A Federal Case II; 23

This is a federal case from Washington D.C. the National Educational radio network brings you an examination of current issues facing our nation and its capital city. How old are you. Now you. Said. You. See. If you didn't come here for breakfast would you be getting the same kind of good breakfast at home. Now. No. No no. No. No no no. No. Quiet. World the dog. World.

How do you feel about having breakfast delivered by campus every morning just feel like cool down. Yes. I just come down you cuss I beat you but I don't eat enough and. You say it was beautiful. I like it. It's just great. It's just great. To the United States government has set forth basic requirements for a healthy breakfast. The Black Panther Party operating without government funds has established a nationwide free breakfast for Children program. It far exceeds the federal nutrition guidelines. This is Geoff came in reporting revolution for breakfast. It is 7:45 in the morning in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles. Without prompting these little girls have decided to sing a song during breakfast at a Black Panther community center. Julian warning. Everybody is going to be.

Home. People sit down right. To write a. Book you. Never leave me. Home without. Setting up of the closest ready. Everybody's going to sit down at table. So we can get your breakfast. I know some o people come over here and. We will come over this if. They have a need. Of it. Yes I go over to. Ask if. You are going. To eat. If. You are coming back later. All right. We got to. Go out there very carefully and you're. Going to be here to cover the concept of the break this program originated with Huey. He thought that was one of the better ways to educate people in terms of what

socialism was it was like and also certainly the basic need to people because it's part of our ten point program platform as to what we think they stand a poll taken in the black community. People need and desire. So we decided to implement the breakfast programs. That is John Kelly 20 year old national coordinator of the Black Panther Party's free breakfast program. You know somewhere between 10 and 15000 children. They really on the records programs say ten thousand in all the chapters and branches and also in the local and nationally and CCS national committees to combat fascism and they're scattered all over the country there in New York Chicago Philadelphia Boston New Haven and then we have interesting ones like example in Austin Texas is a brick was program run by two individuals who happen to like the idea and they get their own donations and they run it. They just send us reports on how their breakfast is doing on any problems that they may or may not have. That's the only thing

they have is a book this program called the Black Panthers. You know they're not just people from the black community. Since the program started it's reached a lot of people a lot of people have hooked onto the program and they are implementing it on their own like these two people for example in Los Angeles after December 8th. When the buildings and homes the offices in the community centers all the community centers and homes and offices in the Los Angeles area were attacked and raided and the central office received the most severe damage it was dynamited do you know about that salted you know song by the tax squad availing and they happen to have been a breakfast program housed in the central headquarters because a large structure. And so what happened there was a sister around the corner from the office who set up a breathless program in her own home because she said the children still had to be fed and when we first moved into that area it's very difficult to talk to people nobody was

very receptive they thought that they suggest another gang you know. Coming on the set and they found out that you know it was different back one woman said after the eighth and we never bothered her. As a matter of fact once the Black Panther Party and went into the area the gangs and a lot of the vandalism had. You know subsided a decrease in birth this program has been very effective as one of our most effective programs as an effective way of reaching the people and meets a basic need that. We know that is we don't need it and also it is very important because it shows people what socialism can be like it shows and that. This is the way socialism works. And it's based on your needs and not your abilities to you know who are really a mess everything that you want to you Can we try to teach the children through our practice and i example of the wreck was not so much indoctrination but

through our practice and example about sharing about socialism. Of course we tell them about Huey and Bobby. And Eldridge because these men are these people. Came the concepts of the programs and ideas for these programs they were implementing now. And people say that we indoctrinate the children we don't do that. If anything we educate them and there is no hard core line like you don't have to say free Healey to get a plate. We feed the kids because they're hungry and because in the United States government has acknowledged reluctantly the fact that not only do millions go to bed hungry every night in this country but also that countless children are denied even the most basic nutrition needed to help them through a day of school. A lot of poor kids spend class time with their heads on their desks their minds turned on and the broken wing. You are doing

big tempted to destroy the breakfast program attempted to vilify the breakfast program. They've zeroed in on some of the children who attend the program. They try to poison the propaganda. To the people by telling people that we serve poisoned food and we teach. Hate. We teach. Communism and guerilla warfare to the children and they are using all different types of methods. Dave and I went to the point where they pick up children who leave the breakfast program and. Rattle around the car and tell me they must put them in jail if they come back that is Chicago Black Panther Party minister of defense Bobby Rush you can see the harassment they can see the true nature of the pigs understand very clearly that our party is as a party that needs to basic desires and needs of the people and

they know that we feed feed them nourishing breakfast every morning. They understand that. The pigs are their enemies because this is their historical experience with pigs. They occupy communities like an army and. Then they don't have the same. Added to general attitudes I have the same outlook on the pigs as most people most people who most children who are from the middle class and upper class sections of the country will see the officer McGillicuddy on the corner across the street to see the pigs who lies in a murder and their parents and their brothers and sisters so they have a very clear knowledge of the peers and then they can see the peace and the truth is their true nature. Every. Hear so much about how they are and this is one thing and I think this helps out. Down.

