Former U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney spoke last night at Chuco’s Justice Center (1137 Redondo, Inglewood) and as an added bonus, Kathleen Cleaver, Yale lecturer and attorney of Black Panther Party and Peace & Freedom Party fame, just happened to show up. Kathy had been in town for an event on Sunday which I missed (I was recovering from a trip with the National Brown Berets de Aztlan to Chicano Park in San Diego) and it was a real delight to get to meet her.
Center: Cynthia McKinney; R: Jan B. Tucker
Cynthia is on tour promoting her new book, Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom. During the question and answer session, she responded to a question from Kathy about her views of President Barack Obama with some very choice insights:
The Black community fell head over heels in love with the white approved candidate
There has been the largest transfer of wealth out of the Black community since the transatlantic slave trade
This is how our President says hello to Africans: we are killing more people in Africa than ever before.
L: Jan B. Tucker; R: Kathy Cleaver
Although I’d met her late ex-husband, Eldridge Cleaver (author of Soul on Ice, 1968 Peace & Freedom Party presidential candidate, and Black Panther Party Minister of Information-the same title my friend Miguel Perez now holds with the Brown Berets) on a couple of occasions, I’d never met Kathy. I had heard stories about her from my old Black Panther and PFP friends over the years which led to my great admiration for her (far more than I ever respected Eldridge, a convicted rapist who in the 1980s became a Mormon, a Republican, and endorsed Ronald Reagan for President). I recall in particular one story illustrating just how hard those early days of the BPP and PFP were from my old and dear friend Trudy Saposhnek, who was transporting Kathy & Eldridge’s children around town in Los Angeles. A car backfired on the freeway and both of the children hit the floor of the car, ducking and covering because they thought it was gunfire. They were used to hearing gunfire around them.
Kathy had been Communications Secretary for the BPP and the first woman on the organizational decision making body. In 1968, she ran for the California 18th Assembly District seat as the Peace & Freedom Party candidate. It was a nice surprise for her when I told her I was going to send the photo of us to Lanric “Rick” Hyland (who managed Eldridge’s 1968 Presidential candidacy) and Elbert “Big Man” Howard, a founder of the BPP, both friends and colleagues of mine.
Well on to the next adventure: the revolution continues and whether or not it will be televised, it will be blogged…..
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