About this author: Participants in The Conversation: Being Black in California, a collaboration between StoryCorps Griot and I've Known Rivers: The MoAD Stories Project.

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by Kiilu and Tureeda
September 2008

Tureeda Mikel interviews Kiilu Nyasha on "Black August" to learn about her journey to California and her activism in Black Power Movement. "I grew up during the forties in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the Hill District," says Kiilu, who was a foster child. "My mother suffered mental illness and struggled very hard to raise four children." Kiilu discusses overcoming poverty as a child, breaking the color barrier in corporate America, her membership in the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, and her commitment to socialism. "I will continue to be a freedom fighter until the day I die."