Route. 2 so that middle aged woman is among several from Chicago's West Side ghetto who are assuming full responsibility for the breakfast program in their community. Recently one location has served well over 100 kids each morning. As such a blank on the Friday it was a known fact that there was hunger and there was malnutrition go around all over this country. But the thing was nobody was moving on it so I stood up. Black Panther Party talking about how sad to some about it. Start setting up his breakfast program best equipped his way to do some about it. Start saying that's the whole idea anyway. Jimmy Johnson coordinator of Black Panther breakfast programs for southern California. He spends his mornings driving from one breakfast location to another checking on diet and attendance at one stop he talked with a leader of a local Black Students Association. The BSA has taken over the panther breakfast in their community. The third day we had like. This about 75 kids a day

now having laid this out. Well we're going to lease it to community Saturday you know the Muslims index's alliance going to be out door to door so we can get more people down. Out of Here to accept a breakfast program. Most of the fish go down with the kids. Doing their services and the kids take it with you. The elementary school is has a free breakfast but this costs dicey because you know the kids over here. Starting this week. That have be about 200. So we have to have about three different breakfasts GOING ON CITY. So we need to get food in everything. People the Black Panther Party's national headquarters is in Berkeley California in nearby Oakland 1 breakfast programme serves several hundred children daily. The menu is typical of Panther breakfasts across the country. Fresh oranges hot cocoa pancakes scrambled eggs and milk. Many of the kids ask for and receive second helpings in a printed order to all local chapters.

Black Panther Party national headquarters tells Local units to be aware that the kids probably won't get another healthy meal between breakfasts Blackbird singing in the dead on some going to be green. New York City Ronald Tyson is coordinator of the breakfast program. We have this program and the attendance at each breakfast program is there 30. 25 30 kids I say. Seventy five hundred kids. There have been estimates that the poor black population of Manhattan there's something about a million 75 children out of. A million

blacks in Manhattan. Why do you think the figure is so low. Well you check out all of the indoctrination and all of the brainwashing power structures run down to the people. Misinformation and misrepresentation that people gave about the Black Panther Party. You can understand I mean New York 21 conspiracy to bomb department stores and railroad tracks and now the Black Panther Party has free breakfast with children programs and through talking to people. I found out that people think they were going to kidnap their kids or poison their kids rape their daughters and things like that. And and this is just a logical result from the misinformation he received about part of which is the misinformation come from the pig media pig agents CIA FBI you name it. What is their goal do you think in alienating people from the breakfast program.

The breakfast program is the one stable program that the Black Panther Party has for the black community and if the pigs are successfully alienating the people from the breakfast program they will be successful in alienating the people from the Black Panther Party. And once there is a gap of say misunderstanding between the people in the People's Party then the peers can easily slide on it and rip the party off. Then these 75 or 100 children who participate daily in the breakfast program are a vital link right on because if there is a all functional link between the people and the people's party back at the party then whenever the. Takes out a slot on it and move on to party a movement to back this program people say hey I don't understand all that rhetoric that socialism and communism as Panthers talk about but you keep your hands off the breakfast programs they feed my kids in the morning. Like all breakfast coordinators Tyson works hard to assemble the large amounts of food needed for

each breakfast after he collects the food from local merchants who donated Tyson participates in the preparation of the meal. Wiser heads however try to keep him away from the stove grits. Well accidents gaol. How do you think it was your fish facing your own safety make good riddance. And I think he needed healing utan the imprisoned minister of defense of the National Black Panther Party has as much real and symbolic importance to Panthers as does Moshe Dyan to Israelis. Huey then would hardly appear as an accepted subject for humor especially from a 12 year old Harlem kid participating in the breakfast program trying to get a few wee who was. Last seen around the. Block. I've been trying to get him off sold. He's the one that started this

