Diane Lazarus – Special to the Southern News
Before standing, Diane Brown wiped her black one piece suit of any lingering lint. She had long black hair and wore black lipstick that matched her outfit–gently patting her friend’s lap, she stood and said that she is a product of the Black Panther Party and proud of it.
Thursday night, New Haven Museum was filled with a Black Panther Party Panel, specialists who witnessed, helped or were educated of the organization.
Lawyer of numerous Black Panther members, John Williams, author Jamie J. Wilson, and other spectators that were around when The Black Panther Party was active were in attendance.
According to blackcommentator.com, an independent weekly internet magazine dedicated to the movement for economic justice, social justice and peace; The Black Panther Party was an organization originally formed for self-defense against police brutality towards African Americans regarding social and economic conditions during the years of 1966 to 1982.
“It’s important to know our history because we can’t know where we are going if we don’t know where we came from,” said Wilson, a member of the panel and author of Black Panther Party of Connecticut.
“However, what was the effectiveness of the Black Panther Party?” asked Danielle S. Williams, an audience member. Williams challenged Wilson for informing people of the history of the Black Panther Party, rather than the effectiveness and achievements that the Black Panther party did for all people.
According to blackpanthers123.wikispaces.com, the Black Panther Party had both positive and negative effects on communities. Positive effects include lessons on self-defense, distribution of clothes, creation of a free daily breakfast program for children, healthcare, and lessons on education and drug use.
Negative effects include promotion of gang mentality and violence among blacks and crime.
“When people think Black Panther Party, they think violence, unorganized ideas and totally against progress for the greater good, and in my opinion they actually did things that people are not aware of because they haven’t really read up on [them],” said Williams.
The Black Panther Party created a way for colored organizations today like National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] or Urban League, said Wilson. The Black Panther Party provided dental referrals, pediatric care, sickle cell anemia testing, diabetes care, management and awareness with all services being free of charge when medical facilities in the 1970’s failed to provide to black people, said Wilson.
They also offered food, knowledge and opportunity to make a difference.
“The Black Panther Party allowed people to speak up for themselves,” said Wilson. “It allowed people to have a voice in their community.”
Diane Brown grew up in a family that was active in the Black Panthers Party in New Haven, fifteen minutes from Bridgeport, the headquarters in Connecticut. She attended rallies, free breakfast programs, attended education classes on Marxism and Communism and attended trials that took place in downtown New Haven.
She said it was the Black Panther Party and her mom that taught her the part of history that she did not get in school. Brown said the party and her mother taught her how to love herself.
“I am a product of The Black Panther Party and I don’t think I turned out so bad,” said Brown, one of the first black librarians in the city of New Haven.
