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July 24, 2018

Founding Black Panther Party Member Elbert "Big Man" Howard Dies
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And human rights activist, educator, and founding member of the Black
Panther Party, Elbert "Big Man" Howard, has died. Born in Tennessee in
1938, Howard was also the first editor of the Black Panther Party's
newspaper. This is Elbert "Big Man" Howard, speaking about visiting with
prisoners during the 1971 Attica rebellion.

Elbert Howard: "The Panthers were there. I accompanied Bobby Seale and
several other Panthers and we went and listened to the grievances of the
inmates. There was very little that we could do on the spot other than
we had party authorization to offer the inmates assistance if they
wanted to leave the country, because at that time we had some
friends-some revolutionary friends-who would give them sanctuary, if we
could encourage them to come out. And that was about all we could offer.
A day after we were there he [the governor] issued the order to take the
prison back at all costs."

Elbert "Big Man" Howard died on Monday at the age of 80.


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