[News] Celebration of Life Event to honor Elbert "Big Man" Howard on Saturday, August 25th at Bobby Hutton Grove, Oakland

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*There will be a Celebration of Life Event to honor Elbert "Big Man" 
Howard on Saturday, August 25th at Bobby Hutton Grove inside of 
DeFremery Park, at 18th and Adeline - 1651 Adeline Street, Oakland, 
California 94607. Starts at 1pm.
*

*
*

*Speakers include Emory Douglas & Kathleen Cleaver.*

*for info: 916-455-0908 On FB: It's About Time/BPP**
**Email: **itsabouttime3 at juno.com <mailto:itsabouttime3 at juno.com>****
**Please send any donations to:**
It's About Time
P.O. Box 221100
Sacramento, CA 95822*

*______________________________________________________
*


http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-ln-elbert-howard-20180724-story.html 



  Black Panther Party co-founder Elbert 'Big Man' Howard dies at 80

*By JANIE HAR* - July 24, 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elbert “Big Man” Howard, a co-founder of the Black Panther Party who 
served as a newspaper editor, an information officer and the logistics 
genius behind the group’s popular social programs, has died at 80.

His wife, Carole Hyams, said Howard died Monday in Santa Rosa, Calif., 
after a long illness.

Friends and family described Howard as a “gentle giant” who could paint 
in words what a jazz song was saying. Howard was an author, volunteer 
jazz disc jockey, author, lecturer and activist in Sonoma County, where 
he made his home.

Howard was one of six people who founded the Black Panther Party for 
Self-Defense in Oakland in October 1966, along with Bobby Seale and Huey 
Newton. The political organization started out patrolling police for 
possible abuse against blacks.

Key members quit in 1974 after years of fatal fights with police and 
each other. Later it became clear that the FBI had engaged in 
surveillance and harassment to undermine the party and incriminate its 
leaders.

Howard quit the party in 1974, but in its active years, he served as 
editor of its newspaper and deputy minister of information. He traveled 
to Europe and Asia to set up chapters and was responsible for the social 
programs that made the party famous.

Billy X. Jennings, a longtime friend and party archivist, said Howard 
was the person who negotiated lower prices and organized refrigerated 
trucks for food giveaways. As a college administrator, he organized a 
program for jail inmates to take courses.

“He was a beloved member,” Jennings said. “People might have had 
different grudges against Bobby or Eldridge [Cleaver], but nobody got a 
grudge against Big Man.”

Howard was born Jan. 5, 1938, in Chattanooga, Tenn., as the only child 
of Emma and Anderson Howard. He joined the Air Force and was posted to 
Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, Calif.

Jennings said that after Howard was discharged, he enrolled in Merritt 
College, where he met Seale and Newton. Seale remains active in 
politics. Newton was killed in 1989.

Hyams was a nurse when she met Howard in 1969; they broke up when he 
started traveling on party business.

“He was huge, he was impressive, he was quiet,” she said. “He seemed shy 
almost, but carried himself with great distinguishment.”

After Howard left the party, he returned to Tennessee and worked as a 
sales manager, Jennings said. The friends got back in touch in the 
1990s, and Howard became active in party reunions and events.

In 2005, Hyams reached out to Howard by phone after a friend's son found 
his information online. They got back together and were married in her 
Sonoma County home in 2008.

In addition to his wife, survivors include his daughter, Tynisa Howard 
Wilson of Landover, Md., and grandsons Jaylen and Amin; stepson Robert 
Grimes of San Pablo, Calif., and three step-grandchildren.


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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