Interview with Flores Forbes: His Memoir on the Black Panther Party
Flores Forbes first joined the Black Panther Party when he was 16 years old. He became the youngest member of the Black Panther's Central Committee and ended up spending nearly five years in prison for an attempted assassination. Flores is now chief strategic officer of the Abyssinian Development Corporation in Harlem. His new memoir is called "Will You Die With Me? My Life and the Black Panther Party." He joins us in our firehouse studio. [includes rush transcript]
Flores Forbes, author of "Will You Die With Me? My Life and the Black Panther Party."
AMY GOODMAN: William Lee Brent was the oldest member to join the Black Panther Party. Flores Forbes first joined the Black Panther Party when he was 16 years old. He became the youngest member of the Black Panther Central Committee and ended up spending nearly five years in prison for an attempted assassination. Flores is now chief strategic officer at the Abyssinian Development Corporation in Harlem. His new memoir is called "Will You Die With Me: My Life and the Black Panther Party." Flores Forbes joins us now in our Firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!.
FLORES FORBES: Thank you for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: As you listened to William Lee Brent, your thoughts?
FLORES FORBES: You know, I remember the time. I remember I was around him a few times. I remember the hijacking, but I also I guess the thing that I remember for that and some of the other stories you were doing before is that, you know, the reason why I joined the Black Panther Party is because I believed, as a people we were being terrorized. I had been kidnapped by the police --
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
FLORES FORBES: When I was 12 years old I was picked up by the police. I was riding my bike as a 12-year-old in southeast San Diego and I was taken several miles away to be identified by a couple--by a white couple. They assumed that I was the person who had snatched her purse and obviously it was physically impossible for me to ride the bike that far. When they brought me back they insulted my mother. When I was 14 years old, I was beat up by the police, 20 or 30 police at one time.
So you know I realized that, you know, I didn't know what the word terrorism was then, but as a people we were being terrorized. And so I can definitely identify with what Bill believed, why he joined the party at the age of 38. He had already lived a life. I was 16 years old and I hadn't begun to live my life.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what happened? How did you connect with the Black Panther Party? You were a kid at home.
FLORES FORBES: Right. Well, my brother was a student at UCLA and he was bringing home literature from the new African-American Studies courses that were being introduced at the time. He was bringing home the Black Panther newspaper. And I started reading it. But prior to that, you know, there were the news reports of the Panthers lobbying at Sacramento in 1967, of the scene of Huey P. Newton being shot and accused of killing a white policeman. So these were things that were there, and the information was there, but I realized that if I was going to survive, I really believed that I needed to be involved with this organization that was focusing on our survival as a people who were being harassed.
AMY GOODMAN: For our listeners and viewers who are not familiar with this history, this is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party. Explain who Huey P. Newton was.
FLORES FORBES: He was the—he was a law student living in Oakland, California, who founded the Black Panther Party in October of 1966. He was a very charismatic person. He was a person who introduced many of us to the -- I guess you could say the meaning of what Malcolm X. meant when he said by any means necessary. And he was a person who obviously stood as a beacon for the self-defense stand that we took in our community.
AMY GOODMAN: Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving a special celebration of indigenous rights and on Friday we'll bring you a major address just recently given in Madison by historian Howard Zinn. But right now we're continuing on this 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party with Flores Forbes. He wrote the book, Will You Die With Me: My Life in the Black Panther Party, youngest member of the Central Committee of the party. I wanted to play for you from the DVD collection, What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party, a clip of Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the black panthers speaking from his prison cell after he was arrested and accused of voluntary manslaughter. The charges against him were later dropped.
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Flores Forbes, author of "Will You Die With Me? My Life and the Black Panther Party."
AMY GOODMAN: William Lee Brent was the oldest member to join the Black Panther Party. Flores Forbes first joined the Black Panther Party when he was 16 years old. He became the youngest member of the Black Panther Central Committee and ended up spending nearly five years in prison for an attempted assassination. Flores is now chief strategic officer at the Abyssinian Development Corporation in Harlem. His new memoir is called "Will You Die With Me: My Life and the Black Panther Party." Flores Forbes joins us now in our Firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!.
FLORES FORBES: Thank you for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: As you listened to William Lee Brent, your thoughts?
FLORES FORBES: You know, I remember the time. I remember I was around him a few times. I remember the hijacking, but I also I guess the thing that I remember for that and some of the other stories you were doing before is that, you know, the reason why I joined the Black Panther Party is because I believed, as a people we were being terrorized. I had been kidnapped by the police --
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
FLORES FORBES: When I was 12 years old I was picked up by the police. I was riding my bike as a 12-year-old in southeast San Diego and I was taken several miles away to be identified by a couple--by a white couple. They assumed that I was the person who had snatched her purse and obviously it was physically impossible for me to ride the bike that far. When they brought me back they insulted my mother. When I was 14 years old, I was beat up by the police, 20 or 30 police at one time.
So you know I realized that, you know, I didn't know what the word terrorism was then, but as a people we were being terrorized. And so I can definitely identify with what Bill believed, why he joined the party at the age of 38. He had already lived a life. I was 16 years old and I hadn't begun to live my life.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what happened? How did you connect with the Black Panther Party? You were a kid at home.
FLORES FORBES: Right. Well, my brother was a student at UCLA and he was bringing home literature from the new African-American Studies courses that were being introduced at the time. He was bringing home the Black Panther newspaper. And I started reading it. But prior to that, you know, there were the news reports of the Panthers lobbying at Sacramento in 1967, of the scene of Huey P. Newton being shot and accused of killing a white policeman. So these were things that were there, and the information was there, but I realized that if I was going to survive, I really believed that I needed to be involved with this organization that was focusing on our survival as a people who were being harassed.
AMY GOODMAN: For our listeners and viewers who are not familiar with this history, this is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party. Explain who Huey P. Newton was.
FLORES FORBES: He was the—he was a law student living in Oakland, California, who founded the Black Panther Party in October of 1966. He was a very charismatic person. He was a person who introduced many of us to the -- I guess you could say the meaning of what Malcolm X. meant when he said by any means necessary. And he was a person who obviously stood as a beacon for the self-defense stand that we took in our community.
AMY GOODMAN: Tomorrow, on Thanksgiving a special celebration of indigenous rights and on Friday we'll bring you a major address just recently given in Madison by historian Howard Zinn. But right now we're continuing on this 40th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party with Flores Forbes. He wrote the book, Will You Die With Me: My Life in the Black Panther Party, youngest member of the Central Committee of the party. I wanted to play for you from the DVD collection, What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party, a clip of Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the black panthers speaking from his prison cell after he was arrested and accused of voluntary manslaughter. The charges against him were later dropped.