The ethos of the time reflected in a Black Panther’s poem.
The political realities of those turbulent days after the Kennedy and King assassinations, the war in Viet Nam, and the agony of the Civil Rights Movement are acknowledged. He reflects the anger of the Black Panthers in Eldridge Cleaver’s poem.
Sound bite: Disc 2 of 4, Track 3, 00:28-1:53
Eldridge Cleaver is quoted as saying: “Because we have a garden, we’re not going to bring it down to earth, and we’re not going to be tricked again by this punk called Adam and the God, the landlord of that day, like he had Saint Michael, the archangel, I think he’s Irish, he was just a racist pig cop. The landlord said, ‘Those people on my land down there eating my apples on my land, and I tell them not to do that shit. You need to go down there and kick ‘em off my property, and don’t take your regular old sword, take that new sword that Einstein invented; take that flaming sword and tell Adam, and that bitch, too to get out.’ So Michael said’ Heil Hitler.’ And then he went down there to do his duties and to enforce the law. And he said, ‘Okay Adam, let’s go, you’re blocking the sidewalk. Let’s get out of here.’ And then Adam said, “Okay, let’s go, the pig’s got the gun’ So Eve was a jive bitch, but she had been hip to pussy power; all she had to do was just sit down and say, ;Well, you just go off, Adam, and jack off, ‘cause I’m going to stay right here and fuck the Devil if you leave.’ And if Eve had done those things, I’m sure Adam would have stuck around and fucked all those bootlicking women, ‘cause they’re just for anything those chumps have to say. So just because Adam walked out of the garden and we’ve been catching up for two thousand years, but what we needed was a motherfucker like Huey P. Newton. [Eldridge Cleaver and Huey P. Newton were leaders of the Black Panther Movement, ed.]