My father was a master carpenter and builder. Architectural design, engineering design, mechanical design, three-dimensional views, that was my shtick, my forte.

I'm still a political revolutionary. The fire never went out of me, but perceptions and realizations change.

The Black Panther party of Self-Defense is a revolutionary party.

A people who have suffered so much for so long at the hands of a racist society must draw the line somewhere.

Electoral politics was always an objective of the Black Panther party, so Barack Obama is a part of what we dreamed and struggled and died for.

We were not talking about the average white person: we was talking about the corporate money rich and the racist jive politicians and the lackeys, as we used to call them, for the government who perpetuate all this exploitation and racism.

Our position was: If you don't attack us, there won't be any violence; if you bring violence to us, we will defend ourselves.