thread. The boy obviously felt that he had nothing to fear as a result of his parody of Panther rhetoric. I thought my parents as a day just because of the name or not but it is it I found out that they are nice people. When you come to practice some people think they bad because they have got one I'm sure they night in New York City a group of Puerto Rican activists called the young lord's organization asked a large church in the Spanish speaking community to open a free breakfast for school children. The Church refused. The young lord seized the church occupied it and served at least two thousand free meals. I spoke with some of the children who benefited from the revolutionaries feeding program. Did you get enough to eat at home. Sometimes I care sometimes. But you always get up when you come here. Yeah. How about you how are you with a cigarette in your mouth. Oh you know. I will tell you more. How do you like the food here.

Wait as a veteran and former Vietnam battlefield medic ran the Young Lords kitchen in the occupied church we have a health committee. That's make sure everything is given to the kids. It's standards like you know the right amount of starch vitamins nutrients. And you know like the right amount of food they get you know not just food but. Everything and medically and physically and on cleanliness because sanitation is a big thing. You know like the dirty plate that some roach walks over. There you get the food the way they should get it. And like you know a stranger is feeding them. Actually it's their own people who's feeding them. So you know I'm not going to give slop to my people. I want to make sure they get the best and fed the best way they can. Like you know they're going to eat like a rich man when they come here. As far as I'm concerned you know and as far as long as I'm in the kitchen like the best kids eat like let's say the white kids are going to get the same high I mean

even the chance to feel what it's like to eat bacon and eggs. All sorts of things sometimes at home are actually advancing more because there are actually people. Will be implanted in their mind and they will follow. The kids here and get more than just good food for breakfast. They also get revolution and liberation for breakfast. Tell us about the. Pump and anything. Anything like shoot the pigs and you know

we're not. Telling the kids the real truth. You know we got to get better. 10 days after they seized the first Spanish Methodist Church in New York the young lords were found in contempt of a court order demanding that they abandon the building. When sheriff's men showed up young lords more than 100 of them walked triumphantly from the barricaded house of worship into the arrest back. The judge was impressed by what the young lords had done for the people so he released them on their own recognizance without bail and down the long. List to be the missing. And injured. Bell ringing again. Man. James do you think he's.

Down town. One of the most effective Black Panther Party breakfast programs in the nation is in Kansas City Missouri where the kids get breakfast a well-advertised once a day vitamin and liberation school free because brother Hughie has the key. What is the key. You know so we don't really bother you because whether you we have the world or what is the key. Even people right also the people are going to free from the out. I really say out loud to every home. Now we don't talk about Chairman Bobby a little bit how it came about because of the free. Will To Keven Oh it was the key to all the people who was preaching everybody rhino.

Let's talk about the discipline now. OK this can never by turn the page with these revolutionaries on. Page number. Who can read will well write already would you say is under that. Advantage. Watch out. Thanks I'll start. What. Helps the souls of the people. Which is supposed to tell your brothers and sisters when you see it. Wasn't me. Come on over here. Without. Getting down the page. We study in the day we learn about a revolutionary. Right. Right. Right which is supposed to say. All power to. The right of. The deputy chairman of the Kansas City chapter. He's the deputy chairman. Now there's the chairman of the party.

He's the deputy chairman for the paedo Neil don't we know where the food they say about the piece say our party probably come in we got to say our power to the people. Free all political prisoners are part of the people. OK we're looking at the camp of 21. And this is 21 passes in New York they got arrested. And you know with the rest of them full for serving the people. But they told the people that they arrested him because they wanted to blow up the baton alogical gardens that's where they keep a whole bunch of flowers. Now we know the Panthers don't want to blow up no flowers. You've got to do better than that don't you. OK I will say no more problems in dealing with you go outside. I'll be right all this. Sing It Loud. No more. Big no God. I. Was. I was. Like God.

Dr. Bruno Bettelheim one of the world's most respected child psychologists said that eating experiences condition a child's entire attitude to the world not so much because of how nutritious The food is but with what feelings and attitudes it is given. A nationwide examination of the Panther breakfast program shows the kids who participate are getting their food in an environment of love concern and community. Dr. battle Haim said basic attitudes are learned by children around eating at the path of breakfasts the kids learn to enjoy each other. They feel a part of the actual child. This is Geoff came in speaking.

To. Us. You have been listening to a federal case weekly examination of a national issue from the perspective of our nation's capital. This is the national educational radio network.