Transcripts For CSPAN2 Santi 20240706 : comparemela.com

Phonte elijah holly is an Award Winning journalist and author of an american the shakers and nation. They created. His writing has appeared in the atlantic, the guardian, new republic, the washington post, l. A. Times and elsewhere. He lives in los angeles. Please join here and giving him a huge round of applause while he comes out and and then talks about his book. Thanks, ali. Thanks for coming out of retirement for this event. And thank you things are coming out of retirement thank you for being here and having me i moved here a year ago which is the first chapter and the part that i wrote for this book the scene that sets the stage for the rest of the book. Im going to read a short excerpt from that and that im going to talk about the book itself, the themes behindoo the book and how i came to write and why i wanted to write it. Then i will read another short excerpt, i promise theyre very short. And then we will have audience q a the name of the book is American Family and the nation they created it just came out on tuesday hot off the press, this is the opening of chapter one called a trial in the Early Morning hours of april 2, 1969 detective francis in the new York City Police Department Special services and i investigations arrived at the door at apartment 9112 west 17th street holland he was accompanied by four additional officers with two bulletproof vest and one shotgun. On the detectives command the men let a rag on fire and began shouting fire fire, the two occupants of apartment nine he and his wife wake to the cries and smoke they jump up and look to the door and see the flames. Woody opens the door he is greeted by shotgun pressed into his chest while other officers stationed outside on thefi fire escape held at gunpoint. 1 mile away that same morning he is apprehended from his apartment. While is taken from his home on east eighth street in a few blocks away detective joseph coffee accompanied by his own team picks up and holds a gun to his head and declares i got you you black pastor, if you move i will blow your brains out. Before the sun rises in new york city ten members of the harlem chapter of the black panther are arrested and jailed including 17 euro High School Student Jamaal Joseph and 20yearold Bronx Community College Nursing student joan berg. Other suspects computer Analyst Research chemist curtis powell, and a 17 year old High School Student later apprehended or surrendered, suspects Richard Harris are already in your jail with bank robbery charges. The three remaining suspects dbarry mack, thomas, managed to get away disappearing from sites. Prorated home stand by pd special servicesr retrieved five caliber pistols, two military rifles, three shotguns, a pair of handcuffs, homemade explosives, a map of railroad stations and a copy of the urban guerrilla warfare manual written by black panther guerrilla team, 21 members of the black panther are invited to shoe Police Officers involved police stations railroad tracks, Manhattan Department stores in the new York Botanical garden in the bronx with Jamaal Joseph and the offender status too ill to stand trial due to his epilepsy, too many members held in new jersey, the cases recorded as the people of the state of the bureau versus abdul, the defendants become internationally known as a panther 21. The ensuing trial will show the world for the first time how desperate our american Law Enforcement is to eliminate the panthers and make them an example of what happens with black people in america did to assert their right to selfdefense and selfdetermination. This is a quote, this is been a systematic plan by the fascist pigs despite full of the struggle newew york city, now i realize a panther 21 is part and parcel of a National Conspiracy by the American Government to destroy the black Panther Party and all revolutionaries. That is the opening and then it goes on with the trial which was the longest trial in new york state history and the most expensive at that point the defendants were ultimately in jail for two years awaiting trial and they were ultimately acquitted of all charges and but it was a Pivotal Moment for the black Panther Party and for them themselves. Lets talk about the black Liberation Movement itself it grew out of the black Power Movement which itself grew out of dissolution people who were becoming jaded by the incrementalism the nonviolent tactics of the Civil Rights Movement so the black Power Movement came about through that and people demanded immediate directe action and to have a tangible result in mother waiting for something happen that was never happening. The black liberation was a large umbrellaco which covers black Panther Party smaller organizations like the black liberation army, the republic of new africa, ram is a lot of different movements and organizations that grew out of the time the mid 60s onto the 70s. The should core family themselves were part of this movement they were very inspirational leaders beginning with the patriarch and his birth name in slave name was James Constance senior he was an acolyte and associate and after malcolm x was assassinated in 1965 people who were considering him as their hero they were left adrift needed not know where to go and how to carry on the movement that he was advocating so thats where the black Panther Party comes into formation james constant who became and changed his name after he convertedam to islam ad became a muslim in new york city and he had two sons his oldest sonhe and the second oldest son who change their names tuesday did. Thats where the should core family got started and the name roughly translates from arabic as the thankful and solid into good name with his funds they were announcing their commitment to islam and carry