middle manage our worst interests and call it "service." We have a collective dependent personality disorder on simple voting and once we leave the voting booth, an overwhelming sense of posterity floods our veins and we get doped-up on false promises and evasive gradualism, while we sit and wait, and wait, and wait. 

In my travels I have found some disturbing results. Wherever I go I do social investigation. I look for the local political climate, the housing conditions and what is the prevailing mood and sway of the black folks. Who is holding down the struggle? I have found nearly zilch pure, black liberation struggle and no local activists who speak forcefully and truthfully in simple public forums like a city council meeting or county board meeting, or teaching liberation education in the schools. 

Not that council meetings nor county board meetings are places of revolutionary change but IT IS a place of direct confrontation of established authority. Many of these meetings are televised which puts the conscious brother or sister at far greater risk of scrutiny by the system and targeted for any number of retaliatory responses up to and including prison or death. I'm not talking about violent confrontation just verbally speaking up and out on REAL issues of institutionalized white supremacy and the resultant ills faced by us as a result of its existence in Amerikkka. Hardly anyone is even doing that, because we are scared. 

It takes tremendous integrity, valor and courage to be honest, to be forthright and committed. Oh, you have your Pharisees and Sadducees who like in the Bible, look the part; they will say little phrases that excite people but are back-room deal-makers who pimp the struggle for profit and ultimately, we see them emerge on the other side with an endorsement or a position in the very apparatus they opposed. As is said, if you fight the system long enough, they will make you a part of it. 

Integrity is built over time and tested like a diamond in the rough. It is rounded and shaped through trial and error, facing fear and doing it anyway, being consistent and becoming richer in integrity and knowledge as the process molds and shapes a soldier. You don't just become this way because one day, after being a lame all your life and a coward, you decide now you want to pick up and fight, nor as a proven warrior, do you retire. Your only pension is your legacy of loyalty to the cause that is bigger than you!

America Is Simply a Racist Nation

by Quincy Stewart III

America has always been a country founded, built and sustained on institutionalized white supremacy... not white supremacy. What I mean by that is that the distinction between perceived small group or personal FEELINGS of supremacy over anything or anyone is not power.

In order for that to exist, there needs to be an object to feel supreme over. That object must in some way, comply with that perception, be it tacit passivity, obedience, agreement, a perpetual fight to prove that supremacy does not exist through some kind of competition or surrender into a Stockholm Syndrome type of assistance with said agenda.

I don't care about that one at all, it’s a waste of time and effort to try and convince white supremacists that you are as good or better than they are at anything. The whole perception is false from the start so why argue with a fool about a fool's game?

The REAL issue is POWER! White Supremacy is institutionalized. That is the real boogie man. Trump sits at the seat of power brokerage in the White House. (aptly named) Corporate America indeed dictates public policy, not Trump, Congress, or the Senate; Not city council, mayor, state reps, ombudsmen etc., but Corporate America!

Trump's comments, racist as they may be, are not just the rantings of a neurotic sociopath (which he is, no doubt), but also playing to his base, which is a pristine representation of what America always has been, is now and will be.

Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" was first used by president 

Ronald Reagan, yes Trump is just Reagan in full expression! Indeed Trump is also the embodiment of republican presidents Nixon, Ford, Bush, and Bush, Jr. Their last names makes no difference, they're all right-wing leaders of institutional white male supremacy with the same agenda - Kenray Sunyaru

Trump is the product of a familial line of racists true enough, but more striking is that he and all those who agree with him are backed by INSTITUTIONAL white Supremacy/Racism. As long as the institution exists, so will those in Trump's ilk exist and thrive. 

Unless America is broken down to nothing and remade from scratch, any and all efforts at thwarting institutionalized white supremacy, corporate greed, and capitalistic one-upmanship will fail. 

People keep complaining about how Trump has disturbed some sort of domestic tranquility that existed under Obama and past presidents. You would have to be the largest, most glaring fool on earth to think that with all the history, both past and contemporaneous to buy That lie. There has NEVER been one second since the "founding" of this country that what we see today has not always existed. 

