Our members
"You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can't jail the Revolution." ~ Huey P. Newton
HENRY WALLACE
Chairman
Originally Wallace became a member of the Black Panther Party between the ages of 15 and 16. After he and his brother narrowly escaped a riot in Richmond his family moved to San Diego. In San Diego his sister Shirley helped form a chapter of the Party, and the rest of the family joined. He presents a warm picture of San Diego Panther leader Kenny Denmoand, and talks about the rules of behavior. “We basically policed our own community and fed them,” adding, “it was our mission to uplift the children,” he says, including running the “Freedom Schools,” in which children were taught to respect themselves. “The government,” he says, “set out to destroy communities,” including by “flooding the community with drugs,” and such “indignities” as “pulling over cars” and asking African Americans where they were going, or entering homes without a search warrant. The mentality, Wallace states, was the same as when enslaved people were not allowed off the plantation; “the Black Panthers Party was to educate us that we are real people.” Ambrose Brodus donated the first building to the Party. Wallace describes how Mountain View Park was used by the community and how a raid on it also included the Party offices. He met Eldridge Cleaver in San Diego and calls him a “firebrand” who lived in wealthy circumstances and never “did anything meaningful,” stating, “he didn’t have our well-being” in mind. His bad time in which he used drugs ended when a “light went on” and he went to work “to reboot my financial self” and formed a band again, in addition to community service.
CAPTAIN THOMAS HORN
Member At Large
Greetings and Power To The People,
I’m Captain Thomas Horne, member of the Black Panther Party,Also known as Captain Tommy. I was recruited into the BPP in the summer of 1968 along with Area Captain Walter Wallace, Lieutenant David Comb also known as Moe and Lieutenant Jeffery Jennings; by resent deceased Chairman Kenny Demon.Unfortunately Captain Walter and Lieutenant Moe are deceased as well and I truly miss their presence in this on going battle for equality in this otherwise state of unequal affairs.
I, like a few other BPP Members had to leave the country for a while to preserve our life and freedom from a society that didn’t appreciate our out spoken views on their corruption and brutality in our community. they also did not appreciate our leadership abilities and our knowledge of the ongoing attack on black people. And they truly did not like the Black Panther Party bringing awareness to the community.
Today I am Known as Dr. Thomas Horne, I have a Doctorate in Christian Education and Christian Counseling and a Masters in Theology. I am known as Chaplain Horne throughout the State Prisons and County Jail Systems.
Since June of 1980 I have been serving inside theses facilities to help men and women turn their lives around.
I let them know that I have been where they are now, and the only way I found out how to stop being a statistic or a number, was through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I’ve been saved and free for 40 years.l.
Thank you for the opportunity to share this with you and hope it will be an inspiration to those who are struggling with issues in their life.
Praise The Lord and Power To The People,
PATRICK J. GERMANY
Board Member
A member of The Original San Diego Chapter of Black Panther Party Presently Named the Original Black Panther Party for Community Empowerment.
Minster of Defense and Information:
At the age of 10 years old I was afforded as a child to be ready for engaging social change fighting for the same freedoms that my family engaged and supported for the party. From the Leadership of Family and Comrades Title as Ministers i.e. Free Breakfast programs. Community defense and Survival programs relating and implemented 10-point program that we pushed for and executed. My involvement in the party was to learn how to function and executed the movement within the party. Being a member involved in education and the teachings of leaders of the times i.e. Eldridge Clever Katherine Clever, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis to name a few of the dynamic scholars of the Black Panther Party. As I grew up into the age of a teenager in the party in San Diego Ca., I gain Knowledge of Community involvement through empowerment of the People. Associated with social injustice being the catalyst of my up brining came through the leadership and ranks of my Family members here in San Diego to become a well-seasoned member of the OSDBPP. Gaining great support of The Student Body and relations to San Diego University at that time now Title San Diego State University and the help of the African Student Union and Progressive Student Union alliance on Campus of SDSU and how I served the Community at those times of change and struggle in San Diego, CA.
Now at 60 years old as an active San Diego Original Black Panther Member Now known as San Diego Original Black Panther Party for Community Empowerment (SDOBPP4CE) a 501(c)3. I have come full circle of giving service to the community as still in engaging in advocacy and activism in the Communities of San Diego Ca. As a retired AOD( Substance Abuse Counselor CADI-CASI) working In CDCR State Prison facility assigned and dealing with Mass Incarceration and addiction Former HEP-C educator over 14 years of service and as experience Emergency facilities and developmental programs throughout Ca. A producer of 2 shows in Public Cable TV programing in San Luis Obispo Ca. regarding race and other social issues in the community and former elected board member of 501.c30f The Sharing The dream Organization of San Luis Obispo, CA. shedding light ,education and the Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday I also support other Leadership and Organizations in San Diego, CA. i.e. All of Us Our None (AOUONO dealing with the advocacy of Mass Incarceration throughout the United States of America. The 1515Farm (Introducing Urban farming / Cannabis Industry as it relates to and for the needs of our communities) I also served proudly as an Honorable discharged Veteran Retired Spec 4 for The California State Army Guard 3/ 185th Armor Batt. CBT Support Division.
