During her tenure as a member, she helped with some of the more than 30 “Survival Programs” the party organize to contribute to black communities, including the Free Breakfast for Children program and the Free Health Clinic program.
These programs worked without any financing! They helped people without money, they found a way to help even when they had no support.
“The way we were able to do this is because it was a 24-hour job. You didn’t have a life outside the Black Panther Party. We said no part-time revolutionaries,” she said. “So we knew collectively everything we’ve ever earned, we pulled together and things that we had, we pulled together so we can cut back on personal expenses to serve the larger good.”
She also was an editor of the newspaper for two years in which they highlighted all the struggles of black people and everyone could tell their story.
Communities had a relationship with the party in which they could call them for help and men and women of the party would patrol the streets with guns.
Although they were armed they didn’t believe they could live past 30 years old, even 25 to be honest. But they never gave up and helped us to see a brighter future.
She is a woman who fought for us in the darkest days of our lives. Because of them we have a better life than they did.
