by Rivkela Brodsky
Daily Lobo
The Black Panther Party was not founded on a street corner.
It started on a college campus, said David Hilliard, a founding member of the party.
That is one reason Hilliard said it was important the 40th anniversary celebration of the creation of the party be held at UNM.
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Another reason is to share history not written into history books.
Hilliard, Ericka Huggins, Elaine Brown and Fredrika Newton spoke Saturday at a panel discussion on the origin of the party.
Survival
Hilliard said from the beginning of the party, there was an emphasis on community programs for survival, including their 10-point program.
"That's totally written out of the history," he said. "The only thing that remains is the militantness."
Hilliard said the party was trying to change the system, but the system was violent and discriminatory. The party had weapons for self-defense, he said.
"The fact of the matter is that the Black Panther Party had guns there for self-protection, self-defense. We didn't create the violence; America did," he said.
Huggins said the party was not just focused on national or cultural issues.
"We were global," she said. "This is what scared our government into minimizing our values and calling us racist."
Joining the party
Huggins joined the party when she was 18 years old. She drove out to California in an old Plymouth with her cat, her future husband John Huggins, and a friend who thought he would be discovered in Hollywood.
She left her college in Pennsylvania for Los Angeles after she saw a picture in a magazine article of a black man with a bullet in his stomach. The man belonged to the Black Panther Party.
"I didn't even have tears, I was so appalled," she said.
She worked in Los Angeles while trying to find the party.
Huggins said she was inspired when she joined. She did any job she could from answering phones to distributing newspapers.
She said they were tailed by the FBI at every turn. Every day was possibly the last, she said.
"I'm still so thankful I'm alive," Huggins said.
Brown said she joined the party when the first Black Panther Party member was assassinated.
"I walked in and met Ericka Huggins. She told me I'd have to commit my life, my body and soul," she said. "I said, 'OK.'"
Fredrika Newton said she was the most unlikely person at her high school to join the party. She was Homecoming Queen and a debutante.
But, she grew up on a street in Berkeley, Calif., that was a hotbed for political activity, she said.
She came home from college for Christmas vacation and her mother said Huey Newton was coming over for breakfast.
"I said, 'Why Huey Newton?'" she said.
When she saw Hilliard and Newton, she was intimidated, she said.
"I just wanted to go shopping," she said.
But she asked Newton what it was like in prison. He said, "Very lonely."
"I was immediately struck by him," she said.
Fredrika went to Oregon and packed her bags, came back and worked in a co-op.
She started working in a school and serving children food through the party's free breakfast program.
Fredrika married Newton in 1981. She was with him when he died.
Fredrika motioned to the people sitting on the panel with her, saying they were her leaders during this time.
"This weekend has been so emotional." She said. "That we are here to tell the story is a miracle."
Method to the madness
A question from the audience about Huey Newton's private side got panelists talking about the style of the panthers.
"Women would be falling down," Brown said. "They were always sharp. David was also a sharp dresser. Women would say, 'Those Panthers are too gorgeous.'"
Hilliard said the look was a conscious thing.
"There was a method to the madness. African-American people have associations with people who look good," he said.
Huggins said slavery stripped royalty from African-Americans.
"When Davis, Huey, Bungy walked, we knew royalty was back," she said.
Hilliard said Huey was influential in taking him from a thug mentality to a political one.
"The majority of membership was guys like me," Hilliard said. "He took the criminal element and politicized it. That more than anything scared the government."
Hilliard said former members of the party were at UNM because of the diversity of the University. He hopes students at the law school will partner with him in investigating wrongs done to the party by the FBI, he said.
He said Newton was an academic who should be discussed in classrooms.
"Make sure our history is not relegated as a footnote," he said.
Outstripping expectations
About 300 to 400 people attended the panel discussion, said Finnie Coleman, director of African American Studies.
The panel was one of several events that took place over the weekend, including panel discussions, film viewings, a book signing and receptions.
"Even what we had so far outstrips what I expected," he said Saturday after two panel discussions.
He said he hoped people got a better understanding of the history of the Black Panther Party.
Student Vanessa Kidd said everything she heard had an impact on her.
"It's something you can't read about," she said. "I'm really thankful they came."
She said it is an interesting dynamic to be an African-American and hear what people had to go through because of the color of their skin. She said race has always been an issue and not much has changed.
Kidd said she wished the turnout was bigger.
"How common is it for the Black Panthers to come to New Mexico and UNM?" she said. "There should have been three ballrooms packed. Whoever didn't come, they missed out."
