22/07/2022
On this day, 22 July 1946, actor and activist Danny Glover was born. The son of two postal workers who were also activists in the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, Glover took part in the longest student strike in US history in 1968. As a student at San Francisco State University, Glover took part in the successful strike of the Black Students Union and Third World Liberation Front demanding the creation of a School of Ethnic Studies. He worked in the Black Panthers free breakfast for children programme and helped them organise their newspaper. He later lived in a commune for a year, fought against the Vietnam war and colonialism in Africa and more recently has supported migrant workers, the occupy movement and Black Lives Matter. In 2004, in an interview with AARP magazine, he explained how he remains optimistic: 'I try to find hope in struggle and resistance in small places as much as I can. The progressive movement against the war of occupation in Iraq is a reason for hope, as is resistance to free trade agreements in Latin America. Those are moments that we have to celebrate: that people still find the resolve and energy to resist.'
You can learn more about the Black Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthers