Daddy got quiet then. We never rode in the truck at night. Never went into town at night. Why would we? You did your business in the daytime.
I went out to the porch and looked down the lane. Crows flew low above the avocado trees, silhouettes against the sunset sky. I knew they were crows, same way I knew it was avocado trees. This was my land. My lane.
I didn’t have to fight. Might never have to.
But what if I wanted to?
12.
Bobby looked good, standing there on my porch, even though I knew it meant he was leaving.
“I’ll see you in Oakland,” he said, and I leaned forward then, because I thought he might throw his arms around me or something. But he didn’t. He smiled, though. That broad, lazy spread of lips and teeth. Familiar now.
He bounded down the stairs, out to the procession of waiting cars. He joined the good-natured scuffling over who got to ride shotgun. Maybe “riding shotgun” meant something different in the Panthers. Like in the Old Wild West. I pictured Bobby hanging out the window, rifle loaded and cocked.
My veins thrummed, straining out of my skin. The cars were not so full. I could fit there, in the middle, between Bobby and El.
Doors slammed. Engines roared.
They drove off into the wide empty sky. No clouds. No birds. Just restless laughter through the open car windows and the sound of tires on dirt.
Arms came out the windows. The cars honked and the passengers waved. I threw both arms over my head. My feet itched to run. I took the two steps down to the dirt road and chased after as the procession snaked away beneath the arms of the avocado trees.
I ran until I could no longer see them, until the cars took the turn at the end of the drive.
The walk back to the house took ages that day. I stood on the porch, looked down the lane. Waited for the churned-up dirt to settle back over the fields. I stayed and watched until the sun went down — all the way down, till the air was black and Granny started calling for her supper. I stayed out there till I couldn’t anymore, and that dust cloud never faded.
I have researched and written about the Black Panther Party for about ten years. My novels The Rock and the River and Fire in the Streets feature teens who explore the Panther movement in 1968 Chicago. The Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, in October 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, two black college students who had grown frustrated with the slow progress of civil rights change throughout the United States. They believed that the civil rights movement’s efforts to overturn segregation laws did not fully address the needs of struggling people in urban communities. Huey and Bobby developed a plan for addressing the core problems in their community, issues such as economic injustice, insufficient education, hunger, underemployment, and police brutality. They brought together a group of like-minded young men and women to organize, educate, and empower people in Oakland to defend their civil and human rights. The Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Platform and Program outlined their specific goals and demands for equal treatment and opportunity for all. Each point articulated one concrete point of action within the Panthers’ overarching vision for “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.”
The Panthers quickly became controversial because their strategy involved armed self-defense against police brutality and white-supremacist aggression. They monitored police activity in their neighborhoods and sought to ensure that the law was being properly upheld, rather than abused by people with power. The Panthers’ values and tactics energized thousands of young people around the country who had become disillusioned by the passive-resistance approach of the traditional civil rights movement. Within a few years, the Panthers had chapters in more than forty cities around the country. They operated schools, community centers, food programs, health clinics, and more — all free of charge to people in need. Their energy changed the course of the civil rights movement significantly. My next book project, PANTHERS! The History and Legacy of the Black Panther Party in America, explores the Panther movement in depth. The issues they raised and the forces they fought against still trouble our society today, and as we continue to address these struggles in our midst, there is much we can learn from those who have gone before.
WE’RE RUNNING. ALL OF US. THE hippies in their dirty clothes. The protesters with handkerchiefs tied around their faces. The marshals with their bullhorns. Everybody’s running.
“Come on!” my boyfriend, Floyd, yells beside me. “The pigs are still after us!”
I pump my legs, grass and gravel pounding through the thin soles of my loafers. I’m gasping for breath. I can’t run any faster than I already am.
“We’ve got to keep moving, Jill!” Diane shouts as she catches up to us. Even in this madness she manages to look down and roll her eyes at where my hand is linked with Floyd’s.