 |
TCXPI Presents
The Black Panther Party For Defense 50 An Online
Celebration
Beginning October 1st TCXPI
presents thirty-one days of honoring the many contributions made to Black
communities across the country. |
JOIN TCXPI as we pay honor and tribute to the origin and
contributions of the
Black Panther Party For Self Defense
Black Panther Party For Self Defense
As a native Of Oakland, California
and a product of the 60s, I am all too familiar with the Black Panther Party
and how they placed the people of Oakland as their first priority when it came
to establishing programs that were not being provided by the government. From
the Free Breakfast Program to the Women Infants and Children Program, the BPP
established programs that were and still continue to be emulated by the
government.
The BPP items were permanent fixtures in our household. My father Brooksie Cornelius was a staunch supporter for the party and the movement.
The BPP items were permanent fixtures in our household. My father Brooksie Cornelius was a staunch supporter for the party and the movement.
As a child growing up in
East Oakland, I did not understand the true meaning of why my father, Brooksie
Cornelius represented the Black Panther Party and the Black Power Movement; I
did not understand why he wore the Black felt cap and BPP buttons proudly; I
did not understand why the BPP newspaper was a constant fixture on his table
where he often sat daily reading.
I did not understand why
my mother Alean McInnis, who went back to school, spoke admirably about Dr. La
Place, a historian and scholar on Black History at Merritt College, who changed
her in many ways.
What I was being taught in
my informative years in the Oakland Public School system was indeed
contradictory to what was being seen and spoken at home. How could this be?
Once I began my higher learning at Merritt College I began to understand why.
What the educational
system was teaching were untruths on the Black Race and its History – it was
instruction that was meant to keep and my race inferior and submissive as a
people in society. I was being taught that Black people were a primitive
people who had to be made civilized by white people; I was being taught
that I could be nothing more than a mere servant to mainstream society; I was
being taught to be inferior and that I and my people could not become a
doctor or someone prestigious in society. Today, I know that was all wrong. As
I look at my children and others, I know that this education was meant only as
a tool of oppression and that it would and must be destroyed.
I Give Thanks to Brooksie
and Alean for being warriors, in their own rights, in the Black Struggle.
I Give Thanks to
those instructors who taught me that the Black race is a race the First race of
world and human civilization, who made wonderful, amazing, and magnificent
contributions to our existence.
I Give Thanks to the
Ancestors for leaving history that teaches us that I and WE can become anything
we choose as long as we believe that WE CAN.
I pay Honor, Tribute, and
Respect ALWAYS.
In Memory Of My Father,
Brooksie Cornelius
"ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE"
