In 1969, A Group Of Children Sat Down To A Free Breakfast Before School. On The Menu: Chocolate Milk,

In 1969, a group of children sat down to a free breakfast before school. On the menu: chocolate milk, eggs, meat, cereal and fresh oranges. The scene wouldn’t be out of place in a school cafeteria these days—but the federal government wasn’t providing the food. Instead, breakfast was served thanks to the Black Panther Party.

At the time, the militant black nationalist party was vilified in the news media and feared by those intimidated by its message of black power and its commitment to ending police brutality and the subjugation of black Americans. But for students eating breakfast, the Black Panthers’ politics were less interesting than the meals they were providing.

“The children, many of whom had never eaten breakfast before the Panthers started their program,” the Sun Reporterwrote, “think the Panthers are ‘groovy’ and ‘very nice’ for doing this for them.”

The program may have been groovy, but its purpose was to fuel revolution by encouraging black people’s survival. From 1969 through the early 1970s, the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast for School Children Program fed tens of thousands of hungry kids. It was just one facet of a wealth of social programs created by the party—and it helped contribute to the existence of federal free breakfast programs today.

When Black Panther Party founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the party in 1966, their goal was to end police brutality in Oakland. But a faction of the Civil Rights Movement led by SNCC member Stokeley Carmichael began calling for the uplift and self-determination of African-Americans, and soon black power was part of their platform.

At first, the Black Panther Party primarily organized neighborhood police patrols that took advantage of open-carry laws, but over time its mandate expanded to include social programs, too.

Free Breakfast For School Children was one of the most effective. It began in January 1969 at an Episcopal church in Oakland, and within weeks it went from feeding a handful of kids to hundreds. The program was simple: party members and volunteers went to local grocery stores to solicit donations, consulted with nutritionists on healthful breakfast options for children, and prepared and served the food free of charge.

School officials immediately reported results in kids who had free breakfast before school. “The school principal came down and told us how different the children were,” Ruth Beckford, a parishioner who helped with the program, said later. “They weren’t falling asleep in class, they weren’t crying with stomach cramps.”

Soon, the program had been embraced by party outposts nationwide. At its peak, the Black Panther Party fed thousands of children per day in at least 45 programs. (Food wasn’t the only part of the BPP’s social programs; they expanded to cover everything from free medical clinics to community ambulance services and legal clinics.)

For the party, it was an opportunity to counter its increasingly negative image in the public consciousness—an image of intimidating Afroed black men holding guns—while addressing a critical community need. “I mean, nobody can argue with free grits,” said filmmaker Roger Guenveur Smith in A Huey P. Newton Story, a 2001 film in which he portrays Newton.

Free food seemed relatively innocuous, but not to FBI head J. Edgar Hoover, who loathed the Black Panther Party and declared war against them in 1969. He called the program “potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for,” and gave carte blanche to law enforcement to destroy it.

The results were swift and devastating. FBI agents went door-to-door in cities like Richmond, Virginia, telling parents that BPP members would teach their children racism. In San Francisco, writes historian Franziska Meister, parents were told the food was infected with venereal disease; sites in Oakland and Baltimore were raided by officers who harassed BPP members in front of terrified children, and participating children were photographed by Chicago police.

“The night before [the first breakfast program in Chicago] was supposed to open,” a female Panther told historian Nik Heynan, “the Chicago police broke into the church and mashed up all the food and urinated on it.”

Ultimately, these and other efforts to destroy the Black Panthers broke up the program. In the end, though, the public visibility of the Panthers’ breakfast programs put pressure on political leaders to feed children before school. The result of thousands of American children becoming accustomed to free breakfast, former party member Norma Amour Mtume told Eater, was the government expanded its own school food programs.

Though the USDA had piloted free breakfast efforts since the mid 1960s, the program only took off in the early 1970s—right around the time the Black Panthers’ programs were dismantled. In 1975, the School Breakfast Program was permanently authorized. Today, it helps feed over 14.57 million children before school—and without the radical actions of the Black Panthers, it may never have happened.

