Below is an account written by Sister Cleo Silvers on having the honor of working with Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Cleo is a long-time healthcare activist. As a member of the Black Panther Party and later the Young Lords she organized and fought for the human right to adequate healthcare. She is a founder of the Health Revolutionary Unity Movement (HRUM) and played a leading role in the 1970 YLP takeover of Lincoln Hospital, in the South Bronx, NYC.

–Carlito Rovira

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Who Doctor Mutulu Shakur was to me

By Cleo Deborah Silvers

Doctor Mutulu Shakur is one of the most iconic and remarkable men We have had the honor of sharing space with on this Earth.

I say this because few human beings have walked the Earth who’ve made as significant a contribution to history, healthcare, and society in general as Dr. Shakur has. 

Doctor Shakur was an intelligent young revolutionary brother when we met in December of 1970.  It was soon after we (The Think Lincoln Committee, Health Revolutionary Unity Movement (HRUM), The Young Lords, the Black Panthers, and the Community Coalition against Drug Addiction) had occupied the sixth floor of the Lincoln Hospital Nurse’s Residence.  We demanded and set up a drug detox program with the support of the medical staff. 

The positive, overwhelming response from the community demonstrated the need for a drug-free detoxification program–a program that did not use Methadone (another opiate with properties similar to heroin) in the South Bronx and in Harlem, New York.  When we met, he was only nineteen years old and already a critical organizer and leader in the Republic of New Africa.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur fought vigorously in the interest of the Black Community throughout his life.  His commitment and effective organizing, especially in health care for poor Black and other communities of color, raised his profile and attracted the attention of the FBI counterintelligence program and local police and District Attorneys.  They targeted Dr. Mutulu Shakur and framed him for crimes he did not commit.  His conviction was part of a massive, sustained attack (1960s-1980s) on the U.S. revolutionary left, especially those rooted in the Black, Latino, and Native American working-class communities.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur was introduced to me by his older adopted brother, Zayd Shakur, a brilliant and respected leader in the Harlem Branch of the Black Panther Party.  As a member of the Black Panther Party and a healthcare activist, I was mentored by Zayd Shakur and worked under his leadership in the BPP medical collective.

As Director of the newly established Lincoln Detox program and strategist, as well as program planner and medical and methodology collaborator along with Dr. Steve Levin, Medical Director, I was being pulled in many directions, working almost twenty-four hours a day. 

Zayd and the party’s leadership agreed that I was swamped, and Dr. Shakur could take over some of my responsibilities.  I met Mutulu and, at the suggestion of his brother, interviewed him and immediately hired him to take over my position as Director of Lincoln Detox.

In the process of transferring the methodology and details of the Program to Mutulu, we automatically became fast friends.  I should include one important note here;  Mutulu and I, although we loved each other we, had widely different ideological positions and were known to struggle vigorously for our differing points of view.  Mutulu was a Black Nationalist and I was a Marxist.  Almost every time we saw each other, there were warm hugs and sharp ideological struggle.

With Mutulu, because of his brilliance and tenacity.  As Director of the Program, I had no worries about the strength or sustainability of Lincoln Detox.  Dr. Shakur more than exceeded my expectations.  Dr. Shakur worked with the patients; he administered the Program; he went downtown and fought for the continuation of funding.  He built an extraordinary collective of patients, workers, activists, community members, hospital workers, and doctors.  They continued to ensure that political education was a part of each heroin addict’s healing and recovery.

During this period, the Black Panther Party was going through an intense internal power struggle (exacerbated by FBI Counterintelligence Program interventions aimed to weaken and destroy the Black Panther Party). 

Concerned that the factional situation could undermine the Lincoln Hospital work, Zayd, Rasheed, and Lumumba took me to the Young Lords Party, which had a powerful position in Lincoln Hospital, so I could continue effectively organizing hospital workers and building the Health Revolutionary Unity Movement (HRUM), patterned on the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW).  I continued to work there until James Forman invited me to join the LRBW in Detroit.

Dr. Shakur was always looking for ways to enhance the work of detoxing addicts without using drugs.  He wanted to ensure a well-thought-out, comprehensive new methodology for healing our people. 

One day, after reading an article in the newspaper about the use of acupuncture as a medical cure for several illnesses and the thousand-year History of the use of this practice,  Mutulu was intrigued and rallied his collective to check it out.  Dr. Shakur and several collective members headed down to Chinatown. 

They did some research and spoke to everyone who might be able to point them in the correct direction to acquire what they needed to understand the elements of acupuncture.  They were able to speak with some Chinese experts and some acupuncturists there.  The collective and Mutulu came back to the Bronx with a full acupuncture body chart, better known as an acupuncture map, several sets of acupuncture needles, and other equipment.

They began reading as much as possible about the use of acupuncture in Eastern countries that had been using this healthcare method for millennia.  This is when the team started practicing on oranges.  (Dr. Shakur reminded me just a few weeks before he passed: “No, Cleo, we started practicing on onions first and then oranges to develop our skills using the acupuncture needles.”) 

They began using the acupuncture pressure points on the detox patients as they learned, and it was very successful.  Mutulu was elated!  I don’t know all the details because I had been assigned to go to Detroit and begin my work organizing on the line in an auto plant (Dodge Truck, the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM)).

As Mutulu told the story, he and some of his colleagues were contacted and invited to go to China and then Canada to study acupuncture.  I do know that the always astute brother, Mutulu Shakur returned from the Canadian Institute for the Study of Acupuncture with a certification to practice and a doctorate he had earned in the teaching and practice of acupuncture. 

