If You Stop Struggling, Then You Stop

During Those Long Years In Oakland Public Schools, I Did Not Have One Teacher Who Taught Me Anything Relevant To My Own Life Or Experience. Not One Instructor Ever Awoke In Me A Desire To Learn More Or To Question Or To Explore The Worlds Of Literature, Science, And History. All They Did Was Try To Rob Me Of The Sense Of My Own Uniqueness And Worth, And In The Process Nearly Killed My Urge To Inquire.

Just Before I Left [cuba], I Was About To Transfer To The University. I Had Decided I Had Had Enough Experience In Work In The Manual Areas. But Then I Got Word From The United States That I Could Return...that My Party Had Gathered Enough Information About The False Charges That Were Against Me For Me To Return To The United States.

I Don't Want People To Think He [eldridge Cleaver] Is So Important - Our Party Is Important Because Our Party Works For The People And No Individual Is Important In Our Party, Including Myself.

I Wanted To Leave High School In 1958 And Join The Cuban Revolution. So The Only Reason I Did Not Come To Join [fidel] Castro Was Because My Mother Would Not Let Me. I Was Only 16.

My Fear Was Not Of Death Itself, But A Death Without Meaning.