Elderly Panthers on Wheels

(Play track 1)
Roll out the red carpet
Here comes the Queen
Regaining her thrown
Wait! Wait! Wait!
The pack turned on her

Black Panthers going gray
The human & Animal Kingdom
Eating their elders
Queen Mama Khandi, Malcolm Samuel, Brad Lomax and
Kiilu Nyasha
Black Panthers in their golden years
Fighting & dying alone

Panthers roaming the streets in wheelchairs
Looking for their brothers and sisters
Caught up in police sweeps
Snatched up by homeland security
Left to die in prisons and shelters

Look how we treat our seniors
Queen Mama Khandi stripped by the state
Like X, state barged in splitting up Khandi’s family
Son placed in foster care
Incarcerated because she is an activist

Came back home to find eviction notion
Section eight and disability income revoked
Same story for Malcolm Samuel in Berkeley
Sitting in his wheelchair on the avenue easy target
for police
Died in prison from lack of medical care

Listen to his message, play it play it (Play Track 2)
His CD, Brother Malcolm Speaks
Tore up wheelchair, sleeping in doorways
Talked about his days as a tailor for the Panthers
From homemade black suits to sweat shop salvation
army’s rags

Where is the file on Brother Brad Lomax (Play track 3)
Brought the Black Panthers into the disability
movement in the 70’s
Nobody seems to know about his work
His file is under secrecy
The Black community had its own Independent Living Center
Racism and capitalism ate away Lomax’s goal
Today the Oakland disabled Black community starving
for its own organizations

Brad Lomax left out of two histories
Thank God today we’ve independent film makers
Kevin Epps capturing the beautiful revolution of Kiilu Nyasha
The first Black panther on film in her wheelchair
(Play Track 4)
Listen to my advice, please take care of yourself,
cause you‘re important to us

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.
www.leroymoore.com