Evans Derrell Hopkins (Payne)

## **Early Life**

Evans Derrell Hopkins was born on July 23,1954 in Danville, Virginia. From birth, he felt the effects of segregation and hatred. He was born in Winslow Hospital, a hospital reserved for people of color, which meant he did not receive the best care.

#### **Witnessing Brutality**

When Hopkins was nine, he witnessed the brutality of police during a peaceful protest. In his book he quotes, “It was then that police locked away hundred of demonstrators during the civil rights marches of 1963, when firemen opened up on the crowds with water hoses, when deputized garbage men attacked them with clubs, and dogs were set upon those who came to the courts building to protest the mass arrests.” Upon seeing this struggle, Hopkins began to see the hail as a symbol of the consequences of social change. As a child, he was taught that “the white mind was superior” which caused him to seek validation from other white students in school and prove to everyone that he could be as great as them.

#### **Rage**

As stated above, Hopkins was born into a segregated world. When he saw these horrific injustices that were happening against black people, he began to fight for his rights and the rights of others. In his book, Hopkins states, “I remember seeing bloody men and women staggering into High Street Baptist Church for first aid. The black hospital was filled with wounded protesters that night. But all of this only solidified my resolve and the resolve of those involved in the movement. I began to understand how anger turns into rage.”

## **Family**

Hopkins has one sister, a mother named Marguerite Swanson Hopkins, and a father named Daniel Hopkins. These people had a profound impact on him throughout his life.

#### **Influences**

His father worked at Dan River Mills Corporation and was the first black supervisor. Although it was for the janitorial crew, this was an amazing feat that showed Hopkins the power a black person can have. His father also began a landscaping business in Danville, which was one of the very few black businesses in town. His father taught him how to work hard and persevere through hardships.

Hopkins’ sister influenced him the most because through her actions, Hopkins would join the Black Panther Party. His sister often took him to High Street Baptists Church, which was also the center of activity for many protests for the Civil Rights Movement. As a result of seeing these demonstrations, Hopkins felt a strong sense of pride in himself and urgency to join the cause.

## **Integration**

#### **High School**

In 1963, Hopkins attended Tunstall High School in Virginia, one of the newly desegregated high schools in the town. His parents made this choice because they felt that they had a duty to make some sacrifices in order to make progress in the civil rights fight. While there, Hopkins was harassed, assaulted, mocked, called slurs, and many other horrible things. When faced with this, Hopkins felt a strong sense of resistance and rage, which would later aid him in joining the Black Panther Party and fighting in the Civil Rights Movement.

#### **Walkout**

While in high school, Hopkins was the leader of a student group that spoke about equality and often sold Black Panther Party newsletters. One day, they planned a walkout to protest a high school named George Washington. Since Washington was a slave owner, they felt it was wrong to praise him on the face of a school. Although Hopkins was suspended for three days, this act started off his journey as a revolutionary.

## **Black Panther Party**

At first, Hopkins was involved in an organization that was part of the cultural nationalist movement, but when he saw that the Black Panther Party also spoke on class solidarity and pride in resistance, he knew he belonged there. At the age of seventeen, Hopkins left Danville and moved to Winston-Salem to live with the Party.

#### **Involvement**

After Huey Newton returned from jail, they changed the membership process, so one had to be a community worker for a while until they could become a full-fledged member. Hopkins worked as a community worker in Winston-Salem and during this time he mainly worked to improve the community, such as working in the free breakfast programs. During the Panther’s split, the Party went through a rocky phase. Hopkins still romanticized an armed struggle because he believed in “struggle till revolution”, however this split caused too much damage to the Party. Bobby Seale decided to change the system from within, but too many chapters had been dismantled for them to make a real change.

#### **Writing**

At this time, Hopkins worked for the Panthers as a historian and reporter for the Black Panther Party newspaper. He was heavily inspired by the teachings of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and made these inspirations evident in his writings. He also was covering the campaign by Bobby Seale for mayor of Oakland, which meant it was his job to catch everything that Seale spoke about. Being a writer for the Panther Party allowed Hopkins to “formulate his sensibility as an artist” and played an important role in his book, *Life after Life: A Story of Rage and Redemption*.

#### **Departure**

Encounters with physical violence were the main reason Hopkins decided to leave the Black Panther Party. Hopkins was in desperate need of money, so he was planning a robbery to help pay for expenses. In planning this act, Hopkins fell in with an armed robber and was faced with either going to jail or being punished by the Panthers. After this punishment, Huey Newton had fallen off and was charged with multiple things, such as pistol-whipping, cocaine possession, and shooting a woman. After Newton fled to Cuba, Hopkins realized the Party had changed for the worse and left.

## **Criminality**

Along with planning a bank robbery earlier in his life, Hopkins found himself back in prison two years later. When he left the Party, Hopkins was very “anti-everything” and he felt that he had a strong responsibility to take care of his family. He decided to rob a bank, which ended in his arrest and a sentence of ten years in prison. When he was released, he decided to rob another bank. This time, he was sentenced to life by an all-white jury, which was later overturned, even though no one was physically injured. His criminality was a result of “repression breeds resistance”, which was one of the mottos of the Party. Seeing all of his brothers being senselessly killed caused a strong rage to build up inside of him, which when released caused him to rebel against the justice system.

## **Links and Resources**

Black Panther Ten Point Program

Evans Derrell Hopkins Interview

Malcolm X Autobiography

Civil Rights Movement

Bobby Seale Campaign