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The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution

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October 2016 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party. Photojournalist Bryan Shih, who has been interviewing and taking portraits of the surviving Panthers around the country for years, has partnered with Yohuru Williams, dean and history professor at Fairfield University, to deliver the definitive celebration of the Black Panthers. Part oral history, part scrapbook, this is a beautifully produced book of forty-five black-and-white portraits of the Panthers today, alongside interviews with the surviving Panthers, archival images, Black Panther Party pamphlets and speeches, as well as essays by contributors such as Peniel Joseph, Alondra Nelson, Rhonda Williams, and other high-profile scholars to provide background and context.

287 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2016

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
Profile Image for Skip.
3,858 reviews584 followers
July 16, 2018
Rather than focus on the rhetoric of the Black Panthers leadership or their persecution by the FBI, this book focuses on the real work of the party, which has not received the attention it deserves, lost in the violence. The day-to-day activities were selling the BPP newspaper, leading political education classes, working to help oppressed black communities across the nation by providing free services, such as free breakfast for children, free medical clinics, free rides to visit people in prison, free ambulance service, free legal services. In addition, the book speaks extensively to the inclusive nature of their activities as they sought to build links to anyone opposed to the discrimination faced by minorities in the 1960's.

Structured as an oral history, there are 45 brief stories (of 2-4 pages and a recent photo) by former "rank and file" BPP members, recalling why they joined the Panthers, what they did as members, and what they learned. The common themes were the BPP helped them gain control over their lives and make their communities better. Most are still doing the latter.
155 reviews9 followers
February 26, 2018
Despite some flaws I kinda loved this book! It's very simple, basically a collection of brief oral histories from (mostly) rank and file members of the Black Panther Party along with (beautiful) black and white portraits. At first I was a little annoyed with the obviously liberal (as opposed to revolutionary) politics of the editors and various academics who have mini-essays included in the book. BUT, I was moved by hearing a little from the every-day party members across the country. They emphasize the community/survival programs - the free breakfast programs, health care clinics, free ambulances (and the love for the people that drove it all) but ALSO the self-defense aspects AND the extreme targeting of the Party by the government and FBI, the actions of COINTELPRO and agent provocateurs, snitches, etc. I was happy they highlighted the fates of Party members who were killed or ended up locked up for decades as political prisoners, some of whom are still there today.

I was interested to see that more than a few former Panthers interviewed here ended up actually working for the government or for non-profits later in life... hmm. I mean, many went on to do good work in the community but I'm curious to read more about Panthers who continued in radical politics later in life. Though I understand that COINTELPRO, murders, infiltrators, and much more forced many to go underground and just decimated the organization. But I liked glimpses of continuing revolutionary strength, like the interview with Elaine Brown (a former party chair) who sorta blasted current activists, youth, neoliberals, capitalists, (even seemingly the makers of the book) etc. for not ACTUALLY organizing adequately but being driven by fear, appeased by minimal reforms, and losing sight of actual freedom. She's like... don't focus on the personal recollections of aging Panthers, look at what we were trying to DO. Look at what we DID. And organize from there.

This book could be read by elementary kids and I think it's a good intro to BPP history, though I don't have much to compare it with yet. One of the goals of the book is definitely to sorta rehabilitate the image of the Panthers in the mainstream, so keep that in mind, but I was definitely inspired by reading these stories!
Profile Image for Graham Cifelli.
87 reviews1 follower
April 11, 2021
While I've done a lotta panther reading learning about the everyday rank and file members was truly something different. Heartbreaking and inspiring. Necessary for our time
Profile Image for Jocelyn.
113 reviews
August 9, 2020
The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution provides interesting backstories and points of view from several people who worked with the Panthers during the time when the political party was together.

I have not finished this book at the time of writing this review.

Until I read this book, the Black Panther Party has never been something I knew much about. I had heard the words "Black Panther Party," but I did not know anything about the actual party.

This book features BPP pamphlet clippings, essays about the party from the authors, quotes and essays from party members.

In the first two sections, the book explores the behind the scenes/lesser known party members. There is a consistent message through all of their essays, everyone was willing to do whatever was needed for the party to succeed.

The book talks about how the various members worked together to ensure the safety of the members and made sure all of the operations were running smoothly.

There are many women featured in the book. They talk about the sexism and bias within the party that they fought against.

There are perspectives from all sorts of members of the BPP. There are people who joined when they were in their late 20s and people who joined when they were 15. There are people from different ethnic backgrounds.

The essays talk about how the BPP worked with other organizations that lobbied for equal rights for minorities and all kinds of people in the U.S..

The BPP influenced people throughout the U.S. and other countries to form their own political parties or activist organizations.

The way the BPP was organized inspired other oppressed groups then and inspires young activists now.

One of the essays in the book talked about interviews from the media versus interviews from young people. In general, the media wants to know “What really happened,” and are searching for a new scoop, whereas young people want to know how the BPP was so organized and how they had so many strong and well functioning projects.