Trump feels emboldened to say ANYTHING that comes to mind. This comes from the FEELING of white supremacy and with him, because he has had millions at his disposal, he knows how to drive public policy as a member of the corporate elite. 

Others have done so, from the Kennedy's, Bush's and so forth. They were just far more astute at maintaining a certain decorum (which is an illusion and Trump is showing you that) while they cluster-fucked us all. Bush went as far as used his "Faith-Based Initiative" to buy off Black preachers to curry favor and garner votes as well as keep any ruckus down from the Black community over his ugly policies, particularly in education.

Reagan initiated the push to destroy unions and look now... Clinton put thousands of us in prison and thousands into abject poverty with the 1994 and 95' Welfare and Prison Reform Acts... The list goes on and on. 

So, even though Trump's vitriolic rants are super-racist and ugly, don't be fooled by the left hand. In the right, is where the real power is wielded. The entire Republican Party in real time, while Trump is uttering some of the most racist shit said in nearly 100 years, says absolutely nothing...crickets... 

That is because they too are driven by corporate greed and votes keeps them on the gravy train. Most Senators and Congress people are rich. The Senate is mostly millionaires. Off of 175,000 per year?

Yes, what he said today hit a new low for a president TO SAY...but that's all. He is stirring up FEELINGS and yes, those feelings can stir up hateful acts. Just remember, that hateful acts against Black folk is as deeply woven into the American fabric as mom's apple pie. 

Calvin Coolidge hardly uttered a word in the White House (except his comments on Birth of a Nation) yet, Blacks were being lynched every single day in this country. America is simply a racist nation!

In the Remembrance of Our Slain Freedom-Fighting Ancestor Al Hajj Malik Al Shabazz (Malcolm X)

by Kenny Anderson

May 19^th is Malcolm X birthday – a Black Holiday celebrating his life and legacy. In paying tribute to Brother Malcolm X I took quote excerpts from Brother Malcolm’s speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" delivered at King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan - April 12, 1964. In Malcolm’s speech quotes he provides us with the wisdom and principles of Unity & Black Nationalism as the basis for self-determination to achieve Black Power today. 

Brother Malcolm’s wisdom quotes provides clarity today in the midst of dead-end Black religious debates saturated on Youtube between Christians, Muslims, Nation of Islam, Moorish Science Temple, Hebrew Israelites, Kemites, etc. These constant self-righteous religious sectarian debates fosters disunity creating confusion on who the primary enemy is which aids the overall divide and conquer strategy of white supremacy!
  

Let us reflect deeply on Brother Malcolm’s following quotes:

“I am a Muslim minister. The same as they are Christian ministers, I'm a Muslim minister. And I don't believe in fighting today on any one front, but on all fronts. In fact, I'm a Black Nationalist freedom fighter. Islam is my religion but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my personal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe, just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing religion, we'd have too many differences from the out start and we could never get together.”

“So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political, economic and social philosophy is Black nationalism. As I say, if we bring up religion, we'll have differences, we'll have arguments, and we'll never be able to get together. But if we keep our religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God, but when we come out here we have a fight that's common to all of us against an enemy who is common to all of us. “

“The political philosophy of Black nationalism only means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community. The time when white people can come in our community and get us to vote for them so that they can be our political leaders and tell us what to do and what not to do is long gone.”

“By the same token, the time when that same white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open, can send another Negro in the community, and get you and me to support him, so that he can use him to lead us astray, those days are long gone too.”

“The political philosophy of Black nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a Black community and that's where we're going to live, 'cause as soon as you move into one of their soon as you move out of the Black community into their community, it's mixed for a period of time, but they're gone and you're right there all by yourself again.”

“We must, we must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature, we will always be misled, led astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn't have the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a program, a political program, of reeducation to open our people's eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature. And then, we will - whenever we are ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be cast for a man of the community, who has the good of the community at heart.”

“The economic philosophy of Black nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community. You would never have found—you can't open up a black store in a white community. White man won't even patronize you. And he's not wrong. He got sense enough to look out for himself. It's you who don't have sense enough to look out for yourself.”

