AN OAKLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL STUDENT INTERVIEWS HUEY NEWTON

In 1978, the Boston-based public television show Rebop produced a feature on the Oakland Community School, for which one of the OCS students, Kellita Smith, conducted a revealing interview with Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton.

Newton offered that when he was growing up in the Oakland Public School system, he was taught mostly “about white people… the school wasn’t teaching us anything about ourselves.” This statement is in close alignment with the fifth point of the BPP’s 10 Point Program, which begins: “We believe in an educational system that will give our people a knowledge of self.” He also says that when he was in school, his questions were discouraged, whereas at OCS, students are encouraged to constantly ask questions and never accept what they hear as the full truth.

Kellita discusses the Justice Board, a student committee that delivers “methods of correction” to students that break the rules. In one classroom, young children learn about Native American history, white settler colonialism in the U.S., and the Revolutionary War. Kellita says that students are served three meals a day (often by teachers) because parents may not have enough food at home to provide for everyone in the family.

As the video concludes, Newton says that he believes the children are the future, and encourages Kellita to always continue to ask questions.