by Damon Scott
Daily Lobo
Mark Rudd said one of his proudest moments in life was being a part of the Vietnam anti-war movement.
Rudd, a former member of Students for a Democratic Society and founding member of the Weather Underground, was part of a panel discussion Tuesday at the SUB culminating days of events celebrating the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Black Panther Party.
Weather Underground was a revolutionary guerrilla group in the 1970s.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
The discussion was relocated to the Southwest Film Center theater after a crowd of more than 200 spilled out of the Santa Ana meeting rooms which hold 70 people.
Even the new location was packed with people lining the walls and crowding the theater entrance.
"Look at the reaction. It's phenomenal," said Ann Nihlen, a faculty member.
The panel discussion, titled the Black Panther Party and Coalition Building in the 1960s, focused on the idea of involving different groups in reform movements.
Panelists discussed their respective civil rights work and their experience with the Black Panther Party.
Rudd said he discovered the Black Panther Party in 1968.
"For the white left they were an absolute thunderbolt," Rudd said. "I thought they were a great way to educate white people about the nature of society, and thought it was racist for white people to stand by and applaud while black people were taking all the risks."
In December 1969, a combined FBI and Chicago Police task force killed Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton. Rudd and the Weathermen responded by concluding that talk of revolution was just that, and that white people had to share some of the costs of revolution, by picking up the gun.
However, Rudd said playing with guns is a terrible mistake.
David Hilliard, a founding member of the Black Panther Party, spent the majority of his opening remarks responding to Rudd's opening comments.
"The Black Panther's used guns for self-defense," Hilliard said. "Mark Rudd doesn't speak for the Black Panther Party."
Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement, said the movement in the '60s addressed Native American issues such as police brutality, low unemployment rates, substandard living conditions and broken treaties by the United States government.
Banks said the American Indian Movement is still going strong.
The last panelist, Kaamasee, was added after the program had been printed. He spent 1965 to 1975 in prison in California, and helped establish a reform movement within the prison system, he said.
"The Black Panther Party moved us from rioting to revolutionary programs with some kind of change," he said.
He said ideas out of this prison reform movement included unionizing prison labor and prison legislation in California.
Advice was given to students in the audience about their role in political movements.
"Young people believe they can't make a difference," Rudd said. "My answer to that is to look at history."
Banks agreed.
"One person, one idea makes a difference," Banks said.
The panel was moderated by Maria Williams, a faculty member in the Native American Studies program.
Eight organizations sponsored the event, including African American Studies.
