The Transcript

By Kaillie Winston
Transcript Correspondent 

Former Black Panther Charlotte O’Neal came to Ohio Wesleyan University to convey a message of self-determination and community control through her music and poetry.

In 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale established the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Oakland, California. The group defended minority groups from economic, social, and political inequality in America. BPP members aimed to raise equality by organizing committees and programs such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1967 and the Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program in 1969.

The Black Panther Party deteriorated by 1980, but O’Neal still feels strongly about the values they stood for: peace and justice.

O’Neal, who refers to herself as “Mama Charlotte,” explained to a room of OWU students and faculty that the party primarily supported self-determination and community control in inner cities. If students learn to work together and set goals in the classroom, O’Neal said, they could prosper greatly.

“Mama Charlotte has many inspiring stories to tell about her journey and it is a great honor to have her at our school,” senior Taylor Rivkin said.

Additionally, O’Neal is a well-renowned musician and poet from Kansas City. During her time as a Black Panther, O’Neal wrote numerous poems about the struggles of minority oppression, protests, and peace for all. O’Neal continues to share her ideas today through artistic media.

O’Neal became interested in the BPP in the late 1960’s when she first saw founder and chairman Pete O’Neal speaking out about minority rights on television. She became an official member in the late 1969, after learning about the Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children Program.

“When I discovered the Breakfast for School Children Program, it was over,” she said. “I signed on the dotted line.”

In this program, the BPP installed kitchens throughout America and fed more than 10,000 children each day before school.

The organization remained strong and started liberation movements with many other countries. For example, the United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC), a Panther effort, aimed to help develop well-rounded communities in Tanzania.

O’Neal said many people wrongly assume that the BPP was a black supremacist organization.

“Many people read negative things about the Black Panther Party,” she said, “The black supremacist groups actually disliked us because we worked with everyone.”

“Mama Charlotte” and her husband Pete O’Neal moved to Tanzania in 1971, where they began UAACC in order to spread Black Panther ideals through school systems.

Just five years ago, Mr. and Mrs. O’Neal founded a children’s home in Tanzania, aimed at providing a loving and nurturing environment for orphans. Charlotte O’Neal focuses on artistic involvement and hopes that a proper education will help these children to go far in today’s world.

“If we can spread love and peace, the world will learn to tolerate one another, regardless of gender or race,” she said. “That’s all that matters.”

1955

SH: (The civil rights movement began to reach national attention in the 1950s. In 1955, Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi; he was born a year after John Lewis. Till’s death and the subsequent acquittal of his murderers gained national attention. That same year in Montgomery, Ala., the NAACP and other civil rights groups launched a boycott lasting more than a year after Rosa Parks was arrested for defying segregation on a city bus.) For my generation, we’ve only seen segregation and what that was like in photographs or films, so what was that like and how did it affect you at the time?

JL: When I was growing up, I would see the signs that said “White Only,” “Colored Only”…I didn’t like it, and I asked my mother, asked my father, my grandparents, my great-grandparents why. They would say, “That’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way, don’t get in trouble.” But I was inspired by Dr. King and Rosa Parks and others to get in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.

SH: Do you think enough is taught in American education today about the civil rights movement and about the legacy of segregation and of slavery before that?

JL: No, I don’t think we do a necessary job or a good job in letting our young people know what happened and how it happened. I think we need to do a much better job, so never again will we repeat the dark past.

1960

SH: (As a student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., Lewis took part in sit-ins to challenge discrimination at lunch counters in the city.) When you started out in the civil rights movement, you were a college student like we are, you were leading sit-ins to challenge segregation in Nashville. What was that like?

JL: Well, Nashville was the first city that I lived in. I grew up in rural Alabama, and to be in Nashville at the age of 17, I literally grew up by sitting down on those wax counter stools. But before the sit-in, we studied. We studied the way of nonviolence, we studied what Gandhi attempted to do in South Africa, what he accomplished in India. We studied Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience,” we studied what Dr. King was all about in Montgomery. And attending a nonviolent workshop before sitting in, I accepted the way of nonviolence, the way of love, the way of peace, as a way of life, as a way of living. And being in Nashville, sitting in and later going on the Freedom Ride, it made me the person that I am today.

