A Letter to Huey P. Newton

How long have you fought?

Are you in your grave, still fighting?

If you were alive, what would you fight for?

When you died, were you thinking of the Black Panthers,

or how you changed the world?

If the FBI hadn’t invaded our home, would the movement continue?

Could you hear the shattering of our hearts,

when the government lynched our movement,

on the tree that thousands of black skeletons hang from?

Could you feel the anger that rose in us,

or hear the screams of our people, in hopes of the feud to cease?

They watched our empire fall, with tears of laughter from their eyes

our spirits collapsed with the sound of a thousand stones,

but our hearts like the tide, will rise once again

We’ve learned to adapt and come back stronger

The Black Panther Party was a spark of idea that transformed generations,

the focus, determination and discipline to push forward is uncanny

This movement has changed my view on what history is entirely,

it has shown me that not everything that glitters isn’t gold

The past is the past because we learn from it,

it helps us navigate through life without making the same mistakes

Your life is a path, you can lead others to a place of self-knowledge, self-worth and impacting the world