"In your life record we can read that you joined the Black Panthers. When did you join them?"
"I joined the Black Panthers, because of my experiences as a youngster growing up in England and being subjected to racial oppression. I was still at school when I joined the Black Panther movement."
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"I guess you also had some bad experiences of racial oppression? Can you tell us the worst one?"
"My worst personal experience of racism was when I was beaten, brutalized by three police officers from Brixton Police Force in November 1972."
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Far, Leavers and Bloom were the names of the three police officers. I was brutalized by these police officers, because I saw them brutalizing some other black people and I tried to get their names and addresses so that I could inform their parents (some young people). And just because of my concern for these people I was racially abused and beaten and charged, framed by the police officers!"
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"Of course I won my case. They charged me with two counts of assault and GBH grievious bodily harm when in fact it was they who assaulted me and subjected me to grieviuos bodily harm. I won the case."
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"Tell us something about the Black Panther movement!"
"It was an organization that came in to combat racial oppression, to combat police brutality, to combat injustices in the courts against black people, to combat discrimination at the place of work, to combat the mis-education of black youths and black young people."
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"The Black Panther movement was not a separatist organization like Louis Farrakhan's 'Nation Of Islam'. We didn't believe in anything like that. Our slogan was 'Black Power - People's Power'..."
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"...and we also realized that we had to live in the same world as white people and that if we wanted to make some changes we had to win some support from the progressive section of the white population."
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"What did you do as a member of the Black Panther movement? Can you give us some examples?"
"We published a newspaper which we would sell on the streets. I used to do that myself. Every Saturday morning I had to go to Brixton Market, Croydon Market, Ballem Market, wherever...(...)."
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"(...)...We would organize campaigns around specific incidents where there was some racial injustice involving the police and so on. We had educational classes for the Youth Section (I was member of the Youth Section) where we studied Black History, Politics and Culture."
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"And as a matter of fact it was through my involvement with the Black Panther movement I discovered Black Literature read a book called 'The Souls Of Black Folk' by W.E.B. Dubois and got inspired to write poetry."
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