on the struggle that malcolm x had gotten started or had been talking about and picking up the pieces that he left behind. So the family i begin looking at his book in 2020 and in 2020 seemed like every day there was something new happening daily protests and struggles and uprisings across the country. Its worth noting today is in a bursary today is the same day three years ago to george floyd was killed because a lot of what happens today can be traced and you can see what was happening in the 60s obviously. And people looking for a way to express their outrage like they were in 2020 and we still are we at all this outrage and confusion but we did not know how to channel it so we were running wild in the street we needed something and somewhere to express our rage and i at this point a lot of people were starting to look at historical figuress entertainers readers ad obviously a lote, of people thee starting to revisit his interviews and realizing how prissy it he was and how forward thinking and knowledgeable he was in his lyrics and now were starting to look at where he came from he didnt just come from nowhere, his knowledge about the black liberation struggle he was raised and cultivated by this community very Strong Community that was supported intelligent and inspirational and faced a lot of trials and a channel that is music and art nobody else is talking about class struggle and Police Brutality in the way that he was intimately familiar with him. And around the time he learn more about his mother she was a former black panther but a lot of us tupac fans all we knew was dear mama and her struggles wih drug addiction thats all we really knew for the most part. But then i started looking into i heard she was a very important person in the 60s so i looked at her and her history and i was like thats crazy shes an important person and i was like who else is tupac, hes dropping names so i listen to a lot of his songs closely and he mentioned his stepfather, he shouts them out in his lyrics. So as they got older and started working as a writer and a journalist i wanted to explore and i was writing more about Racial Justice issues and protest and looking for examples and stories to share the provides us with the context about what were going through today. And i learned about tupac step father and what he did he was not a black panther but he was part of the black Liberation Movement in the republic of africa he was an influential reader in his own writing and i started putting these together i have tupac here, and over here and i was trying to learn more myself about who were all these people what is this family about, i could not find anything definitive or history as she tells the story. Everything online published before was very contradictory and complete and things that are inaccurate and im like what is the true story what is going on. I want to know about the family so i kept coming up against eddins when i was trying to learn the true story behind the family, from that point. It was not that easy to calm up and looked them up online and facebook and send a message and talk to me you a dont know whoi am but it ended up being a lot of patience and trust and a lot of people trusted me and i really wanted to tell the story and honestly i wanted to tell the story not just about a family biography and genealogy it is a story historical narrative and story about what this family and the people that they worked with and fought with and what they went through and sacrificed in the things that were thrown against them in the things that they survived ultimately. I honestly did not know if i was going to pull it off for a long time because a lot of people had really sacrificed so much they had been incarcerated, lost loved one and i understand that they would be so willing and to talk to random guy that im writing a book about the family. But i think when i introduced myself and said this is how i want to approach in this is who i am i feel like the story is important to be told and iss never been toldow thoroughly a t of folks and veterans came around and a lot of times i would meet somebody that would be one person and we would talk for a couple hours were a few hours and then they would sale putting the word for you, who also you trying to talk to. I would love to talk to this person and that person, let me call them up and see if they want to talk. Over two years of persistence in believing if i had a chance to introduce myself and talk to them and i want to share your stories im not trying to come out of from a particular angle i just want to share your stories i talked to a lot of people that came up and fought with them, theres somebody in the audience im honored that she is here. It was a labor of love and dedication and wanting to feel like the stories need to be shared and i want to let my voice be the background and i came forward and i hope i did. So it starts a beginning of the 1960s with the trial and goes back to malcolm x in the shift from civil rights to black power to the black panthers in the army which was an organization that worked underground and how tupac was a child of that and raise did not in the movement and how he felt like he wanted to carry that on but he got wrapped up in someone who grew up in poverty, homeless at times hungry many times and really committed to the struggle and wanted to continue his familys tradition but also as a young man and not to throw money at them and throw themselves at him oned of. I also got up get paid and i like having the attention in the movie started to be with Janet Jackson him try to reconcile the two sides, they were within him. Im really happy how it turned out. Its only been out a couple of days but i heard that from some people im supportive of and im pleased and honored that