- Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project
- Title:
- Elbert "Big Man" Howard oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Santa Rosa, California, 2016 June 30
- Contributor to Resource:
- Howard, Elbert, 1938-2018, interviewee
Cline, David P., 1969- interviewer
Bishop, John Melville, videographer
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Date of Original:
- 2016
- Subject:
- Black Panther Party
Cointelpro
US (Organization)
African American civil rights workers--California--Interviews
Civil rights movements--California
Civil rights movements--United States
Prison riots--New York (State)--Attica
Trials (Murder)--Connecticut--New Haven
Underground press publications--California
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--Japan - Location:
- Japan, 35.68536, 139.75309
United States, 39.76, -98.5
United States, California, 37.25022, -119.75126
United States, California, Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, 38.44047, -122.71443
United States, Connecticut, New Haven County, New Haven, 41.30815, -72.92816
United States, New York, Wyoming County, Attica, 42.86423, -78.28029 - Medium:
- personal narratives
interviews
oral histories (literary genre)
video recordings (physical artifacts) - Type:
- MovingImage
- Description:
- Elbert "Big Man" Howard founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland with Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and others in 1965. Howard speaks of the Party's accomplishments in establishing the free community food programs, free medical clinics, and other service initiatives. He recounts the harassment by the FBI's COINTELPRO initiative, and recounts instances of everyday racist oppression by the state and local officials. Howard talks about the failed attempt by the Panthers to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Attica Prison Uprising (NY) in 1971. Howard talks of his leaving the organization due to various pressures and internal conflicts that eventually led to the demise of the Party.
Recorded in Santa Rosa, California, on June 30, 2016.
Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0145), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
Elbert "Big Man" Howard was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1938. After serving four years in the military, he enrolled in Merritt College in Oakland, where he met Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. Together they founded the Black Panther Party. As one of the Party's early organizers, he played a key role in creating the Ten-Point Program, organizing defense committees and developing programs and opportunities for activism. After leaving the party in the 1970s, he returned to the South and worked in retail in various locations for several years. Eventually he returned to California where he wrote, lectured, and was a jazz disc jockey.
The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
In English.
Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005 - Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0145
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
- Extent:
- 9 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (2:13:36) : digital, sound, color.
transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files. - Original Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0145
- Contributing Institution:
- American Folklife Center
- Rights:
-
