On Wednesday the 16th October, Bristol will be hosting Jonina Abron-Ervin and Lorenzo Ervin as they give talks on their involvement in the US Black Power Movement and struggles that continue to this day.
Jonina is the author of Driven by the Movement: Activists of the Black Power Era and will speak about her interviews with some 20 Black Power Activists as well as her own activity in the Black Panthers, where she became editor of the Black Panther Newspaper. She will detail the experiences of those organising from the grassroots, and participants in radical organisations including the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.
Lorenzo was sentenced to life imprisonment after he allegedly attempted to murder a Ku Klux Klan leader before hijacking a plane to Cuba. Whilst in Prison he was supported by the Anarchist Black Cross and wrote Anarchism and the Black Revolution. He has continued to struggle against the Prison Industrial Complex and other forms of state sanctioned racism after an international campaign led to his release after 15 years inside.
Both are currently involved in the Black Autonomy Federation, and anti-fascist organising. Learn how they and other protesters in Memphis faced down the Ku Klux Klan and 500 riot police earlier this year, and the strategies and tactics people across America are using to confront fascism and state repression and build autonomous, anti-authoritarian networks.
This meeting is supported by Bristol Radical History Group.
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Susan Pietz
I am a National History Mentor at Jackson County Central High School in Jackson, MN, a small, rural community in Southwest Minnesota. I am writing on behalf of one of my students. K is a High School Senior who’s participated in National History Day for 7 years and successfully competed at National History Day in Washington DC for The Freedom Riders and WWII German POWs in the US. The most exciting and critical part of her research is speaking with individuals who were directly involved in her research topic. These interviews have allowed her to touch and experience history in ways that web or book research can never provide.
The 2017 History Day Theme is “Taking A Stand In History.” She is competing based on the Panther’s Free Breakfast program, as well as the other Serve the People programs. She argues the Panthers took a stand for children and minorities when the government would not. K likes to research and tell the untold story and she feels this project fits the bill. She has no difficulty finding research, information, and opinions about the public and government perception of the Panthers’ “militant” stand for self-determination. Solid information on the details of the Breakfast and Serve the People programs is much harder to find.
She interviewed Reverend Earl A. Neil and Flores Forbes for her project to date. She successfully competed at Regionals this week and will now compete at State April 29 with the hope to compete Nationally in June. She believes that interviews with those directly involved with the Panther Party and their community programs is critical to accurately telling the story of the programs.
Her request is this: She would like to get in touch with JoNina Abron-Ervin. Are you able to provide contact information? Thank you.