1961

SH:(Lewis was one of the first 13 Freedom Riders who challenged segregation in interstate travel.) Why do you think the Freedom Rides were successful?

JL: The Freedom Rides were successful because the American people saw what was happening and they couldn’t believe it. It educated and sensitized so many people and President Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General, responded to the violence – in Anniston, Ala., where a bus was burned, and to the violence that occurred in Birmingham and later Montgomery and the mass arrests of college students, of professors and religious leaders – almost 400 of us went to jail in Mississippi.

SH: Were you surprised by all the violence that the Freedom Riders experienced during that time?

JL: I was surprised about the violence that occurred, but we had been warned. We had been told that we could be beaten, that we could be arrested, that we could die as part of the Freedom Ride.

SH: And what motivated you to keep going, even possibly risking your life to do so?

JL: I was convinced that we could not allow the threat of violence, the threat of being arrested and put in jail, stop a nonviolent campaign to end segregation and racial discrimination.

1963

SH: (As one of the Big Six civil rights leaders, Lewis was selected to speak at the March on Washington as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. His planned speech, though, contained references to Sherman’s March during the Civil War – still a source of anger for many white Southerners – and questioned the support of the Kennedy administration. Fearing that these remarks would cost the movement needed support, other leaders pushed him to change his speech.) I’m curious how you feel about that now, so many years later?

JL: Well when I look back on it, I don’t have any strong feeling of objection. There were people like Dr. King and A. Philip Randolph, two of the strong leaders within the March on Washington committee, who suggested that we tone down the speech. They said that we (civil rights leaders and federal officials) have come this far together, let’s stay together. I think it was the right thing to do.

1965

SH: (In 1965 Lewis, as SNCC Chairman, worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to challenge voting discrimination in Alabama. They led a series of marches. In the first, state police attacked the marchers and protester Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot in the stomach protecting his mother. He died eight days later. The second attempt, was led by Lewis and Rev. Hosea Williams of SCLC. They were crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge when they encountered a line of state police and hastily sworn in deputies.) Can you walk me through what that was like and the violence that followed?

JL: Well, on the day – March 7, 1965 – it was so orderly and so peaceful, 600 of us, I thought we would be arrested and that we would be taken to jail. I was so convinced that we would be arrested that I was wearing a backpack, and in this backpack I had two books. I wanted to have something to read in jail. I had an apple and an orange – I wanted to have something to eat. But we were told by the major of the Alabama state troopers, who said this was an unlawful march and would not be allowed to continue. And Hosea said, “Major, give us a moment to kneel and pray.” And the major said, “Troopers, advance.” And these guys came toward us, beating us with nightsticks, bullwhips, trapping us with horses and releasing the tear gas. I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death.

SH: I’ve read that you re-walk the route the march was planned for each year. I’m curious what that experience is like to you.

JL: Well, to go back – and I went back just about three weeks ago – to go back there, it’s always so uplifting. It’s so inspiring, especially to take young people and to take members of Congress who have never been to Selma, Alabama, never been to Birmingham, never been to Montgomery. To go back to these historic sites and observe and meet some of the people who participated in it is very moving. You go back and you have to rekindle the spirit that we still have work to do, that we must not stop now.

SH: What was the highest point of your experience in the civil rights movement?

JL: I think the finest moment for me was when we walked across that bridge the third time and made it from Selma to Montgomery. (March 7, 1965 was the second time civil rights workers tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.) And when Martin Luther King spoke, and then President Johnson spoke, we knew it was a matter of time before the Voting Rights Act would be passed and signed into law. And I was there – he gave me one of the pens that he used to sign the act.

