Our book today is "My Life in the Black Panther Party". Their title is just another
n-word and it's by Field Marshal Don Cox. His life in the in the Black Panther
Party. This is from Chapter five page 47. The chapters titled "You Use What You Got
to Get What You Need". Before we entered into a direct relationship with the
Panthers our group had wanted to prove our worthiness by our actions. Since
there was no one, since that was no longer in question contact was made at a
rendezvous fixed to meet at Huey's pad on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. I don't
remember much about that first gathering other than meeting David Hilliard the
Panther party's chief of staff for the first time. The only thing that stands
out in my memory is a question from Huey. As we were sipping coffee he asked if I
didn't think it better to be properly equipped before going into action he
suggested it was best to first rip off the necessary funds to get everything we
needed an advance of launching a major effort I'd practically memorized his
exit his essay the correct handling of a revolution in which he spoke of teaching
by example and so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind which was
you use what you got to get what you need after a long hot summer of 1967
with the rebellions in Newark Detroit and elsewhere we felt that our
preparations had at least put us on the same level as the rest of the country
and that the revolution would not pass us by our San Francisco group started
attending and participating in any and all functions relevant to black people
and we tried to let everyone in our area and we tried to get to know everyone in
our area associated with a struggle we also continued our community meetings
news of the death of Che Guevara in October of that year had us walking
around in a stupor for a while and although they came as a severe blow to
the International struggle for freedom and justice of all people we were proud
to be among those who had responded to his battle cry and had picked up the
Fallen arms Huey asked if we could if we would
conduct a meeting on Hunter's Point for him he was supposed to go but something
had come up and he couldn't make it we were honored that he thought enough of
us to ask and we were more than enthusiastic to do whatever he wanted it
was at that meeting that we had a news surprising experience we met our first
resistance the form of Adam Rogers he was supposed
to have been the biggest baddest n-word on unders point but when we encountered
him he came across like an Uncle Tom he seemed to be impressed with our firearms
demonstration but he was violently against the idea of black people arming
themselves for self-defense he was convinced that would increase repression
even though history proved him wrong when we examined the history of
repression of black people the only time there was significant decline in police
violence and more murders perpetrated against Blacks was precisely the period
when blacks were organized and had access to guns given the wave of terror
and violence against blacks that continues to sweep the country I truly
believe there is a lesson to be learned from that fact Rogers was one of the one
of the wounded in the Hunter's Point rebellion of the year before and a
photograph of him had been used by the news media to illustrate articles on the
riots that broke out following the killing of a black teenager by police
that September because because of that we were even more surprised by his
reaction it was not until later that we discovered that the administration of
San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alito had sent in money after the rebellion had
bought off the so called bad and words the same technique was used from coast
to coast despite Rogers most everyone seemed to
like what we had to say and really related to the firearms demonstration
several people wanted to take courses and handling weapons and so I fixed a
rendezvous for the following Saturday at the parking lot of the abandoned
shopping center right on top of Hunter's Point the next day I arrived at the
point at 7:00 in the morning and in order to get set up before people began
to gather there wasn't going to be any target practice but I would be firing a
few shots in the air and by way of demonstration I knew that would pose no
problem as far as the police were concerned due to their racism whenever
they heard shots on the point they generally looked the other way once
during a dispute between two gangs shooting broke out and instead of police
coming in to break it up they sealed off the area and let them shoot it out gun
battle lasted 24 hours and the police didn't return until the next day
at around 8 o'clock I saw David Hilliard this car driving up which I found
surprising because we had only seen each other a couple of times before as a car
approached I recognized Emory Douglas and George Murray everyone had strange
looks on their faces that made clear that something was wrong
damn Huey had been shot and capped he had shown up in David's wounding and
wounded and bleeding heavily there was real concern for his life so David drove
him to the hospital left him on the steps then drove straight to San
Francisco to find me he said he had asked him to ask me to help out in the
aftermath specifically dealing with the passenger who had been in Huey's car at
the time of the shootout with John Jay officer John Frey of the Oakland Police
who'd been killed there was also the problem of the guns Huey had stockpiled
I'll never understand why David didn't just bring the guns with him but he
hadn't and I was obliged to go back into the area and get everything and get back
out safely that might sound easy but the shootout
had occurred less than three hours before and there was one policeman dead
one seriously wounded so it was hot over in Oakland to say the least there was no
time to go by the house and unload the guns I had on hand for the training so I
followed David back to Oakland with a trunk full of weapons David took me into
the back yard of a house that had a lot of weeds in a stack of old lumber in
which he has stashed the gun in his state of excitement he couldn't remember
exactly where the pistol was and while we were looking an elderly black woman
came out of the house next door and asked what we were doing David kept
searching and didn't look up she then said if you don't come out of there I'm
gonna call the police I began to panic and told David to say something to the
woman when he rose up she recognized him and calm down this was David's house and
she was his neighbor. On the one hand I was relieved but on the other if the
police were looking for the passenger who'd been with Huey
it was certainly they wouldn't miss David's house as both were known
Panthers. Finally he found the gun . . . And it continues from there.