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5 years ago

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sapphic//guide

Another guide for people venturing out into the amazing world of lesbian music!

70s

A woman’s love by Alix Dobkin

Back in the closet again by Lavender Country

Fantasy girl by Alix Dobkin

Living with lesbians by Alix Dobkin

Sweet woman by Cris Williamson

Talking lesbian by Alix Dobkin

The lesbian power authority by Alix Dobkin

To a woman by Lavender Country

View from gay head by Alix Dobkin

80s

Crimson and Clover by Joan Jett

I spent my last 10.00 by Two Nice Girls

Madmoiselle by Lucie Blue Tremblay

Maria by Teresa Trull

More women by Saada Bonaire

Pretty boys and pretty girls by Book of Love

Rosalie by Teresa Trull

Sweet jane by Two Nice Girls

Valerie by Quarterflash

90s

½ naked by bitch and Animal

32 lines by Sophie B hawkins

Best cock on the block by Bitch and Animal

Buy her candy by Sleater-Kinney

Drag king bar by Bitch and Animal

Feminist housewives by Bitch and Animal

Moment of glory by disappear fear

Only straight girls wear dresses by CWA

she’s my baby by Mazzy Star

she says by Ani Difranco

The queer song by Two Nice Girls

Two little girls by Ani Difranco

Damn I wish I was your lover by Sophie B Hawkins

I kissed a girl by Jill Sobule

If it isn’t her by Ani Difranco

If you should try to kiss her by dressy Bessy

P.U.N.K girl by Heavenly

Acoustic

Always this way by Laura Marling

Cardigan sweater by Jasmine Thompson

Closet femme by Kate Reid

Eden with my eve by Jen Cloher

Dark chocolate by Jamie Anderson

Dressed in black by Gossip

Elise by The Greeting Committee

Homo song by Mara Levi

Netflix by be steadwell

Not worth hiding by Alex the Astronaut

On the road to BC by Grace Petrie

She’s not you by Grace Petrie

Sunshine by Grace Petrie

Valentines day by Mal Blum

Alt pop

Cloud 69 by Lowell

Dreamboat by Mirah

Flaming hot cheetos by Clairo

Gay sex by be steadwell

Girl by Sobs

Hot like the room by My Body

Kool girl by Seasalt

LGBT by Lowell

Life time warranty by cyberbully Mom Club

My baby loves me by Cyberbully Mom Club

Pretty girls by Sequin Sally

Room by Palehound

Sappho by Frankie Cosmos

Sweet girl by Nicole Dollanganger

Survival by Adult Mom

The modern art museum of the modern kiss goodbye by Lovers

Think about girls sometimes by Amber-Simone

Country

Caroline by Girlyman

Come what may by Daisy O’Connor

Follow your arrow by Kacey Musgraves

Girl crush by Little Big Town

Like me by Chely Wright

Venus by Anaïs Mitchell

Covers

Blue velvet by Lana del Rey