But this is just the beginning of Mutulu’s story of his incredible fighting spirit and contribution to healthcare, drug rehabilitation, and to the struggle for the legalization and use of acupuncture in the United States, not to speak of his ongoing work in the fight for justice and equality for Black people and people of color as well as his role and participation of leadership in the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Africa.

The most brilliant contribution from Dr. Mutulu Shakur, though, is his influential role in the development and design of the five-point auricle acupuncture protocol for drug detoxification and several trauma-induced conditions.

This protocol was used and demonstrated around the world by the last Medical Director of Lincoln Detox Dr. Mike Smith, as though he had developed this groundbreaking method of helping detox heroin addicts, but in fact, it was Dr. Mutulu Shakur and his collective who developed the five-point protocol for drug detoxification and any income received for the training, use or demonstration of this acupuncture protocol should have always gone to the estate and family of Dr. Mutulu Shakur and/or his colleagues.

Before his passing, Mutulu and I were discussing plans to help recover some of this income from the Mike Smith estate, and I plan to move forward on this struggle because it is only proper, and that Mutulu assured me that he wanted to engage in this struggle no matter the outcome.

Mutulu was the central figure in the creation of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture.

After Mutulu was incarcerated, once I returned to New York from Detroit and Los Angeles, I began to work in the Committee to Free Mutulu, led by his late uncle and my friend Churney.  Although we fought for his freedom, Dr. Mutulu Shakur languished in prison for some thirty more years and wrestled with a life-threatening illness until he was freed in December 2022 (just six months ago) to come home to his remarkable family and fight his debilitating cancer.

Mutulu was a heroic family man, including the time he was married to my other celebrated friend, Afeni Shakur.  He was a brilliant star of the revolution, a continuous fighter for justice and equality for his people.  He was also a critical mentor to the youth throughout time, including to his stepson Tupac Shakur. He is still a healer and a person who was before his time in ideas and practice.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur was and is my mentor, mentee, co-strategist, healer, student, and teacher, but most of all, Dr. Mutulu Shakur was and is my iconic, beloved friend and comrade.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur – PRESENTE!

By Carlos “Carlito” Rovira

On November 24, 1946, an unsung woman warrior named Cleo Deborah Silvers was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Cleo’s family was among the millions of African Americans that partook in the Great Migration (1920s-1970s). This was an exodus of Black people that fled KKK terror in the Southern states by heading to the Northern region.

It was a period of blatantly racist Jim Crow laws throughout the South while a not-so-hidden persecutive atmosphere existed in every part of the United States. Although “Whites Only” signs were not placed in public places in Northern states the attitudes that resulted from white privileged entitlement automatically implied anti-Black restrictions.

Cleo has always described how she witnessed as a child white racism and discrimination. A cruel example that stands out vividly in her childhood memories is when Black children were not allowed at department stores to partake in lines to give “Santa Claus” their Christmas gift wish list.

But Cleo’s resilience in personal encounters with racism and her justified contempt for this system is what molded the freedom fighter that she became. Like so many Black youths during the 1960’s, Cleo Silvers was attracted to the political force of the Black Power movement.

Sister Cleo’s history of service in the liberation struggle is unique and merits utmost respect and admiration. Moreover, she was a hospital worker and an organizer for the Health Revolutionary Unity Movement (HRUM), a political ally of the Young Lords Party (YLP) devoted to the struggle for healthcare.

As a revolutionary healthcare activist Cleo became a close ally and collaborator of the late Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who was a pioneer in acupuncture treatment, during the Lincoln Hospital Detox Program.

Before joining the YLP, Cleo was a member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) first in Harlem and then in the Bronx branch. Due to the fraternal relationship between the BPP and YLP, it allowed members of both entities to transfer to the other on request. Cleo did precisely that.

Cleo was among many other African Americans who demonstrated their internationalism and revolutionary commitment when they joined a pre-dominantly Puerto Rican entity. Her experiences in these revolutionary organizations defined her perspective on the necessity to forge a united movement to defeat the barbaric capitalist system.

On July 14^th, 1970, the YLP takeover of Lincoln Hospital unmistakably angered top officials in the New York City and state government. This unexpected bold action managed to expose the criminal practices of the medical industrial complex, which used supposed “healthcare” as another way of racketeering corporate profits.

Thanks to Cleo’s political skillfulness and familiarity with Lincoln Hospital’s physical layout, she became one of the key strategists of the YLP takeover.

Since the events of the 1960’s-70’s mass upsurge, Sister Cleo has continued to stay active and outspoken about the inadequacies in healthcare for Black and Brown people. In addition, she has played a role in efforts demanding the freedom of political prisoners, specifically, captive Black Panthers like Mumia Abu-Jamal, the late Russell Maroon Shoatz, and the late Dr. Mutulu Shakur.

Cleo was among the sisters who comprised the YLP Woman’s Caucus. It was this organ of the YLP structure that helped many of us understand complex theoretical questions relevant to the liberation struggle of our people, such as the interlocked relationship between patriarchy and white supremacy.

It is for the above reasons and more that Cleo Deborah Silvers is an example of resilience and valor, which impacted many inside and outside of the YLP. For me, Cleo is among several Young Lord women who played a significant role in my formative political development, for which I am eternally grateful.

Long Live Black & Latinx Solidarity!