January 14, 2010
When we dare to present our truth to the world, we never know the impact it will have.
“While I was writing my memoir, ‘Somewhere Child,’ at times I felt like I was doing heart surgery on myself without anesthesia – but it was worth it because it meant so much to people.” says Bonnie Lee Black. “I would open my mailbox and it would be filled with letters thanking me for writing this book. I still get emails from people saying how much it meant to them.”
This week’s installment of the SOMOS Winter Writers Series features Black reading from “Somewhere Child” and Jeffrey Haas who will read from his brand new book, “The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther,” which was edited by David Perez and published in November 2009. The event is on Friday, Jan. 15 at 7 pm at the Mabel Dodge Luhan Meeting Room on 240 Morada Lane; tickets are $8 and $6 for SOMOS members.
Though they tackle heavy subject matter, these are not stories of victims. They portray survivors and fighters who shifted the course of history as a result of their relentless pursuits of justice.
Black’s book follows her heart-wrenching struggles to find, and be a mother to, her daughter who was abducted – first at 16 months and then at five years of age – by Black’s ex-husband. He persisted despite repeated court rulings and settlements awarding her custody.
When the book was released, in1981, Black went on a coast-to-coast book tour where she was interviewed by print and broadcast media in all the major cities. “The book became part of a confluence of things that brought the issue of child snatching to the floor,” says Black.
She was later informed that ‘Somewhere Child’ was instrumental in creating the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the implementation of various laws around this issue. This will be the first time she will be presenting it at a SOMOS event.
During the writing process Black says she made a conscious effort to let go of anger and vengeance. “I had to go with something more powerful than hatred. The book’s power is because of the love that drove it,” she says. Her writing is engaging and vivid and seems to echo the rhythm of a determined heart.
At one point in the story, the FBI informs her that her husband and daughter were found in Rhodesia, a country exempt from extradition. Black flies there at age 23 (her first trip overseas) and court battles ensue.
In Africa she is reunited with her daughter for a period, but she must rebuild a relationship with a child that was brainwashed to hate her. Vignettes depicting these family dynamics are particularly poignant, impeccably written and are a testament to Black’s strength, creativity and devotion to her daughter. The picture she paints of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), a country she grew to love, brings elements of humor and joy to the story.
Black, who has been a writer and editor for 30 years, also wrote two other books about her subsequent experiences in Africa. Her most recent one, “The Patchwork Project: A Memoir of Mali” is about an economic development project she started in West Africa teaching women how to make patchwork quilts from traditional African fabrics. She also teaches English and creative non-fiction writing at UNM-Taos.
In “The Assassination of Fred Hampton,” Haas weaves together history, memoir and courtroom drama to document the events surrounding a pivotal 1960’s Chicago tragedy. Haas was one of several lawyers that brought a case to civil court in order to prove that Hampton’s murder was a conspiracy between the federal government and the Chicago Police Department and to provide compensation for the victims.
Hampton was a revered and charismatic leader of the Black Panthers, a group that grew out of the civil rights movement to address issues of racial inequity plaguing urban populations, such as housing, health care, education and police brutality. He had a knack for communicating with and coalescing the diverse groups within the black community and the progressive movement.
Hampton was 21 years old when he was shot and killed during a police raid at 4:30 a.m. Dec. 4, 1969, while he was still asleep in his bed.
“Two years after his murder, anti war activists raided an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and found and distributed documents that demonstrated that FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover was conducting a secret war on the left – the Counterintelligence Program, or COINTELPRO. Its most aggressive and lethal tactics were used against the black movement, and the Panthers in particlular,” writes Haas in The Nation. “Cointelpro mandated FBI agents in cities with Panther chapters to “cripple,’ ‘disrupt’ and ‘destroy’ the Panthers and their breakfast (for children) program…”
This discovery, along with additional evidence, provided fuel for their case, which lasted 13 years and included an 18-month trial.
This was a deciding case in civil rights law, explains Haas. “It recognized a conspiracy between the federal government and the police and defined the requirements for proving conspiracy. It showed that there could be conspiracy even if people didn’t sit down in a room together, (plotting),” he says.
Haas spent years interviewing sources and perusing documents, including a 37,000 page court transcript, to accurately portray the events and to honor a man who dedicated himself to the betterment of his community. “He was never happy if someone else was being mistreated,” his father Francis Hampton says.
Haas points to the searing relevance of the book’s issues today. He cites the right wing’s (specifically Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) use of fear to inflate the power of the government and police to operate in secret, in defiance of US and international law, and with legal impunity. “What’s required is accountability, in the form of criminal prosecution, not only for those who carry out criminal policies but for those who formulate them,” he writes.
He also offers personal reflections on the explosive and energizing events that defined the 1960’s and the civil rights movement.
“There were some mistakes, and I have included my criticisms of our actions and myopia. But for many of my comrades… and me, it is the light, energy and fervor of those times, so well articulated and symbolized by the short but inspiring life of Fred Hampton, that has driven our lives and commanded us to pursue justice.”
For more information call SOMOS at (575) 758-0081 or visit www.somostaos.org
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