Candy girl by Riverdale Cast

Can’t feel my face by Kina Grannis

Hold on we’re going home by Pia Mia

Jessie’s girl by Mary Lambert

my kind of woman by Poppy

Self control by Lauren Sanderson

She’s a lady by lion babe

Take me to church by Grace Gaustad

Talia by girl in red

Valerie by Amy Winehouse

Early 00s pop

Beautiful girl by Sophie B Hawkins

Eve’s mouth by Alix Olson

Honey jar by Doria Roberts

I tell myself everything by the Blow

Like girls by the Blow

Marry me by Tender Forever

she by Jen Foster

There’s a girl by The Ditty Bops

Electropop

Bestie by Sizzy Rocket

Boys aside by Sofya Wang

Flowers for Anna by Ames

Girl i met on the internet by GIRLI

Girls by De La Montagne

Green line killer by See

IILWMBF by Sälen

Money to burn by Ladyhawke

My boots by Lights

Only a girl by Gia

Pynk by Janelle Monae

Folk

Beautiful girl by Sophie B Hawkins

Black eyed girl by Bitch and Animal

Caroline by Girlyman

Drag king bar by Bitch and Animal

Dressed in black by Gossip

Grace by Jamie Anderson

Greatness by Jen Foster

Hey Rose by Girlyman

I can be a lesbian by Judy Small

If it isn’t her by Ani Difranco

In or out by Ani Difranco

Young james dean by Girlyman

French

Ce soir je veux une fille by ELITA Univers

Deux anglaises by Clarika

Deux ils, deux elles by Lara Fabian

Elle by Shy’m

Elle a dit by Mylene farmer

Elle a un truc by Virgule

Elle este belle la vie by Virgule

Entre elle et moi by Catherine Lara

j’ai recontre Marie by Lynda Lemay

Le plus beau de quartier by Carla Bruni

Les femmes by Yelle

Une femme avec une femme by Mecano

Hard rock

Blue collar sex kitten by Lauren Ruth Ward

Butch in the streets by Tribe 8

Carrie (i want a girl) by Moaning Lisa

Checking out your babe by Tribe 8

Femme bitch top by Tribe 8

Goth girls are easy by Lesbian Bed Death

Me & her by Heavens to Betsy

Queer for you by The degenerettes

Rebel girl by Bikini Kill

Rockerchick by Lipstick Homicide

She’s a gun by The Greeting Committee

Steal yr gf by God is my Copilot

So-called str8 grrrl by Gina Young

Vaccines made me gay by GRLwood

Hiphop

Dripcity by IAMDDB

Get right by Kodie Shane

I’m still at the bar by Tiara Thomas

Kissing pink by Kodie Shane

Lick it by God-des and She

Normal by Kodie Shane

Ooo by IAMDDB

Retro 1’s by Tiara Thomas

Runway by Kodie Shane

Shade by IAMDDB

Sing to her by Kodie Shane

Summertime by Kreayshawn

Tease by Tyra B

Twins by Kodie Shane

Watercolor roses by Ness Nite

Independent

0108 by Nakala

Blinders by Phem

Boys/girls by Torrey Mercer

Dear future wife by a quaint sound

Dear Sappho by Circa.

