Young Black Panther Party moves into new community-focused space built on its ideals
LANSING - Nearly three years after its founding, the Young Black Panther Party will soon open up offices and a community space inside the former Otto Middle School.
Young Black Panther Party leader James Henson and a small team of volunteers and party members began in May cleaning up and building furniture for their new home inside the Advancement Corporation Community Center, 500 E. Thomas St.
They've designed the space to carry out the ideals of the party: teaching youth and young adults about Black history, gun rights, self-defense and self-sustainability.
The group is connected to chapters in Grand Rapids, Connecticut, Ohio and Washington, D.C.
"I'm pretty sure some people (are) probably wondering where we've been at," Henson said. "We've been spending our focus and time getting this center ready for the community, so that way the community can have a beacon of hope."
He hopes to welcome visitors inside by springtime.
Henson worked with Ahsahki Guy, a founder of Black Wall Street of Lansing, to renovate the space throughout the summer.
Unlike party membership, the space will be open for anyone wanting to participate in activities. His only requirement is that people recognize the needs of Black people come first. Part of the space will include a whiteboard of ideas and strategies to fix problems in the community.
"We have to do everything that we can do to help out the community with the best of our abilities," Henson said.
How it started:James Henson aims to bring Black Panthers to Lansing — gun rights, martial arts and all
The former classroom has a storage room, an office for the party headquarters, a small library and a small business information booth. It soon will have a fully operational food pantry and a community garden. Henson said he's teaching himself how to build garden boxes for the endeavors.
"We're trying to get some herbs growing and he (Henson) started making medicine in the garden," Guy said. "We're getting ready to expand the garden we have here already, on top of the herbs that he's starting to grow."
Part of the food pantry will have meal-ready-to-eat, MRE, bags to hand out to those experiencing homelessness. Henson said it's a more practical way of helping them as they do not generally have kitchen equipment to eat canned or unprepared foods.
U.S. and British military personnel use the bags in combat and other affairs. They commonly only need water added and some shakes with an included heat packet.
Several people and organizations across Greater Lansing have donated food to the pantry. Henson hopes to receive or purchase a fridge for perishable items.
"That's basically designed for the fact that anytime our community will come in hungry, we can give them bags of food," he said.
Henson started the Young Black Panther Party in 2020 to empower Black communities in Lansing and across the country. The group will accept, Henson has said, Black, half-Black and albino members.
The party is not aligned with the New Black Panther Party that the Southern Poverty Law Center designated as a Black separationist group with a history of making anti-Semitic and anti-white statements and threats. Original Black Panther Party members have denounced the New Black Panther Party, the civil rights center said.
Henson and other party members have taught self-defense lessons at their new location. He tailors the programs to specific age groups and families and teaches them moves and philosophies he said are a means of survival.
Guy and other YBBP members have medical licenses and will host classes on how to render first aid on an injured person, Henson said. He will not tell people they need guns as he recognized not everyone is comfortable around them.
"Those are needed in the community," he said. "If the police and military know it, then it's best for the community to know it, too, given the fact how even though a lot of us don't go through war, we have injuries that are so bad that sometimes you can't make it to the hospital because of how quickly you bleed out."
Henson's center fills out one of many open classrooms at the massive site Derrick Knox purchased from the Lansing School District for $1. The 220,000-square-foot building will open in phases.
Guy, who's worked with Knox on the building, said they want to get instructors for various trades, entrepreneurs and other sorts of entities in the building to "circulate dollars."
Henson said after people vandalized the building in August, neighbors pitched in to watch the building in night hours.
Dayjah Stewart, whose Rising Phoenix volleyball program runs at the building, said the community responded well to the vandalism. More people came by during their clean-up days to put the project back on track.
She's also the program operator at Advancement Corporation and Knox's younger sister. She's in awe at the building's progression since Knox received the keys.
"The community poured itself out and gave us the push we needed," she said. "Nothing happens on accident and we planned on pouring in the community, and they know that. Whenever we have community service, we always have people here ready."
The next rounds of community service at Advancement Corporation are 6-8 p.m. Dec. 9, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 10 and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dec. 11.
So far, Just B Yoga, Punks With Lunch, Ashley "Coach A'Jai" James' basketball programs, Greenwood District Studios and Dayjah Stewart's Rising Phoenix volleyball programs have opened up inside the building. Space is still available for other businesses, nonprofits and organizations to use.
"The goal is to have programs to specifically help the community that will pour back into the community," Stewart said.
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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at 517-267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Young Black Panther Party takes shape, builds on ideals inside Otto Middle School
