During the time I was attending Grove Street Community
College on my GI Bill the college had a change of college
presidents. The new president was a Korean named Dr. Young
Park, one day I was in class and someone came to tell me,
and he wanted to see me. I went to his office; he invited
me in and introduced himself. He was a small framed but
musical man with a firm handshake. We sat down and he asked
me if I wanted a job. I told him I didn't have time to work
a job because of my community activism. He said that was
fine, I could set my own schedule. He went on to explain
that he knew who I was (A Panther) and that he was new to
the area and basically this was not his turf, it was more
mine.
Dr. Park explained that there was a position in the school
budget for a liaison person whom worked with the college
and the community. I didn't have to answer to anybody on
campus expect for him. I told him that sounded good, but
there were something I wanted t get started on campus and
needed some resources to implement them. He said lets hear
it and then he would see if it could be done. I told him I
wanted space on campus to open a preventive medical clinic
for the testing for Sickle Cell Amelia, High Blood
Pressure, and other care. Panther Audrea Jones coordinated
this program. Who had a working relationship with Dr. Bert
Small whom lived in Oakland?
I got an OK from Dr. Park so we got set up and was open
three days per week with the public invited to come in. We
printed flyers and put them in the community off campus.
My next move I asked for a portion of the work-study
budget, which I found out was not being used and was
returned to the government each year. The California Penal
system at that time had many inmates who were eligible for
parole were setting in jail simply because they didn't have
a job to go too, to me it was like catch 22 once again, you
can't get a job setting in jail and you couldn't get out
unless you have one.
With Dr. Park approval, I wrote a proposal for the work-
study program, with the help of Carolyn Price who worked in
the campus Administration office. I was able to write a
program to present to the Oakland Alameda Parole Board
administers. Dr Park went with me to present it. The
ideal of sitting down with the members of Black Panther
Party was a lot for them to swallow, but my program was air
tight they had to go for it and pray for failure later.
I would be remiss if I didn't take a few minutes to
remember Carolyn Price who was one of the sharpest persons
on the plant. She is not on the plant any longer but she
surly must be one of the brightest stars in the galaxy.
Carolyn knew every thing there was to know about Campus
administration. She helped me avoid many pitfalls and
ambushes set up to make me fail. She looked out for me
when advance positions with more pay came up and informed
me how I could get it. Carolyn was a true friend of the
Panthers. RIP Carolyn.
The work-study program for ex-offenders was set up. If an
inmate was just sitting waiting for a job to get out of jail
I offered an alternative. Most inmates didn't have a high
school diploma, or had a problem reading.
We offered the ex-offender a program that which he or she
should enroll in school taking courses that would lead to
them earning a GED plus they were required to work a
certain amount of hours per week on or off campus. They
received a bi-weekly check plus they received a meal ticket
to eat on campus twice a day, five days a week. Those with
some college credits were free and encouraged to work
toward a two-year degree and toward credit for transfer to
a four-year college. For the most part the program worked
smoothly. I was on top of a problem that came up, the
campus administrators and instructors were cooperative, of
course, there were a few that hated me. But being a
Panther and in charge of a Panther Program on campus didn't
set well with establishment people.
Another aspect of the work study program was what we called
Peer Counseling Program, this was where a student who had
been through orientation courses and had get settled into
campus routine would help new students coming in get the
help they needed. Peer counseling students were paid to
make sure the work was performed correctly. I wrote and
published an on campus book titled "Each One Teach One
Guide to Peer Counseling.
The program worked and I had very little trouble out of the
ex inmate students. The one problem that I came up on
campus was one that was designed to cause it to self-
destruct. There was a teacher on campus by the name of
Alex Pointer; he was a brother of the Pointier Sisters
singing group. I think he taught political science and
Black History; anyway, he would mouth off being critical of
Huey and the Party. I believe he was given a verbal
warning not to do that, being a hopeless loud mouth and
showing off, he refused to stop, so one day a few
Panthers showed up and beat him up in his classroom. So
much for the Panther program on campus. There was nothing
Dr. Park could do to help me salvage the program.
Elbert "Big Man" Howard
Note: I was also assigned to Grove Street College and Big
man was my supervisor on campus. What Big Man doesn't
mention is all the hard work and long hours, he put in to
make this problem happen. He helped out many ex inmates to
get out of jail as well and getting them the chance to go
to college with a support system to help them. This
program was years a head of the time. Billy X
