— By Dejay Bilal

March 13th, 2024

“We need a r/evolution of the mind. We need a r/evolution of the heart. We need a r/evolution of the spirit. It’s not enough just to change the system. We need to change ourselves. R/evolution means respecting and learning from your children. R/evolution is love.” 

— Assata Shakur 

On the morning of October 3rd, 2022, Malcolm X Academy for Afrikan Education opened its doors to the public for the first time. One could here the nonstop sound of children’s laughter during the Oak Park school's groundbreaking ceremony as they planted spinach, kale, and purple cabbage in the Assata Shakur Freedom Farm; made food for a weekly meal distribution program; and played pick-up basketball on a baby blue court with a life-size mural of the Black Panther Party’s rendition of a black panther (Salanga, 2022). That morning the MXA team arrived at the Shakur Center in Oak Park filled with nerves. I was lucky enough to be invited into the school as the Minister of Pedagogy. Our team of educators started off the day by embracing each other, joining hands in a grounding ceremony, and then we quickly separated ourselves into three different teams so we could get the Shakur Center ready for the opening day ceremony. One group was in charge of setting up the front of the building for the welcoming ceremony. The group I was in was tasked with setting up the Assata Shakur Freedom Farm with tools, seedlings, and other farming materials for our planting ceremony. The farm was named after Assata Shakur, the Black Liberation freedom fighter seeking asylum in Cuba since 1984. The farm is just one example of how African history is embedded into names of places at the

Shakur Center. The building also housed the Tupac Performing Arts Center, the Mutulu Shakur Health Clinic, and obviously—Malcolm X Academy. There was another group inside of the Center getting the classroom space, play room, and library all set up for the babies first day. For the MXA team and the rest of the community, this day was historic. Neighbor Program, a Pan-African community organization, was finally carrying out its promise to open up a liberation school that was modeled after the Oakland Community School developed by the founding chapter of the Black Panther Party. They believed they were finally answering Malcolm X’s call and the call of so many Black Liberation Movement elders that urged people to take control of the education of our youth. 

The opening day ceremony did not officially start until Mama Kimberly Cox Marshall pulled up in front of the school. Mama Cox is the daughter of veteran Black Panther Field Marshall Don Cox—she grew up as a Panther cub of the San Francisco chapter. When she arrived, she was immediately met with a loving hug by the founder of Neighbor Program (NP) Jordan McGown—the Minister of Programs for both the organization and Malcolm X Academy. “It’s like going back in time,” Mama Cox said. “This is what my daddy wanted,” (Childress, 2022). She believed that NP was providing the community with a school where “young people are not only getting a meal, but getting knowledge to help them deal with life,” (Childress, 2022). 

Mama Cox was not the only person that day who had family ties to the Party, in fact, two members of NP’s core organizing team had relatives who were members of the BPP and three of the students enrolled in MXA had grandparents who organized with the BPP chapter in Atlanta. Jordan’s father, Phineas, “was a Vietnam vet who was court-martialed for treason after associating himself with the Panthers,” (Childress, 2022). In my many conversations with Jordan, someone who I consider

family, he has explained the different ways his father was one of the many reasons he continues to answer the call put forth by the elders and martyrs of the Black Liberation Movement. When Jordan first told his Auntie about the school she reminded him that “his father is in this,” (Bilal, 2022). I’ve seen this reality in the dozens of hours I’ve spent talking, building, and organizing with McGowan over the past four years. The revolutionary spirit of his father Phineas lives on through him—through his children—and McGowan has made it his duty to continue the struggle his father introduced him to. The other member of Neighbor Program with family ties to the Panthers is our Minister of Arts and Culture, Dre T, whose father, aunties, and uncles used to play up and down the 4th avenue block that MXA now calls home. Dre is a third generation baby of Oak Park. His grandmother benefited from the services of the Sacramento Chapter of the Black Panther Party. In fact, his Grandma used to attend Sunday School in the same exact building that now houses the Shakur Center and Malcolm X Academy. This day was so much more than just the opening day of a school. Not only were we making history, we were carrying out the dreams of our elders and ancestors. We were finally answering their calls. 