Patrick J. Germany
Member of San Diego Original Black Panther Party for Community Empowerment OSDBPP4CE
Cell phone (619) 846-3182
e-mail:
WILBERT HAUSER
Member At Large
Seeing the treatment of “blacks on TV” Hauser says he was “radicalized real young” and joined the Black Panther Party when he was 15. He says the story of “our side” was not documented, so he appreciated the Party’s handling of the media. “We got tired of the lumberyard,” referring to where he says the police took African Americans they had arrested to beat them before taking them to jail. Hauser was shot following the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to disperse or “neutralize” Party members. He was shot a second time in 1980. Although he drew his weapon the Panther rule was never to shoot first, and he dropped it. Shot several times, he says he “died.” While recovering in jail, he was beaten on “a daily basis” by police while he still had an intravenous drip. “We believed that things could get better,” but it “wasn’t happening fast enough.” “At the end is when everything got crazy” from the FBI’s work to fracture the Party. Eventually he became a Christian and a pastor. He doesn’t believe things will change.
IBRAHIM FARDEN
Board Member
Fardan was a student at San Diego State University when he became affiliated with the Black Panther Party after some murders took place in San Diego and Los Angeles and young people needed counseling. Also at this time Kenny Denmon of the Black Panther Party was imprisoned and later also became a student at SDSU. “We were going through a transformation at that time,” learning about black history Fardan states. The Panthers “had a lot of respect, because they were doing positive things.” He talks about being a teacher at a San Diego community college and having a student who was killed. Fardan went to San Diego High School, saying it dominated other schools in sports. His first contact with police was when he was 7, and an officer took him and his playmate for a soda. But later, he says, “the police approached us differently,” and “I couldn’t walk a block and a half from where I lived at without being stopped by the police.” Fardan speaks about the lack of African American history showing what African Americans have accomplished, in schools when he was young. He taught in both the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego, utilizing “competency-based education” in teaching, and now has a consulting career focused on the parents of school-age children. Fardan says the Panthers helped people understand their potential, and that they could fulfill their potential. He feels that this should happen again and “we could make a better positive contribution to the overall community.”
JOE RUSH
Member At Large
Rush is a San Diego State University alumnus. He joined the San Diego Black Panthers in 1968, knowing a member, John Savage. He liked what they were doing in “helping the community,” and sold the weekly newspaper of the Panthers. “We were trying to teach the blacks in the community, ‘This is our community. We should be able to police our own community.” They tried to keep drugs away. “A kid can’t learn on an empty stomach,” he says, so the Panthers used church spaces to feed children. They also started sickle-cell disease testing. “We can take care of ourselves” was the philosophy. He mentions the Brown Berets. Those who didn’t want to support the Party were influenced by what the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and other officials said about them, including that they were communists. His friend Savage was killed while selling newspapers. While the police wanted to scare people to control them, the Panthers wanted to keep the police from hurting community members. Rush was taken to jail after police patted him down and found a lighter he had picked off the floor while working as a locker-room attendant. Another time he was jailed “for failure to identify” because although he had a letter in his pocket with his name and address he did not have any official identification. Rush said Fred Hampton was a good organizer and speaker and cared about the community, but was killed by police firing through his front door. About the Panthers, he says, “I just wish we could have done more.” Rush joined the American Legion in 1987 partly because it works “in the community.” “We let the community use the property,” he states, and a church brings food for them. They support Boys State, in which high-school youngsters go to Sacramento and Washington to learn about government. He finishes with a positive message for San Diego State University students.
BEN WADDELL
Board Member
Waddell was 16 years old in 1968 when a friend who was already a party member recruited him. The Black Panthers, he said, helped to monitor police behavior and “empower people from within the community to help make people safe.” He stayed in the party in San Diego until 1970 because what he really liked about the Panthers was that they not only fed children but also collected donations of clothes and money for them. He also distributed the Panthers’ newspaper, which became the Free Press. He was in the group around Eldridge Cleaver and met Bobby Seale. Waddell played basketball at San Diego State University in 1978-1980 but tore ligaments and had to quit. He says that the Panthers’ office and people in it were attacked by police. He mentions a “riot” in Mountain View Park after an arrest that was thought to be unfounded. Waddell moved to Arizona, then returned to California and got a degree from Santa Barbara City College. He mentions pride in the Black Panther Party and feels good about restarting the programs for feeding children and helping people get jobs.
