75 cents
THE CHRONICLE
See Sports on page Bl
See Opinion/Forum pages on A6&7
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C
THURSDAY, October 31, 2019
Volume 46, Number 9
Panthers Speak
Winston-Salem chapter of the Black Panther Party celebrates 50th anniversary
BY TEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE
In the fall of 1966, Bobby
Seale and Huey P. Newton
founded the Black Panther Party
(BPP) for Self-Defense in Oak
land, Calif, an organization call
ing for the protection of African
American communities from po
lice brutality and all other forms
of injustice.
Three years later, a group of
young people here in Winston-
Salem, inspired by the “A&T
Four,” founded the first chapter
of the party to be established in
the southeast. And last week the
surviving members of that chap
ter came together to celebrate the
50th anniversary of arguably the
most successful chapter of the
Black Panther Party to ever ex
ist.
Although the original chapter
in Oakland is no doubt the best
known for establishing “survival
programs” that would eventually
take hold in African American
communities across the country,
Last week the surviving members of the Winston-Salem Chapter
of the Black Panther Party celebrated their 50th Anniversary.
when you look back at the suc
cess of the programs established
by the Winston-Salem chapter
and the success of the members
after the party ended, it’s hard
to argue with Dr. Larry Little
when he says, “The Winston-
Salem chapter of the Black Pan
ther Party was the baddest in the
country.”
The Joesph Waddell Peo
ple’s Free Ambulance Service
As part of the larger Black
Power movement, the party em
phasized black pride. Although
the party was often portrayed as
a gang of troublemakers look
ing to cause problems for police,
they are credited with starting a
number of popular community
social programs, including free
breakfast programs for school
children and health clinics in 13
different cities across the coun
try.
The Winston-Salem chap
ter’s list of survival programs
included the free breakfast pro
gram, clothes and'shoes?; give-
aways, pest control, screening
Photos by Tevin Stinson
Members of the Winston-Salem Chapter of the Black Panther Party during a march on Saturday Oct. 26.
for sickle cell anemia, and regis
tering people to vote. The chap
ter is also the only one in the
country to offer a free, around-
the-clock ambulance service.
The service, which was provided
throughout the city, was offered
to those who couldn’t afford to
pay the county fee to use the
public ambulance.
While discussing the Joesph
Waddell People’s Free Ambu
lance Service, Nelson Malloy,
one of the original members of
the local BPP and a graduate of
Winston-Salem State University
(WSSU), said they saw a need
and fulfilled it. He said they
started the free ambulance ser
vice after the county started re
fusing to transport black patients
unless they paid the fee upfront.
Malloy said after analyzing
the problem, they decided to
send members to Forsyth Techni
cal Community College (FTCC)
to study emergency medical care
and the ambulance service took
off from there.
“We didn’t complain; we as
Black Panther Party members
saw a problem, we analyzed it
and said, what are we going to
do? What do we do to solve this
problem?” Malloy said. “...We
came up with the Joseph Wad
dell People’s Free Ambulance
program, providing emergency
transportation to the hospital and
doctors’ appointments.”
Malloy encouraged the doz
ens of students and community
members in attendance during
the panel discussion held during
the anniversary event, to take a
page out of the BPP’s book when
they’re faced with an issue and
go on to fulfill their purpose. He
said, “Even today, if you have a
problem, you’re smart, you’re
intelligent, you’re articulate; an
alyze it, study and come up with
a solution.
“We fulfilled our mission and
we’re still doing it today. Your
challenge is to fulfill your pur
pose and find out why you are
here.” ■
Continuing the fight
The free ambulance service
and the other programs offered
by the local BPP continued until
1976. Although the Party didn’t
have the funds or support to con
tinue, many of the members con
tinued the mission of the Party
by entering the realm of pub-
See Panther on A2
WSPD getting new gunfire detection system
BY TEVIN STINSON
THE CHRONICLE
The Winston-Salem
Police Department has
been awarded a grant from
the U.S. Department of
Justice to enhance the de
partment’s Violent Firearm
Investigations Team’s abil
ity to investigate shootings
in the area.
The grant, which is
worth $699,608, will be
used to purchase a gun-
fire detection system that
detect and triangulate the
source of gunfire within a
designated area. The sys
tem then authenticates the
sound to make sure it is
indeed gunfire before
tomatically reporting
incident to local law
forcement.
When discussing
au-
the
en-
the
uses acoustic
sensors
to
gunfire detection system
earlier this month, Chief
Catrina Thompson said,
after seeing a rise in shoot
ings earlier this year, they
started looking at ways
to increase their capacity
to deal with the issue and
decided to apply for the
grant. Thompson said the
system will be used to dis
perse officers to areas that
have the highest level of
gun violence.
“We will use this sys
tem, relying on our data, to
determine where we have
the highest level of gun
violence as reported to us
and that’s how we will use
this tool to deploy and help
us attack the gun violence
in the city,” Thompson
said.
During a recent Public
Safety Committee meet
ing, Thompson mentioned
the sensors that will be
deployed throughout the
city have the capability to
pick up sounds of gunfire
from about three miles
away. She said the system,
commonly known as “Shot
Spotter,” has the technolo
gy to distinguish gunshots
from similar sounds such
as firecrackers.
She said the detection
system will help the Vio-
.lent Fireaim Investigation
Team which was estab
lished earlier this year to
help with the rise in gun
related crimes. Thompson
said, “This just becomes a
part of our overall system
and initiative on attack
ing gun violence.” Since
2017, violent crimes have
increased nearly 10%. This
year more than 1,000 gun-
shots have been reported
and there have been 21 ho
micides.
Mayor Pro Tempore
Vivian Burke thanked
Chief Thompson for find
ing out about the grant and
looking for solutions to
problems in the city.
Burke said, “Every
grant we get helps us im
prove ourselves. I know
and I pray that this will be
a good project. We have
so many people shooting
and we can’t get control
of where they are, and this
will probably help us.”
Councilmember James
Taylor, who is publisher
of The Chronicle, said he
believes the gunfire detec
tion system is one way the
city can take a step toward
reducing gun violence.
Taylor, who is chair of the
Public Safety Committee,
said, “I think this is one
way that we can lead the
country by figuring out
where gun violence did oc
cur and going out and stop
ping those perpetrators and
working to keep the people
in our community safe, so
this is a great tool in our
tool belt.”
During the City Coun
cil meeting on Monday,
Oct. 21, the board voted
unanimously to approve
the 2019 Local Law En
forcement Crime Gun In
telligence Center Integra
tion Initiative Grant. The
grant is for three years and
is expected to be in place
by 2020.
fa
5
HAPPY
#
8
WILSOW
NcU
I
00
co
^
1
00
%
8
£9
W
0C
•H
X
i
v Taste of the South
a
u
UOMECOMlNg
UJ S S U
Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 6:00-8:30pm
V MILTON RHODE
A
An evening of local stories, cuisine, beverages,
music & program to support Authoring Action.
To Buy Tickets
visit our website:
authoringaction.org
CN
(JI