Elaine Brown: Until We're All Free...
"I have all the guns and all the money and I can withstand the challenge"
Elaine Brown, Minister of Information and Chairman of the Black Panther Party
In light of the global protests for justice ignited by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, I wondered what wisdom could be gleaned from the ancestors and elders. The Women of the Black Panther Party immediately came to mind. While searching through old articles, books, and videos, I began to truly understand, not just the magnitude of the message and mission of the Party, but the powerful spirit that was lodged in those beautiful young women. The average age of a Black Panther member was quite young--late teens, or early 20s.
So many of them sacrificed their lives--either to death or imprisonment. The four women I have chosen to highlight--Elaine Brown, Kathleen Cleaver, Ericka Huggins, and Assata Shakur--are thankfully alive and blooming.
I urge you to read their books, seek out their videos, and hear their voices. The timeless wisdom they have to offer is a gift to this and future generations.
I am struck by the magnitude of what was taken from us; what has been lost, and what remains. The struggle continues.
"All Power To All The People!" - Chairman Fred Hampton,
Born: August 30, 1948 - Assassinated: December 4, 1969 (aged 21)
For descriptions, click on pictures.
Elaine Brown, Level 72* (born March 2, 1943) is an American prison activist, writer, singer, is a former leader of the Black Panther Party—Minister of Information and Chairman. She is currently based in Oakland, California. Brown briefly ran for the Green Party presidential nomination in 2008. She lives in Oakland, California.
Early life
Elaine Brown grew up in the inner city of North Philadelphia. Although extremely poor, her mother Dorothy Clark worked hard to provide for Elaine’s private schooling, music lessons, and nice clothing. During her childhood, she studied classical piano and ballet for many years at a predominantly white experimental elementary school.
As a young woman, Elaine had very few African-American friends and instead spent most of her time with her white friends. She admitted that for years she wanted to be white. She briefly studied at Temple University, withdrew and moved to Los Angeles, California, to try being a professional songwriter.
Working as a cocktail waitress at the strip club The Pink Pussycat, Brown met Jay Richard Kennedy, a married white fiction writer, and the two became lovers. Kennedy, a C.I.A. informant, radicalized Brown. She became involved with the Black Liberation Movement. After the pair parted ways Brown began working for the radical newspaper Harambee.[5] In April 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior, she attended her first meeting of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.
The Black Panther Party
In 1968, Brown joined the Black Panther Party as a rank-and-file member, studying revolutionary literature, selling Black Panther Party newspapers, and cleaning guns, among other tasks. She would meet Bunchy Carter, leader of the Southern California Chapter, who would become a good friend. Elaine helped the Party set up its first Free Breakfast for Children program in Los Angeles, as well as the Party’s initial Free Busing to Prisons Program and Free Legal Aid Program.
In 1968, Brown was commissioned by David Hilliard, the Party chief of staff, to record her songs, a request resulting in the album Seize the Time. She eventually assumed the role of editor of the Black Panther publication in the Southern California Branch of the Party. In 1971, Brown became Minister of Information, replacing the expelled Eldridge Cleaver.
Brown unsuccessfully ran for the Oakland city council in 1973, and in 1975, losing both times.
When Newton fled to Cuba in 1974 in the face of murder charges, he appointed Brown to lead the Party. The only woman to do so, Elaine Brown chaired the Black Panther Party from 1974 until 1977. In her 1992 memoir A Taste of Power, she wrote about the experience:
"A woman in the Black Power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant. A woman asserting herself was a pariah. If a black woman assumed a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race. She was an enemy of the black people. I knew I would have to muster something mighty to manage the Black Panther Party."
During Brown's leadership of the Black Panther Party, she focused on electoral politics and community service. In 1977, she managed Lionel Wilson’s victorious campaign to become Oakland’s first black mayor. Also, Brown developed the Panther's Liberation School, which was recognized by the state of California as a model school.
Brown stepped down from chairing the Black Panther Party less than a year after Newton’s return from Cuba in 1977 when Newton authorized the beating of Regina Davis, an administrator of the Panther Liberation School because she reprimanded a coworker when he did not do an assignment. This incident was the point at which Brown could no longer tolerate the sexism and patriarchy of the Black Panther Party. She left Oakland with her daughter, Ericka, and moved to Los Angeles.
Brown recorded two albums, Seize the Time, and Until We're Free
Personal life
Brown has one daughter, fathered by fellow Black Panther member Raymond Hewitt.[19]
Overview
Throughout the last four decades, Elaine has been committed to and organized significant efforts toward effecting progressive change in the United States. In addition to Black Panther Party leadership, which included editing the Party’s news organ, running for public office in Oakland (1973 and 1975), and leading the Party (1974-1977) as its Chairman, since that time Elaine has actively worked for such social change through to today. Much of her recent work has been focused on radical reform of the criminal justice system and related efforts.
1. Fields of Flowers, Inc. Elaine founded this educational non-profit corporation in 1996 (Atlanta, Georgia) to establish an education center serving the basic needs of and educating poor, black children.
2. Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice. Co-founded this grassroots organization in 1998 (Atlanta, Georgia) to advocate for children adjudicated and incarcerated as adults.
3. Michael Lewis Legal Defense Committee. Founder (1998) and Executive Director of this group dedicated to the freedom from prison of Michael Lewis, known as “Little B,” a black boy tried and convicted in Atlanta, Georgia, as an adult for a murder he did not commit, sentenced to life in prison at 14 years old.
4. National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform. Co-Founder (2003) and Executive Board Member of this organization, based in Atlanta, Georgia, which, among other things, developed a massive correspondence network with thousands of prisoners in Georgia and throughout the country.
5. Historically as a member of the Black Panther Party (1968-1978), helped establish the Party’s first Free Busing to Prisons Program (1969) in Southern California; set up Free Legal Aid Program; wrote and performed songs, including The Black Panther National Anthem, recorded on two albums.
*Level is used in lieu of age
Books
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story
The Condemnation of Little B: Messages From Behind the Wall
Videos + Articles
50th Anniversary of the Panther Party
Contacts
Profiles
Kathleen Cleaver
Ericka Huggins
Assata Shakur