Project Diary: so did she rise, after stark loss

Black Panther mural, Center Street, West Oakland

Of course she could never be a Panther, or pals with Huey Newton -- it was too late for that -- but the connection, the line from the Panthers’ inspiration, programs and civic agitation to hers is clear. The Panthers and their movement had emerged out of historic racism, out of cultural and political exasperation, dire community need, humane anger and a recognition that African Americans were on their own in this world and so had better take care of their own. So did she rise, after stark loss, economic struggle, civic neglect and disillusionment, out of obscurity and isolation, out of the deepest darkness, out of seeming powerlessness, out of Oakland. So did she step into her nightly toil, perhaps more quietly than the Panthers had, into the bloody abject trenches of urban life. Make no mistake: there were bodies, bodies of young men, old men, women and children, that had to be seen, checked out to make sure there were no terrible visible wounds the mother or children would see when they were finally reunited with the body of their lost loved ones at the mortuary. Mothers, fathers, families must be prepared to face the worst, or protected from facing it.