Kiilu Nyasha and the Black Panthers
Founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panthers were an organization that fought against the unfair treatment of black people during the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Their primary goal was to gain equal rights for blacks involving education, employment, housing, and civil rights. By using violence against American government and taking a stand for black equality, the Black Panthers became one of the most important organizations during the civil rights movement.
The Black Panthers are very well known because of their violent actions and beliefs towards the American government. They shot and killed police officers to fight for laws about legally being able to carry weapons in public. The reason they used violence instead of negotiating or other non-violent strategies was because they wanted change to happen fast. The Black Panthers didn’t believe that Martin Luther King’s non-violent actions were making a big enough impact and decided to take matters into their own hands.
Another strategy used by the Black Panthers was providing or modeling a better alternative for troubled youth. In January 1969, the Black Panthers set up a program to serve breakfast to the underserved inner city youth of Oakland. The program became so successful that they expanded it all over the country, feeding breakfast to thousands of kids each day. The reason the Black Panthers created this program was to show the youth that being violent isn't always the right thing. That sometimes just giving back and helping your community can do just as much as shooting a bad person.
For my interview I spoke with Kiilu Nyasha, a former Black Panther member, about her time in the organization. She is a committed person and loves what she does to help our world. In the interview she said, "You know, I've been sticking to it [speaking about being revolutionary] since 1969 and I'm still here. I don't know why. I'm going to be 75 in May and I don't know why I'm still here, but I am and I'm going to do it until the day I die". This quote proves that she is completely committed to being revolutionary and will always love being an activist because she has already loved it for so long and given a good piece of her life. When you’ve loved something for 45 years, its hard to imagine yourself without it. Also, this proves that she is a committed person because she has stuck to revolutionary change for so long. There were most likely many opportunities for her to quit and send her time on something else, but she didn’t. She persevered and continued to be involved with revolutionaries because it is what she thinks is the right thing to do.
Another thing Kiilu Nyasha talked about was how she believes that being well educated is the way to be successful in this world. For a long time, black people weren't allowed to be educated because it was believed education meant power and since the white people didn’t want the black people to have any power, they weren't allowed to be educated. She explained, “... education must be ongoing, and a degree, it's important to get that piece of paper because thats your ticket to ride. You’re not going to get a job paying anything if you don't get it, believe me, I know”. With this quote one can see that Kiilu knows from personal experience that without an education it's very hard to succeed in our society. So if black people were deprived a good education, then how was it possible for them to succeed? That’s the reason the Black Panthers fought for and valued education so much, because it was the key for them to succeed.
Finally, the most memorable thing Kiilu Nyasha talked about was how people don't fear the former Black Panthers, they respect them. She told a story about how she went to a party and she said that when she was introduced to people as a former Black Panther, they weren't scared. She said, “They were fascinated, they wanted to know. So, there’s a lot of respect for the party now”. This quote shows that despite all of the terrifying things the Black Panthers did, they were still respected. No one feared her or ran from her, they were curious and wanted to hear about her experiences.