i had the opportunity to tell the story and i want to talk about the title for a minute and its something ive been asked before and its an important question so its an American Family with a k. And the reason why i titled it that is because a lot of people in the movement wouldnt call themselves americans they call themselves new african with a k. And its really important to say they are part of the new african independence movement. But my argument and reason for the American Family with a k, the k and american has been used in the 1970s with racist individual w activists who wantd to make a connection racist history and there is no separation between the history of this country and the clan behavior. Some people in this movement with three case just to condemn the country itself. Also one called American Family, i feel like this family and people that they worked within the different organizations are a product of this country. The product of the racism and repression that they face they came about to challenge that and they coalesced to challenge the system so they are product of this country as much of this country is a product of other dissidents like them we celebrate our rebels and their Freedom Fighters in this country and part of the country is the beginning to call yourself an american in rebellion and dissidentspp in against oppressn and they are an American Family because their product of this country of the product. I think im going to read a little from the end of the introduction, before i do this mr. Coors is a family and outside of what we think of the traditional family and blood relatives. Your board into the family are not necessarily born into take the name is an honor it is saying youre aligning yourself with this family and the movement and you dont take it lightly people would call yourself upper back at the day when you took that name it was a ceremony had to be invited and you are committed to the movement intt the family and the improvement of black people in the country. And not everybody that we would think of should core was born should core. There is also people who dont call themselves that they didnt take the name who are still part of the family they still are. I would say that they are so most of us are for mill your with the writer living in exile in cuba, she is by honoring the name she took the name later in life after she was already on the run and wanted in the 30s and after good friend was killed by a new Jersey Police officer on the turnpike in 1973, she took the name to honor her friends aid into carryon the other family members name, legacy and tupac was also not born shakurs. He was given a different name upper. But his mother gave him the name shakurs shortly after and he carried that name with him for his whole life. So this is the end of the introduction. Surnamed is introducing the family and the themes. The legacy exist all around us in culture, activism and our professionalm lives. When we listen to the work of black songwriters that express compassion and animosity, love and indifference, social consciousness and lyle is and we hear tupacs influence. With black poets and authors that speak to theom experience e also yearning for the same we are relating. When we demand our right to represent ourselves whether in the courtroom or the bedroom we are following in the path set forward. When we seek alternative holistic and nonwestern form of medical treatment we are benefited from the groundwork. The shakurs top magnify the beauty and possibility of being black in america. They were a catalyst of black creativity recovery and above all resistance. From above Ground Community organizing to the struggle wherever there was a fight against s persecution shakurs were at the forefront. They fought noble battles in one victories, theyve also made critical errors and suffered devastating losses. They even connected to shocking act of violence in response to the violence perpetrated against them. But through it all they have never wavered in their commitment to the liberation of black people in america. Through the legacy minneapolis and dozens of cities from coast to i coast. To hear their influence on todays top musical artist from beyonce to canng Kendrick Lamar its a long way to go before we can honestly say is granted as black citizens equal protection or that black americans are afforded the same life to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness as white americans. Until that day comes, black people in this country receive justice for hundreds of years the prosecution america will not know peace. This is the nation the shakurs created. Thanks. Another applaud. Thank you so we are now going to enter into the audience question portion of the evening. I have the very special microphone. If you do not want to be on cspan book tv, dont askse a question because this is their thing. I am wondering if you could talk about your choice to write in the present tense and you do that through out the book i write in the present tense, the opening chapter in the opening scene that i read from his present tense in his opening scene. It wasnt always that way it was originally in the past tense but my first editor and first set of eyes and thought it could be more powerful in the present tense. And i tried it out and im like youre right. But the opening scene goes into the action. But after that we go back a little bit in time to bring us to the scene and thats what i go back to past tense. Just the opening scene is present tense. Do you remember the moment or the feeling that drove your interest in taking this from peeking your curiosity in learning more to want to take it to page and dig deeper . My interest going beyond wanting to spend the next two and half years on this book was realizing the story has n