"The white man, the white man is too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community. But you will let anybody come in and control the economy of your community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you want to integrate. Nah, you're out of your mind.”

“The political and the economic philosophy of Black nationalism only means that we have to become involved in a program of reeducation, to educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in which you spend your money becomes richer and richer, the community out of which you take your money becomes poorer and poorer. And because these Negroes, who have been misled, misguided, are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with the Man, the Man is becoming richer and richer, and you're becoming poorer and poorer. And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditions become rundown. And then you have the audacity to complain about poor housing in a rundown community, while you're running down yourselves when you take your dollar out.”

“And you and I are in a double trap because not only do we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we're trapped because we haven't had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our community. The man who is controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn't look like we do. He's a man who doesn't even live in the community. So you and I, even when we try and spend our money on the block where we live or the area where we live, we're spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in another part of the town.”

“So we're trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. Any way we go, we find that we're trapped. Any every kind of solution that someone comes up with is just another trap. But the political and economic philosophy of Black nationalism; the economic philosophy of Black nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little stores, and developing them and expanding them into larger operations. Woolworth didn't start out big like they are today; they started out with a dime store, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded until today they are all over the country and all over the world and they getting some of everybody's money.”

“So our people not only have to be reeducated to the importance of supporting black business, but the Black man himself has to be made aware of the importance of going into business. And once you and I go into business, we own and operate at least the businesses in our community. What we will be doing is developing a situation, wherein, we will actually be able to create employment for the people in the community. And once you can create some employment in the community where you live, it will eliminate the necessity of you and me having to act ignorantly and disgracefully, boycotting and picketing some cracker someplace else trying to beg him for a job. Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job, you're in bad shape.”

“Whether you are a Christian or a Muslim or a nationalist, we all have the same problem. They don't hang you because you're a Baptist; they hang you 'cause you're Black. They don't attack me because I'm a Muslim. They attack me 'cause I'm Black. They attacked all of us for the same reason. All of us catch hell from the same enemy. We're all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation. All of 'em from the same enemy.” 

“So this government has failed us. The government itself has failed us. And the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us. And once we see that all of these other sources to which we've turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a it's-already-too-late philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with. And the only time – the only way we're going to solve our problem is with a self-help program. Before we can get a self-help program started, we have to have a self-help philosophy. Black nationalism is a self-help philosophy.”

“What's so good about it – you can stay right in the church where you are and still take Black nationalism as your philosophy. You can stay in any kind of civic organization that you belong to and still take Black nationalism as your philosophy. You can be an atheist and still take Black nationalism as your philosophy. This is a philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument, 'cause if you're black, you should be thinking Black. And if you're Black and you not thinking Black at this late date, well, I'm sorry for you.”

“So I say in my conclusion, the only way we're going to solve it: we got to unite. We got to work together in unity and harmony. And Black nationalism is the key. How we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each other's throats that always exists in our neighborhood? And the reason this tendency exists – the strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you, I'm for separation and you for integration, and keep us fighting with each other. No, I'm not for separation and you're not for integration, what you and I are for is freedom. Only, you think that integration will get you freedom; I think that separation will get me freedom. We both got the same objective, we just got different ways of getting' at it." 

Beyond Berets: The Black Panthers as Health Activists

by Mary Bassett, MD, MPH

It has been 50 years since the Black Panther Party was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California. Today the organization is remembered for its black-clad, black-bereted members in disciplined formation, bearing arms. 

These are compelling images, but they in no way capture the organization’s historical significance or its lasting contribution to public health. These iconic images provide opportunities to tell unfinished stories.

Fifty years is a long time to wait to restore the Black Panther Party’s image to reflect its full and lasting legacy. This legacy should acknowledge that, in just a few years, the Party rapidly extended its initial commitment to armed self-defense against police violence to mobilization against a more ambitiously framed concept of violence. 

In this broader view, lack of adequate housing, education, and jobs were also forms of violence. And the Party proclaimed its obligation to act against these injuries as well. Protection came in the form of programs, not guns. 

In expanding its perspective beyond the problem of police violence to the far-reaching consequences of racism in everyday life, the Party aligned itself with progressive forces such as the civil rights and women’s movements in the United States, and liberation movements in Africa and Asia.

