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Panthers serving children free breakfast Photo by Ducho Dennis |
Growing up I remember seeing images of the Black Panthers in their signature berets, their chants of black power, I never heard about the incredible acts of survival organizing they did for their communities- voter registration drives, health clinics, food distribution. Journalist Erin Blakemore writes:
“Free Breakfast For School Children was one of the most effective. It began in January 1969 at an Episcopal church in Oakland, and within weeks it went from feeding a handful of kids to hundreds. The program was simple: party members and volunteers went to local grocery stores to solicit donations, consulted with nutritionists on healthful breakfast options for children, and prepared and served the food free of charge.All starting with a meal in a church!
School officials immediately reported results in kids who had free breakfast before school. “The school principal came down and told us how different the children were,” Ruth Beckford, a parishioner who helped with the program, said later. “They weren’t falling asleep in class, they weren’t crying with stomach cramps... At its peak, the Black Panther Party fed thousands of children per day in at least 45 programs. “[ii]
Think how hard we work to provide one meal to the community. Imagine the organizing savvy to feed people on that scale!
The Black Panther party also created medical clinics in 13 communities providing childhood vaccination clinics, and screenings for conditions like high blood pressure, lead poisoning, diabetes and Sickle Cell Anemia[iii] They had community ambulance services and legal clinics.
Part of their success was because they made connections to other organizations and worked together for change. You may remember that in 1977 during the disability rights sit in of the Federal Building in San Francisco which lasted 28 days, the black panthers rounded up food, supplies, visibility and support that allowed the dedicated disability activists to continue their sit in which ultimately open the door for modern disability rights.[iv]
For most of my life, what organizing has looked like is:
· Going to protests
· going to lobby our elected officials in their offices
· organizing letter writing campaigns
I was raised to think social justice, which was focused on changing policy was separate from community service which included things like stocking food pantries or serving a community meal., It is only in the last year I’ve begun to learn about “survival organizing” in which the two are part of one movement of resistance.
The folks who are hit hardest by oppressive policies must focus on their own survival, and have always supported one another in community to survive. The poorest people have always had to work to meet those survival needs, and have always helped one another. it is a well established fact that [v] poor folks tend to be the most generous. Folks who have known hardship know that we need one another, giving and receiving as we are able through family and kin, through friends and neighbors, through mutual aid. Surviving on the margins takes incredible ingenuity and persistence and community care.
The wisdom of the Black Panther party was that they saw and understood the gifts, the power of the folks they organized. These great groundswell movements start with a belief that our neighbors most on the edge have significant untapped political power when they begin to speak up together for their own human rights.
Survival organizing is rooted in the idea when our bellies are full we can become learn and grow and become empowered. Education was a core piece of both the Civil Rights movement of MLK, the Black Power movement, and the movement Joaquin told us about. It’s like the old saying “if you teach a man to fish” but in this version I imagine you feed a hungry person first, then hand them a fishing pole and help them learn to use it, so they can feed not only themselves but the next hungry person, so they can teach the next person how to fish.
Even that is not enough. As we are feeding one another we must listen to the stories of our neighbors and speak out to the structures of power about what is causing the hunger, what is causing the oppression our community is experiencing. The math is clear that there is plenty of food to feed everyone on planet earth. So why are people hungry? Why are people unhoused when there are vacant residences all over our cities? Together we can seek answers to those questions. By building community we build strength.
I’m sure you’ve noticed when you have been part of a community meal that relationships begin in the kitchen, at the dining table. Organizing is about growing community among the folks who are most effected and folks who want to help. Lasting organizing starts with relationship building. And this morning we are in the right place to help the network of caring grown. Much of the civil rights movement was based out of churches, because of the community we have already built together.
I wonder, in our time, what kind of organizing for the much needed social change could start with a community meal?
I think about the ABC partner meal we had recently, board members and other leaders from Athens, Binghamton and Cortland shared a potluck lunch and talked about what they were concerned about, what they were working on, and how we could help one another. We learned from one another, and we built our network of ideas and of mutual care.
Often when come together for a community meal, we approach it as 2 different groups of people - some who are there to help, and others who are there to receive help. Survival organizing turns that on its head a bit- it starts from the assumption that if we all worked together to care for one another and create social change we could be, in the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a “new and unsettling force.”
Remember what a grass roots community can do when it builds lasting relationships of support and commitment: 20,000 children fed, 13 medical clinics, neighbor helping neighbor creating a network of empowered citizens who worked for change in many areas of life, standing up to police brutality, shaping and inspiring activism to this day.
This morning we share these stories to affirm the importance of the work we are already doing, neighbor helping neighbor. Let us also set in our minds the question- how can we not only help but empower one another? How are we calling forth voices who best know what it feels like to be on the jagged edge of our society? How can we amplify and empower those voices? How can the lessons of survival organizing from our history empower us in our own communities today?
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