Renita’s Involvement in Operation Breadbasket: Impact on Communities and Historical Significance

0:00 little bit right 0:02 well a little bit 0:07 back in the 60s um the black panther 0:10 party was very very active 0:12 and they were active in uh and and i 0:15 believe their roots were also in chicago 0:18 so 0:19 um many of their social centers 0:21 community centers or one in particular 0:23 operation bread basket 0:25 um was a uh it was meant primarily for 0:30 children who um who may not who may have 0:33 gone to school without breakfast or 0:35 things like that and uh and so you know 0:38 you're on your way to school and you 0:40 know uh and they say hey you know after 0:43 school will come by come and play you 0:45 know they had games and things like that 0:47 and come and have something to eat if 0:49 you want or you know things like that 0:52 but they were very very active in the 0:54 community and making sure that um 0:57 that black children were getting believe 0:59 it or not their vaccinations i mean i 1:01 know that's the thing now um but they 1:03 were very active in that they were very 1:05 active in uh making certain that that 1:08 children ate they had you know that they 1:11 had food because sometimes dinner was a 1:13 problem for some kids 1:15 um but also 1:17 just that we could go and have some 1:19 place to safely play because the other 1:22 thing is um 1:24 this was a time where some of the uh 1:28 continued to be most notorious um 1:31 uh gangs were rising you know uh 1:34 um 1:36 you know i mean i can't recall the names 1:38 uh the names of the games but they were 1:40 the chicago gangs were really starting 1:42 to rise yeah and they gave children a 1:45 safe place to be 1:47 and i know this is one little strange 1:49 thing 1:50 but um 1:51 when they were beginning to rise uh they 1:54 would have what they called recruiting 1:56 day oh my god and and so any boys aged 2:01 12 and above who were outdoors were 2:04 automatically recruited into these 2:06 various gangs well um 2:09 uh 2:10 the black panthers gave them a safe 2:12 place to be 2:13 and they also gave them the opportunity 2:16 to say no we're you're they're not going 2:18 to be a part of this you know these are 2:20 these are good kids they're not going in 2:22 that direction and so um just you know 2:26 to and i didn't realize at the time that 2:28 i was a part of history until i was in a 2:30 history course and i was explaining this 2:32 to my instructor and he was just so 2:35 fascinated he's you have to write about 2:36 that you have to tell about that and i 2:39 actually um 2:41 wrote a short story for another class 2:43 called recruiting day because he 2:45 inspired me to uh to to do this because 2:49 of what the black panthers did for 2:52 our community in particular so 3:05 you