Several dozen people attended the academy's grand opening, including Dr. Elysse Versher, a former vice principal of West Campus High School in so-called Sacramento. She announced her resignation from the position in the spring, citing the so-called Sacramento City Unified School District's inaction in the face of sexual harassment and threats motivated by race. Versher hopes that both African staff members and students will feel safe at Malcolm X Academy. For Versher, “a safe space means [African] children and employees can show up, be who they are, be treated with respect, dignity, and leave feeling empowered—that’s when curiosity for education grows,” (Childress, 2022).

The former vice principal has seen African children pushed out of so-called Sacramento schools for decades. Finally, she believes she’s found a school that can truly meet the needs of Africans in her community (Childress, 2022). 

Reflecting on this day, NP’s Minister of Programs was speechless because “[Mama Cox was able] to see the school and know that someone is carrying on the work. So many veteran Panthers feel like their work has been forgotten,” (Childress, 2022). Nearly fifty years later, Jordan, Dre, and the rest of our Neighbor Program team were carrying on the Panthers’ deep history in Oak Park. Although the Sacramento chapter of the BPP was short-lived (1968-1971), they achieved great victories within the community and offered a number of programs aligned with the survival programs launched by other chapters: a free breakfast program for students, political education seminars, a local newspaper, legal aid, and tutoring (Salanga, 2022). On October 3rd, 2022, the Black Panther Flag officially returned to Oak Park and it was flying high above the opening ceremony for Malcolm X Academy—less than one mile from where it once flew in the late 1960s (Childress, 2022). The flag is a centerpiece of the Center's courtyard that welcomes the community into the building. Being in Oak Park is historically significant to Africans in so-called Sacramento and according to McGowan, the neighborhood has functioned as “a unifying space for Afrikans throughout the city of so-called Sacramento,” (McGowan, 2023). 

Let’s rewind our story a couple months. Neighbor Program acquired the rights to the building that housed the Shakur Center in March of 2022. Within six months, we opened up a liberation school. Let that sink in. This is the main difference between principled community organizations and city-backed non-profits. Our community organizations get busy. We do not spend hours filing

paperwork and jumping through hoops just for decisions to get made. More importantly, the money that comes into the organization actually goes directly into the community’s hands. No time or money is wasted. The Shakur Center was a demonstration of Pan-Africanism for the people of Oak Park and it provided the neighborhood with a variety of community programs powered by the strength of collective work. The Shakur Center housed a total of twelve community decolonization programs: the Free Breakfast Program, the Free Food Program, the Neighbor Newspaper, Community Learning Classes, the Assata Shakur Freedom Farm, the Afeni Shakur Legal Clinic, the Dr. Mutulu Shakur Health and Wellness Clinic, the Alfred Woodfox Political Prisoner of War Program, the Mindfulness and Meditation Program, the Tupac Shakur Arts and Culture Program, and, most notably, Malcolm X Academy for Afrikan Education. 

There are no words that can capture the love, care, and safety that the Shakur Center offered to so many people within our community. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to have called it home. The Shakur Center provided the people of Oak Park with a community center that was, according to Jordan, “a demonstration of Afrikan resistance against the empire.” For him, the Shakur Center was “a small battle for dignity, for land, for bread, for education, for health care, and for Afrikan Liberation.” Stay tapped in with Neighbor Program (@cmb.neighborprogram) and Malcolm X Academy for Afrikan Education (@916mxa) on Instagram as they continue this work in a smaller location within Oak Park: the Shakur House.

Dejay Bilal is an educator at Malcolm X Academy for Afrikan Education on occupied Nisenan land in so-called Sacramento. He is currently studying the historical and contemporary development of militant education projects throughout the African and Indigenous Diaspora. His work also covers compulsory education, the history of settler-colonial terror, the amerikkkan prison regime, the family policing system, the Black Radical Tradition, and Pedagogies of Liberation. He is an active member of two community organizations working to build power towards self-determination in their neighborhoods.