Texas Southern University recently hosted a conversation with original Black Panther Party member John Bunchy Crear on the topic “Religion in Houston’s Pan-African Community. The event, held in TSU’s Barbara Jordan / Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs Building, was organized by founder of the Freedmen’s Town Farmers Market, Sade Perkins, and Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen, senior minister of First Unitarian Universalist Church.
Perkins and Bossen are Princeton University Fellows who have received funding to hold a series of conversations on the topic.
Crear shared stories from his childhood that set the stage for him volunteering with the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and working with the organization’s founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Crear Joined the People’s Party II in Houston, an organization fashioned off the Black Panthers.
Crear shared victories, setbacks and lessons learned from his life of activism, which he continues to this day.
