Martin Luther King Jr. DayCONCORD ACADEMY MAGAZINE SPRING 2008K E Y N O T E S P E A K E R:David HilliardCofounder, Black Panther Party32DAVID HILLIARD walked off the pages of history and onto thestage in the Performing Arts Center during Concord Academy’s MartinLuther King Jr. Day celebration, bringing his unique perspective on theturbulent sixties, an era when growing discontent with social inequitiesand racism erupted in America’s cities.Hilliard, sixty-five and the only living founder of the Black PantherParty, described the role of his party in his keynote address, definingthe movement he helped lead and explaining how he would like itremembered.“David Hilliard brought to our students an intimate, firsthandaccount of a time in the 1960s when political engagement had seizedthe United States with unmatched passion, danger, and urgency,” saidJennifer Cardillo, Concord Academy’s assistant dean of Communityand Equity. “His role as founding member and chief of staff of theBlack Panther Party made him a crucial player in one of this country’smost dramatic fights against inequity. His perspective allowed CAstudents a vivid glimpse of that struggle and helped them understandits bequests to today’s social movements.”During his address, Hilliard focused on the Black Panthers’ socialprograms, describing how the group provided food to the needy and
Photos by Amy AlbrechtCULTURE FOR SALEby Alexisvon Kunes Newton ’08Participants in a Martin LutherKing Jr. Day workshop called“Culture for Sale,” led byhistory teacher Peter Sun, usedthe hour to watch and discussa documentary produced byUniversity of California, Berke -ley students. Yellow Apparel:When a Coolie Becomes Coolfocused on diversity issuespertaining to Asian dress, bothtraditional and commercialized.Before watching the film,Sun posed a question: “Howwould you feel if you sawsomeone walking on the streetwearing an item of clothingmeaningful to your culture?”I was surprised to find that anumber of Asian intervieweesin the film answered thisquestion with anger. OneSouth Asian woman arguedthat until an American girlcan empathize with the unjustpain and embarrassmentthat often accompanies thepresence of a bindi on a girl’sfore head, she should notwear one.At the end of the film,I understood the distinctionbetween an Asian womanwearing a bindi for what itsignifies culturally and anAmerican woman wearing abindi as a superficial decoration.I left that workshopwith an understanding of thatwoman’s anger, and realizedher message was one centralto diversity: we must attemptto achieve empathy beforewe can be truly diverse.Tara BradleyThe Chameleons performing for the elderly; workshops exploring Korean games and hip-hop messagesadvocated for affordable housing and universal health care. He said theparty, at its peak, had chapters in forty-seven states, and he called“oppression the single common denominator” among its members.Hilliard described the Black Panthers’ early stages as a “self-defense movement,”fighting against social injustice, and he repeatedly stressed that theparty was more than its iconic image of tough, armed men in blackleather jackets carrying guns. The Black Panthers, who took advantage ofa California law that permitted the carrying of unconcealed weapons,understood the law well, particularly leader Huey Newton, who attendedlaw school. “Every time Huey walked out, he had a law book under hisarm and stated the law,” Hilliard said. Some photos show him with a lawbook in one hand and a gun in the other.In a question-and-answer session, a student asked Hilliard whetherthe group actually broke any laws. “We were very young, adventuresome,and unafraid,” he answered. “We made a lot of mistakes and we brokesome laws.” He then explained that the Black Panthers were willing to goto court and saw the courts “as a classroom.” While Hilliard acknowledgedthat crimes were committed—he served time, as did Pantherleaders Bobby Seale and Huey Newton—he also accused the FBI offrame-ups and “trumped-up” charges.In light of this characterization, another student asked why thegroup was still portrayed as so militant. “Why are we projected as thisorganization without a single virtue?” Hilliard shot back. If he were tostart the movement again, he said, he would “rethink walking aroundwith all those guns,” partly because it gave the state justification fortargeting the group. In fact, the FBI had labeled the Black Panthers the“most dangerous and violence-prone of all extremist groups.” Duringthe movement, twenty-seven members of the Black Panther Party died;forty-seven, said Hilliard, are still in prison.Hilliard also spoke about his youth, how he would buy beer for hisfather while still in grade school and steal sips, becoming an addict by agetwenty. Hilliard beat his addiction, but Panther leaders Huey Newton(whom Hilliard met when he was eleven) and Eldridge Cleaver both losttheir lives to drugs, he said.After Hilliard’s speech, students attended workshops—many of themstudent-led—that tackled subjects including stereotypes, child exploitation,and equity in the presidential campaign. Many performed communityservice in Dr. King’s honor, working at soup kitchens, shelters, andelder-care facilties; some tutored students from Esperanza Academy inLawrence, a school with which CA is forging an ongoing relationship.33<strong>WWW</strong>.<strong>CONCORDACADEMY</strong>.<strong>ORG</strong> SPRING 2008
Change language