After commemorating June 16th as the 50th anniversary of the call for Black Power we ran into and had a chance to have this short but deep conversation with the legendary veteran of that era Ms. Dorie Ladner (pictured seated).  It started as we heard her telling of her time working with the late Walter Rodney so we asked if she would share it again on mic.  What we ended up with was a wide-ranging look into the history of an on-going pan-African liberation struggle that, as she says, she is still energized to fight.  Ladner shared some of her experience, not only working with Rodney, but also with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), her concept of Black Power, the continuity of conditions and much more.   Enjoy (share, use, etc.)!

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  1. Great talk. I definitely liked the end when drugs were mentioned as “sedating” people. I don’t think people appreciate how much the heroin and crack epidemics were the direct result of the military or militaristic crushing of the Black Power movement. Often after a war, the losing population turn to chemical escapes conveniently provided by their oppressors and this keeps them from facing the reality of the need to regroup/reorganize against the stiff odds against them. If we agree that the Black Power movement was really a war of independence waged by Africans against the white supremacist structure, then the resulting drug epidemic after their defeat would be quite understandable.

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