The Black Panther Breakfast Program (1969) w/ Mary Phillips
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s January 26th. This day in 1969, free meals are being handed out to kids in Oakland, California as part of the Black Panther Party Free for Children Breakfast Program.
Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Mary Phillips, history professor at Lehman College, to discuss why the panthers started the program, how it reflected the community work they were doing — and how it subverted gender roles within the organization.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:10.0 | This day January 26, 1969 in Oakland, California at the St. Augustine Episcopal Church. |
| 0:18.0 | It's the start of a new community program, the Free for Children Breakfast Program, and that program does what you'd think. |
| 0:25.0 | It provides free meals for kids in the community, most of them black and brown |
| 0:28.9 | kids in Oakland. |
| 0:30.4 | And oh, I suppose I should read the full title of the breakfast program. |
| 0:33.4 | It is the Black Panther Party Free for Children breakfast program. |
| 0:37.3 | And that makes this story a little more interesting. |
| 0:39.8 | Let's talk about some of the work of the Black Panthers, their full name by the way, the Black Panther Party for self-defense, which was founded to address police brutality, among many other issues in the community. |
| 0:50.0 | Let's talk about why they were starting a free breakfast program for kids. |
| 0:54.4 | A program I should add that eventually spread all around the country and may have |
| 0:57.5 | contributed to the rise of free breakfast programs for kids in schools |
| 1:00.6 | which is something my daughter takes advantage of from time to time to this day. |
| 1:04.5 | So here to do that, as always, are Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of |
| 1:09.6 | Walsley. Hello there. |
| 1:10.9 | Hello Jody. |
| 1:11.9 | Hey there. And our special guest to this episode is Mary Phillips |
| 1:16.3 | Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx beautiful |
| 1:20.5 | campus by the way I love going up there but hello Mary welcome to the show |
| 1:24.4 | thanks for doing yes yeah I should mention you're working on a book about |
| 1:29.5 | Erica Huggins who is one of the longest serving women members in the Black Panthers. |
... |
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