1968

SH: (While they had finally achieved the right to vote, the civil rights movement continued, though it lacked the strength it had in past years. Lewis left SNCC in 1966 but remained involved, helping the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy, brother of John Kennedy and former attorney general. Martin Luther King was working to build support for his Poor People’s Campaign and went to Memphis, Tenn., to support striking sanitation workers. On April 3 King delivered his “Mountaintop” sermon, describing how he’d seen the promised land, even though he may not reach it himself. The next evening he was shot dead by a sniper.) What was the lowest point of the movement that you felt you experienced?

JL: To witness the loss of people that I got to know, people that I met. I was with Robert Kennedy when we heard that Dr. King had been assassinated. I was in Indianapolis, Ind., campaigning with him on April 4, 1968. Dr. King was my inspiration, my hero, my friend, almost like a big brother and to lose this man changed my life. And I said to myself…“Well, we still have Bobby Kennedy.” Then two months later Robert Kennedy was killed. I admired Robert Kennedy, loved him, and I often think if Dr. King and Robert Kennedy lived the country and the world would be a different place.

By Catie Beach
Transcript Correspondent

Twelve Ohio Wesleyan students spent their spring breaks trailblazing the forests of South Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, working to conserve the forest’s trails and campsite while connecting with their inner spirituality.

The weeklong hike is an annual backpacking trip organized by The Wilderness Ministry, a part of the Chaplain’s office. The theme of this year’s trek, titled “The Ground We Walk,” explored mankind’s relationship with the earth and how humans take care of it.

The group arrived in Sumpter National Forest after a day’s drive, spending the first four days of their trek hiking, camping, and exploring.

“The terrain was very beautiful–lot’s of waterfalls and varied species,” said sophomore Reilly Reynolds.

Before starting their service work on the trail, the group spent their first days getting in touch with their spiritual sides.

Their leaders isolated each hiker on the trail for a few hours at a time, allowing them to decompress and contemplate nature in private.

“I spent some time barefoot, feeling the textures of the ground,” Reynolds said. “I just really got to experience nature in an interesting way. I’ve always held a very high level of respect for my natural surroundings, but the trip heightened that even more.”

The trek, lead by Coalition for Christian Outreach counselor Jamie Zackavitch and alumnae Haley Figlestahler (’13), was a first time backpacking experience for many of the students.

“The trip really challenged my endurance,” said sophomore Scott Woodward. “We were each carrying 20 to 30 pounds on our backs. By the second and third days not only were you feeling the hike of your day, but the day before and the day before that.”

The last two days of the trip consisted of trail maintenance; a service which helps create safe trails and reduce the effects of hiker traffic on the environment.

“We would hike along the trails and cut any branches that were in the way of hikers and if we came across a stream without rocks we would move them there to create bridges,” Woodward said. “We fixed campsites up, raked leaves and took down unregulated ones to reduce negative human impact.”

The participating students’ service work helped them achieve a greater understanding of their role in environment conservation as well as a newfound appreciation for The Wilderness Ministry as a campus resource, according to Reynolds.

“I’d recommend wilderness treks to anyone,” she said.

“It’s a great lesson in teamwork, respecting physical abilities, and letting go of the stresses of everyday life to look at the bigger picture.”

Bob Gitter, professor of economics, said he suggested a trip to Mexico so students in his Mexican Migration Experience travel learning course could see why people migrate and the impact that migration has on those who stay behind.

“I wanted the students to better understand the causes and consequences of migration.  It is not enough to teach the concepts through readings, videos and lectures,” Gitter said.

“Going from Delaware to Mexico is like going from black and white to color.  The light and bright colors make one feel so alive.”

Senior Sarah Hartzheim, who went on the Travel Learning Course, said the people are proud of migrants because they have to work so hard to save the money used to migrate.

“I studied the incomes and expenses of families, and finding the $2000 USD required to pay a coyote to take someone across the border is impossible for many,” Hartzheim said.

