High Priestess of the People's Struggle
http://www.blackcommentator.com/346/346_kir_cleaver_high_priestess_printer_friendly.html
By Larry Pinkney
October 15, 2009
Black Panther Party History Month
"When the African people say, in their plain language, that 'no
matter how hot the water from the well, it will not cook your rice, '
they express with staggering simplicity a basic principle not only of
physics but also of political science." - Amilcar Cabral
The Black Panther Party [BPP], from its very beginning in the
struggle against racial and economic oppression, believed in the
"basic principle not only of physics but also of political science."
The BPP may now be physically gone, but it is by no means forgotten;
for its legacy lives on to this day even as the struggle for economic
and social justice continues unabated.
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, to name but a very few, come readily to mind. These "sister"
/ women Black Panthers were, in their own extraordinarily important
ways, the backbone and female political giants of the Black Panther
Party. If indeed 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.
The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale
in October of 1966, in Oakland, California. Thus, the month of
October is Black Panther Party History Month, but I reiterate that
without the invaluable rank and file, and national leadership of
women, there would have been no viable Black Panther Party.
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 also in fact the visual
revolutionary inspiration and actuator for and to the entire Black
Panther Party - women and men alike. Sister 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 Black Panther Party [BPP] members in chapters across the
nation were doing on a regular and daily basis - ; she provided the
implacable vision, and simultaneously a glimpse, of what the
egalitarian unity and political struggle by Black women and men
together might actually bring about and be.
Whereas it was the "brothers" who may initially have brought together
some pieces to form the Black Panther Party [BPP], it was beyond all
question, the BPP "sisters" who honed, refined, and actually made
those pieces coherently work together.
In this the 21st century, it has been correctly written that Kathleen
Cleaver is "a major voice in the Black Liberation movements of the
1960s and 70s, [and] continues [presently] to speak out against
racism, sexism, and economic inequality." However, perhaps just as
importantly, Kathleen Cleaver has always possessed and still
possesses today that critically crucial and delicate balance of
knowing when to immediately cut to the political chase, and likewise
when to bide her time, and with stunning and straight-forward
intellectual alacrity proceed to educate, expose, and if necessary,
intelligently obliterate any who dare challenge the legitimacy of the
struggle in 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 the legacy of the Black Panther Party as a whole.
The Ten-Point Program of the Black Panther Party succinctly and
clearly laid out the objectives and beliefs of the Party. Moreover,
despite the ultimate physical decimation of the Black Panther Party
by the end of the 20th century, the BPP Ten-Point Program remains as
one of the best examples ever of a precise and forthright political
platform that persons can easily understand and relate to right up to
the present.
In addition to the Ten-Point Program, free breakfast, free medical,
free busing, free ambulance, free shoes, and free school programs
were but a few of 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 tangibly serving
the people "body and soul."
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Kathleen Cleaver is today 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. It
needs to be read by any and all serious students of the Black Panther
Party and/or of people's political struggle in general.
Today the genius of 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 "Big Man" Howard, artist extraordinaire
Emory Douglas, and teacher / educator Ericka Huggins is with us
still. Moreover, the determination and vision of former long time
political prisoners Robert Hillary King (aka Robert King Wilkerson)
and Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt are also with us still.
The revolutionary spirit of the many martyrs of the Black Panther
Party, including Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, John Huggins, Fred
Hampton, Mark Clark, Bobby Hutton, Welton Armstead and so very many
other women and men of the BPP continues to live on. The Black
Panther Party's casualties of the vicious U.S. federal, state and
local war against it, including (but not limited to) Huey P. Newton
and Eldridge Cleaver, are reminders of the enormous emotional and
psychological price 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 physical, emotional, amoral viciousness and fall out of 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 "frame, discredit, disrupt, imprison and
murder" BPP activists. Real change is never brought about without
severe and real human prices to be paid. There is simply no such
thing as a genuine painless revolution.
Kathleen Cleaver has also been, and remains, active in legally
supporting many political prisoners from the Black Panther Party,
many of whom remain imprisoned today, after decades of wrongful
incarceration. She has not forgotten the lessons of exile which she
herself personally experienced. She has not forgotten the struggle.
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 well worth watching. The
name of the program is: Lords of the Revolution: The Black Panthers.
It was televised nationally by the VH1 channel and is only
approximately one hour in length and will hold your attention to its
conclusion.
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 real systemic "change" was through and by
the people - we ourselves.
Sister Kathleen Cleaver so completely encapsulated this when she so
poignantly summarized the program, Lords of the Revolution: The Black
Panthers, by simply stating, "Wish 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 very, very powerful
opposition. We didn't know how powerful our government was. We were
ready to change our world. We still want to change our world." Indeed.
Thank you sister Kathleen. Thank you so very, very much.
All Power To The People.
Onward sisters and brothers! Onward!
.
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