Description

Originally Wallace became a member of the Black Panther Party between the ages of 15 and 16. After he and his brother narrowly escaped a riot in Richmond his family moved to San Diego. In San Diego his sister Shirley helped form a chapter of the Party, and the rest of the family joined. He presents a warm picture of San Diego Panther leader Kenny Denmoand, and talks about the rules of behavior. "We basically policed our own community and fed them," adding, "it was our mission to uplift the children," he says, including running the "Freedom Schools," in which children were taught to respect themselves. "The government," he says, "set out to destroy communities," including by "flooding the community with drugs," and such "indignities" as "pulling over cars" and asking African Americans where they were going, or entering homes without a search warrant. The mentality, Wallace states, was the same as when enslaved people were not allowed off the plantation; "the Black Panthers Party was to educate us that we are real people." Ambrose Brodus donated the first building to the Party. Wallace describes how Mountain View Park was used by the community and how a raid on it also included the Party offices. He met Eldridge Cleaver in San Diego and calls him a "firebrand." Cleaver speaks out against Ronald Reagan, who lived in wealthy circumstances and never "did anything meaningful," stating, "he didn't have our well-being" in mind. His bad time in which he used drugs ended when a "light went on" and he went to work "to reboot my financial self" and formed a band again, in addition to community service. These interviews were inspired by the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Black Panther Party in 2016.