Former Black Panther will “˜keep ringing the bell’
By Sherese Tong
April 17, 2008 10:26 p.m.
Elaine Brown, a UCLA alumna and former chairperson of the Black Panther Party, came to campus Thursday for the Thurgood Marshall Lecture and Dinner to share her experience as a civil rights activist.
The annual event honors the legacy of Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, and is hosted by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. It consisted of a fundraising dinner for the Bunche Center, followed by a formal lecture in which Brown addressed the social issues the black community faces today.
Brown served as the chairperson from 1974 to 1977 for the Black Panther Party, a black organization established during the Civil Rights Movement to advocate black rights, self-defense and equality.
Brown recalled the fearlessness of her party members in mobilizing social revolution and their readiness to die for their cause.
“We didn’t think we were going to reach 30. But we were happy because we know we’re doing something,” Brown said.
She said she thinks there is an absence of a movement at present to address various social problems.
“We don’t have such a cohesive effort right now. People are doing good, little work here and there, but there’s no organized effort in this country at this point, so we don’t have a movement to stop the war in Iraq, for example,” Brown said. “My job is to use the rest of my life to keep ringing the bell.”
Brown was present at the 1969 Campbell Hall shooting, when two Black Panther Party members were killed after a meeting centered on the leadership and direction of the new center for Afro-American studies.
When asked about how she felt about the shooting, Brown said she has lived many years with survivor’s guilt.
“I really do love these two men … and I probably would never get over it,” Brown said.
But she said she has moved on to focus on issues to be addressed at present.
Darnell Hunt, a UCLA sociology professor and director of the Bunche Center, which organized the event, said the center is honoring Brown this year for her fight and struggle for civil and human rights.
“She’s speaking from a relatively unique perspective, someone who was part of a very important social movement of that moment in history,” Hunt said. “We thought it’s appropriate to bring her back to have her address our community concerning some of the unfinished business … of the movement that she was part of that remains to be done.”
Beza Merid, a graduate student in Afro-American studies who was invited to the event, said he has heard Brown’s speeches two or three times on campus and expected to be inspired by what Brown had to say.
“She has very passionate speeches,” Merid said. “She encourages students to move from thinking about action and change to actually do something about it.”