Hartzheim also said they migrate for the prospect of new possibilities such as owning businesses and land and although the people felt fortunate to have migrated to the U.S., no one she spoke with had wanted to stay in the country.

“Many said they would migrate again for a few years if it was easier to do so; but they all loved their towns and their way of life, and only went to the U.S. as a way to improve their lives in Mexico- not to stay there permanently,” she said.

Professor of philosophy Shari Stone-Mediatore’s spring break travel learning course, “Modernity & Colonialism,” examines how European Enlightenment notions of the links between European modernity and colonialism.

Stone-Mediatore said she chose to travel to a Zapatista community in Chiapas, Mexico with nine students and co-chaperone professor John Stone-Mediatore because the Zapatistas have challenged the authority of U.S. and European-dominated forms of progress.

According to Stone-Mediatore, Zapatistas are indigenous groups in Chiapas, Mexico, who own historic territories and govern their own communities. They consider the official Mexican government to be an illegal government, because the Mexican government has cancelled the constitutional amendment that protects indigenous communal land.

According to senior Jessica Brewer, the group spent the trip living as the Zapatista do.

“We slept in hammocks, ate only what was local, cooked over open fires, used squat toilets, bathed in the river.  It was a very refreshing lifestyle for the week that we were there,” Brewer said.

The Zapatistas have established their own system of local democracies across Chiapas, with ordinary men and women regularly rotating on and off governing councils and with substantial autonomy for each community.

“I believed that we can learn a great deal from the people living in Zapatista communities about democracy, diversity, and human dignity that cannot be reduced to book knowledge,” Stone-Mediatore said.

“Instead of seeking state power, the Zapatistas have called on people across Mexico to set up their own grassroots democracies, ‘good governments,’ to replace the official illegal government,” she said.

Stone-Mediatore said the Zapatistas are known for covering their faces with black masks or bandanas.

A reason for this is to protect their identities from paramilitary groups, who are paid by the state to terrorize and assassinate Zapatistas.

“Symbolically, it also represents the idea that the leaders can be anyone; and it provokes the question of who is really masked, the campesinos who hide their faces with ski masks, or the governments that hide behind paramilitary groups and mercenaries?” she said.

The Issue: Turkey

Once considered one of the more stable countries in the Middle East, tensions have been rising in Turkey over the past few weeks.

Recently, the government blocked access to Twitter and YouTube because audio recordings talking about the security situation in Syria were uploaded to the sites.

According to the New York Times, Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told supporters at a campaign rally that “YouTube was being used in a dirty tricks campaign against his government before local elections.”

Prime Minister Erdogan faced sweeping antigovernment protests last summer, but his party was still reelected on Sunday.

His party, the Islamist Justice and Development Party won large numbers in the local elections, larger than the 39 percent A.K.P. won in the 2009 local elections.

According to the New York Times, there are also upcoming elections, like the presidential election in the summer, and parliamentary elections next year. The elections will determine the political future for both Prime Minister Erdogan and his political party.

The Issue: Korea

Whenever the spotlight shines away from North Korea, the nation always know how to get its international focus back.

North Korea has been doing live-fire exercises near the South Korean maritime border.

Instead of sitting idly by, South Korea returned fire.

According to CNN, a defense spokesman from South Korea said, “We are not shooting at North Korea, just shooting into the sea.”

According to the New York Times, this exchange of fire was the most serious episode along that border since an artillery duel which occurred in 2010.

These types of military exchanges are not new, but the tensions between these two countries are ramping up yet again.

The Issue: Egypt

With rising tensions in Egypt, the presidential elections will take place on May 26 and 27. Egypt’s army chief, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced he would run for president, but he had to resign from his post in order to do so.

According to CNN, el-Sisi is quite popular among Egyptians who supported the deposition of President Mohmed Morsey of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was the first freely elected leader in Egypt.

However, el-Sisi is greatly disliked by the Islamist opposition, who see him as the person who led the coup against an elected leader, according to CNN.