Current data for Contributor

Jiménez, José, 1948-

Current data for Creator

Lewis, Melvin

Current data for Date

2012-08-26

Current data for Description

Melvin Lewis was born in Chicago but today lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His parents live in Maywood, Illinois. This is the same town where Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party (BPP) grew up. It is also where, at Maywood’s City Hall, there is a recreation center with a swimming pool named after the slain leader of Chicago’s BPP. There is also a street named “Fred Hampton Way” and a bust of Chairman Fred Hampton. Mr. Lewis is a Chicago Black Panther and freelance writer, a master gardener and certified beekeeper. His recent articles include “Out Loud and Into Print” in the May/June 2012 issue of City View (NC). He writes on music and his publications include features on “Hootie and the Blow Fish,” and singer and song writer “Rene Marie in Pluck!” He has written and broadcast twelve vignettes about civil rights for FM Radio stations 107.7 and 91.9 FM and conducted interviews on horticulture, history and art. Mr. Lewis has also won the Significant Illinois Poet Award and is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently assisting with the Chicago Black Panther History Project. Their motto is, “ We will tell our story, in our own words; Illinois Panthers speak for themselves.”

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