The Party took up the right to health. It would be a mischaracterization to see the Party’s range of activities as a cobbled-together, mismatched chimera—part paramilitary and part social work. 

Rather, its vision hewed closely to the fundamentally radical idea that achieving health for all demands a more just and equitable world. To model ways in which such a world might work, the Black Panthers opened free health clinics across the country. Eventually 13 were established.

The Black Panther Party clinics were part of a movement to deliver community-based health care that had roots in the civil rights movement, which gave rise to the Medical Committee for Human Rights.

In 1965, two physician-activists—H. Jack Geiger and Count D. Gibson Jr—opened the first US community health centers in Boston, Massachusetts, and Mount Bayou, Mississippi. Geiger and Gibson believed that health could not be fully achieved without addressing poverty.

The Black Panther Party took the argument one step further, articulating that the failure to address poverty (and oppression and unemployment and lack of adequate education and housing) were causes of poor health.

The Black Panthers emerged as champions of health as a human right: first for Blacks and later more broadly for the poor. Its first guiding document—the “Ten Point Program” issued in 1966—did not mention health. But by 1970, following a call from leadership to establish free clinics, the Ten Point Program was modified. 

In 1972, health was formally added as the sixth point:

WE WANT COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE

We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival.

Additionally, the revised Ten Point Program now referred to “Black and oppressed people,” not just Blacks. Looking back, the Ten Point Program shares both language and sentiment with the US Declaration of Independence, from which it quoted, and with the African National Congress Freedom Charter, articulated in 1955 to guide the next nearly 40 years of its 80-year fight against South African apartheid. 

The Freedom Charter proclaimed that government would be responsible for free health care, both preventive and curative. The Black Panther Party was the second step on my path to public health. The first was a summer job after high school. I worked as a census taker in West Harlem, New York, in 1970, collecting data the old-fashioned way: going door-to-door. 

As a college student, I volunteered at the Party’s Boston Franklin Lynch Peoples’ Free Health Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts sited to block construction of a proposed highway. It took its name from a young man who died at the hands of police, reportedly shot dead while hospitalized.

I was not a Party member, but as a volunteer I was given assignments. The first was to schedule doctors, all of whom were also volunteers, to staff clinic hours. Later, I would learn that they were all well-regarded academics from prominent Boston-area medical schools. I am sure they were busy, but I cajoled, bullied, and begged.

Then I got a better assignment: to run the sickle cell screening program. The Black Panther Party learned that sickle cell anemia was a neglected genetic disease—neglected because most of those affected were of African descent. 

Although it had been described in 1910, it attracted little public attention and even less funding. Treatment was extremely limited, as it is to this day. There was a rapid screening test based on a simple finger stick, but the test was not widely employed. The Black Panther Party rectified this government failure to act by setting up a national screening program.

I recruited Boston-area premed students to perform the screening test. Panther members leafleted public housing buildings the night before, and each Saturday a group of a dozen doctors-to-be fanned out, wearing white jackets, to offer testing in people’s homes. 

Area hospitals provided follow-up for those who screened positive. The sickle cell screening program was a lesson in community health that has never left me. It was more than just a service—it was an organizing tool.

That more than a dozen Panther Party members remain imprisoned five decades later has more to do with this legacy of addressing systemic inequity than with the berets and guns that so effectively propelled these beautiful, young Black people into public view. 

In Stanley Nelson’s 2015 documentary “Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” a former leading Panther member Ericka Huggins noted smilingly, “We had swag.” They also unleashed a staggering government response, including the reprehensible intervention of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI in the form of the now infamous COINTELPRO that saw the leadership arrested, jailed, and killed.

While the Black Panther Party eventually disbanded in 1982, it popularized a set of beliefs that identified health as a social justice issue for Blacks and influenced public health to this day. 

The Black Panther Party's militancy, blending science with community engagement, resonates today under the banner of #BlackLivesMatter. That health is a right, not a privilege, remains true. It is a proud legacy, one built by many, still unachieved, and still worth fighting for today.