https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AkQf1G2QJwhR2tolupZstcabvZx4?p=Women+of+the+Old+Black+Panther+Movement&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1
http://www.gayrva.com/news-views/women-sexuality-and-the-black-panther-party/
One of the most prominent female figures in the Black Panther Party was Angela Davis, a human rights activist, professor and cultural icon. Davis is a controversial figure, but she also is an example of a black lesbian leader that deserves to be recognized for her contributions to the African American and LGBT community. Davis announced her lesbian identity in an OUT magazine interview in 1997. She was reluctant to speak about her lesbian identity until then because of harsh discrimination against lesbians of color and her already controversial image.
According to one Panther woman: “Sexuality was a very low-key thing in the Party. It was just natural that women had women lovers and men lovers at the same time. We all were sexually allowed whatever was our wish.”[1] The BPP had an open mind towards sexual expression as well as the roles women could play in social change organizations. The embrace of female empowerment and varied sexual identities within the party allowed for women like Angela Davis, to rise to prominent positions of power within the party while other radical organizations of the time such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and The Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) saved leadership roles for men, and forced women to remain in the background. Although the BPP did not chastise Davis for her gender or sexuality, Davis kept her sexuality a secret to the outside world until 1997 because of prevailing stereotypes about lesbians and women of color.
Davis was born on January 26, 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama. During her younger years, she attended segregated schools, until she enrolled at New York’s Little Red Schoolhouse, a school that became infamous for its communist identified students and faculty. She later attended Elisabeth Irwin High School, an adjunct of Little Red Schoolhouse, on a full scholarship. After graduating from Brandeis University in 1965, she served on the faculty of Goethe University in Frankfurt Germany, and eventually returned to the US where she was appointed a faculty position at UCLA. When her membership in the Communist Party became known to university administration in 1969, she was fired from UCLA. After a first amendment court battle, she was rehired. Davis recalls in her autobiography, “tons of hate mail poured in my office at UCLA demanding I be removed from the university…many threats had been made on my life…”[2] During her time in the US, Davis had also become drawn to the socialist politics of the BPP.
I hope Bernie does not let them speak again as he represents the removal of racism, whereas, these women need for racism to continue so they can remain in power in the
New Women's Black Panther Party otherwise known as Black Lives Matter.
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