Ms.Medlock Teaches

Happy Black History month day 24 🖤
Today I will be discussing the Black Panther Party ✊🏿
The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. It emerged during the height of the Civil Rights Movement as a response to police brutality, racial injustice, and economic inequality affecting Black communities.
The Party’s foundation was its Ten-Point Program, which demanded:
• Freedom and self-determination
• Full employment
• Decent housing
• Education that taught true Black history
• An end to police brutality
• Exemption of Black men from military service
• Justice in the legal system
While often remembered for their armed patrols monitoring police activity (which were legal at the time under California law), the Panthers were also deeply invested in community survival programs.
🍎 Free Breakfast for Children Program — Feeding tens of thousands of children daily across the country before school. This model later influenced the expansion of federal school breakfast programs.
🏥 Free Health Clinics — Providing medical care, screenings for sickle cell anemia, and health education in underserved communities.
📚 Political Education Programs — Teaching Black history, civic awareness, and community organizing skills.
👕 Community Clothing Drives & Food Distribution — Supporting families experiencing poverty.
The Party also built coalitions across racial and ethnic lines, working with Latino, Asian American, and poor white activist groups on shared issues of economic justice.
However, the Panthers were heavily surveilled and targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, which aimed to disrupt and dismantle Black radical organizations.
Internal conflict, government repression, and legal battles contributed to the Party’s decline by the early 1980s.
However, The Black Panther Party remains one of the most influential and debated organizations in American history ✊🏿🖤

Happy Black History month day 12 🖤
Today I will be discussing Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.
In 1906, O.W. Gurley (Ottawa W. Gurley), a Black entrepreneur originally from Greenwood, purchased over 40 acres of land in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He sold the land exclusively to Black families and named the district Greenwood after his Mississippi hometown.
What he helped build became known as Black Wall Street , one of the most prosperous Black communities in American history.
By the early 1920s, Greenwood was thriving with:
🏦 Banks
🏨 Hotels
📰 Newspapers
🎭 Theaters
🏪 600+ Black-owned businesses
👩🏾‍⚕️ Doctors, lawyers, educators, and entrepreneurs
Greenwood represented economic independence, generational wealth, and Black excellence during a time of extreme segregation.
But in 1921, white supremacists backed by the police and the national guard attacked the community in what is now known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. White supremacists burned and destroyed more than 35 blocks, 1200 homes and left more than 300 Black people dead. With over 10,000 people displaced.
An entire thriving district was destroyed.
Still, the legacy of Black Wall Street lives on as a powerful reminder of what was built and why preserving and protecting Black economic power matters.