Dyke bars never last by Sapphic Lasers

Elderly lesbians by Sara Renberg

girls by girl in red

i wanna be your girlfriend by girl in red

Mango by Nakala

OTT by Nakala

Radiant warmth by Miki Ratsula

Red by Miki Ratsula

She interlude by Nakala

The only gay person by Sara Renberg

Vixen by Destroy Boys

Italian

Ci vediamo a casa by Dulcenera

Due donne by Paola Turci

Eva Eva by Subsonica

Io e Maria by Paola Turci

La differenza by Mariella Nava

La strada per la felicita by Bianca Atzei

Lei by Gianna Nannini

lei e lei by Pooh

Pensieri timidi by Jessica Morlacchi

Resta Come Sei by Dulcenera

Jazz

Are you gonna be my girl by Addie Hamilton

Edie windsor by Zoë Lewis

Hey there Delilah by Scott Bradlee’s postmodern jukebox

I don’t do boys by Elektra

It wasn’t me by Scott Bradlee’s postmodern jukebox

Lipstick by Track IX

Poison by Shoshana Bean

Prove it on me blues by Ma Rainey

Pop ballads

damn I wish i was your lover by sophie B. hawkins

Elizabeth by zoe Lewis

Explosion by Zolita

Girlfriend by Kitty

Katie by Von Grey

she by Jen Foster

She keeps me warm by Mary Lambert

she’s not him by Miley Cyrus

Strangers by Halsey

sweet woman by Cris Williamson

Talia by King Princess

Taking off all my clothes by Heidi Marie Vestreheim

Portugese

A forca da mulher sapatona by GA31

Androgena by GA31

Coisas de menina by Luen

Estereo by Preta Gil

Eu comi a madonna by Ana Carolina

Homens e mulheres by Ana Carolina

Lesbica futuristica by GA31

Totalmente lesbica by GA31

Vestido estampado by Ana Carolina

Videogames eroticos by GA31

Pure pop

1950 by King Princess

Bad at love by Halsey

B.I.G by Caitlyn Scarlett

Bitches by Tove Lo

Blow my mind by Frankie Simone

Boyfriend by Tegan and Sara

BWU by Tegan and Sara

Cherry by Rina Sawayama

Curious by Hayley Kiyoko

Daisy by Zedd

Girls by Beatrice Eli

Girls by rita Ora

Girls like girls by Hayley Kiyoko

HNLY by Hayley Kiyoko

I kissed a girl by Katy Perry

I want her by Blind Fury

Know your name by Mary Lambert

Like heaven by Zolita

New you by Zolita

Now I’m all messed up by Tegan and Sara

Only a girl by Gia

Playinwitme by Kyle ft Kehlani

Sleepover by Hayley Kiyoko

Smoke weed eat pussy by Angie

Queer by Frankie Simone

Pop rock

All the things she said by t.A.T.u

I wanna bf with a car by Kate Nash

Intergalactic lesbian love songs by Atomic Swindlers

Juliet of the spirits by the B-52′s

Katie by Underline the Sky

Lesbian vampyres from outer space by scary bitches

Melody Dean by Amanda Palmer

No kings by The Total Bettys

Play the field by Partner

Sister by Kate Nash

The ellen page by Partner

Rap

212 by Azealia Banks

Becoming myself by Domo Wilson

Bets by Chynna

Bonnie by Young M.A

Box by Siya

Dreaming outro by Siya

Good girl by Domo Wilson

got her own by Syd

Hot sauce by Young M.A

I wanna be me by Domo Wilson

JOOTD by Young M.A

Just sayin/I tried by The Internet

Lowkey by Dev

New girl by be steadwell

No go by Temper

Normal by Kodie Shane

White lilies/white lies by Angel Haze

R&B

Body by Syd

Conversations by Lauren Sanderson

Dive by Tiffany Gouche

Her by eery

Honey by Kehlani

Kiss my girlfriend by Etta Bond

OTT by Nakala

Red rum melody by Tiffany Gouche

She interlude by Nakala

Sides by Nakala

Travel behavior by Tiffany Gouche

Where do you go by Charlotte Day Wilson

Soft Rock

Boyfriend by Marika Hackman

Elderly lesbians by Sara Renberg

Ex party by Sara Renberg

My gf the tv by Gina Young

No kings by The Total Bettys

The only gay person by Sara Renberg

Spanish

Amor entre mujeres by Dalila

Dry martini by Luna Blu

Las bragas by Veronica Orozco

Linda rosa by Maria Gadu

Mujer contra mujer by Mecano

Sol, noche Y luna by Chenoa

Theatrical

An old fashioned love story by Alix Korey

Boinked the bride by Ember Swift

Changing my major by Emily Skeggs

She used to be mine by Sara Bareilles

When I kissed the teacher by Lily James

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sapphic-bottom

6 years ago

This Is Glorious And Even Thought It Doesn’t Fit In The Range Of All The Paranormal, I MUST Share

This is glorious and even thought it doesn’t fit in the range of all the paranormal, I MUST share

It works like this: You tell Kitestring that you’re in a dangerous place or situation, and give it a time frame of when to check in on you. If you don’t reply back when it checks your status, it’ll alert your emergency contacts with a custom message you set up.

It doesn’t require you to touch anything (like bSafe) or shake your phone (like Nirbhaya) to send the distress signal. Kitestring is smarter, because it doesn’t need an action to alert people, it needs inaction.

MORE INFORMATION

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sapphic-bottom

5 years ago