I look forward to finishing it in the next few days.
Profile Image for Liza.
216 reviews21 followers
April 9, 2017
I feel embarrassed that I've never read a book on the BPP before, but I'm glad I began here with this collections of interviews and essays. This book focuses on those everyday activists who were doing the grunt work (e.g., selling papers) of the organization and thus have a very different perspective than, say, Bobby Seale. I did not know that the BPP in North Carolina organized an ambulance service or that some California chapters included Asian-Americans. A good reminder that no movement is as simple as the history books would have you believe.
Profile Image for Chelsey.
34 reviews2 followers
June 3, 2021
I picked this one up from the library and after getting a few stories in, ordered my own copy. Loved reading the stories of so many rank and file members and of all the work the Black Panther Party did.
Profile Image for Christine.
273 reviews8 followers
February 20, 2017
I loved the interview pieces from less known Panthers around the country. Other articles closed out each chapter rounded out the interviews in a more academic way.

I was so encouraged and inspired by the interviews, though. The love, positivity, openness was so generous, and it seems like the people shared in a way that can help us now, whether by learning history or inspiring us.
Profile Image for Mia.
268 reviews18 followers
October 5, 2017
I was inspired to read The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution after I attended a presentation/discussion featuring one of the book editors and three of the women featured in the Chapter "A Sister's Place in the Revolution: Women in Leadership in the BPP" It was wonderful to hear their reflections on the movement that they were so wholeheartedly dedicated to, and on the paths that their lives have taken since then. Each of BPP members featured in the book shares his or her personal experiences with the party, commitment to its principles and hopes for the manifestation of its objectives. A fascinating delineation of the times...
646 reviews10 followers
January 22, 2017
This book is an important contribution to the history of the Black Panther Party. The book combines current photos of Panthers with short edited interviews. What makes this book important is its focus on "rank and file" Panthers, those who joined and spent their time selling the paper, leading political education classes, and working in Serve the People programs begun by the Panthers such as free breakfast for children, free medical clinics, free ride to visit people in prison.

By focusing on the rank and file, the book focuses a great deal of attention of women in the BPP, a very under-reported area.

Overwhelmingly, this collects memories of men and women dedicated to justice who are proud to have been in the Black Panther Party.
Profile Image for Edmund Davis-Quinn.
1,123 reviews4 followers
April 27, 2018
An absolutely beautiful book. Great photography. So many people in the Black Panther Party grew up to have wonderful lives.
Profile Image for Tibby .
1,086 reviews
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September 25, 2023
This was an interesting look at a variety of people who were in the Black Panther Party. Shih had conceived of an idea to photograph portraits of BPP members at the 50th anniversary get together. At first viewed with some skepticism he was invited to work on his project and along with the portraits he also talked with the former members about what they did in the Party and their impressions and memories. This book was one of the end results of the project.

Broken into five chapters that are centered loosely around topics such as women in the party and COINTELPRO there is a mix of very short essays by leading scholars on the BPP and edited interviews with the former Panther's. Each interview is preceded by the portrait Shih took and a very brief bio of the person.

As one of the essays notes there are sort of two histories of the BPP out in the world. One is the narrative started by the media and the U.S. government at the time the party was operating and that has continued to be the most commonly known narrative: the BPP was a violent extremist racist group of the 1960s and 70s and ran counter to the happy clappy Civil Rights Movement that white people were comfortable with. The second narrative is slowly emerging: the BPP was a political movement that focused on survival programs and meeting the Black and poor community's needs and was run by a variety of larger-than-life personalities like Fred Hampton, Huey Newton, and Eldridge Cleaver. This second narrative isn't totally wrong, but it focuses on the leaders in the party and misses the mass of folks who ran the day-to-day operations of the survival programs and especially misses the women who were integral to the functioning of the party. This book aims to bring more of those mundane, rank-and-file stories into the narrative and I think is very successful. I don't know that is was fascinating, but it certainly added more to what I already know about the BPP.

My complaints about the book are relatively minor, but are that the interviews were pretty short and sometimes felt a bit redundant. I don't know if better topics to center the chosen interviews around would have helped or if it's just the nature of a book like this to feel choppy. I also think this would have been better as an audiobook with different voices reading each of the interviews. Part of my issue was that the interviews were clearly conversational although they were lightly edited. But reading them still felt like reading dialog which can also not come across well on the page.

Still the photographs are beautiful and it's always interesting to see what regular people were doing within the BPP.
Profile Image for Camille McCarthy.
Author 1 book41 followers
May 30, 2017
This book was a good introduction to the everyday people who worked with the Black Panther Party. Rather than going into detail about the ideology of the Panthers and talking about their leaders, the book focuses on the rank-and-file members and their experiences. You get an idea of what it was like to be an ordinary person involved in the Party and you learn some of the things that drew people to them, as well as some of the things that led to their disbanding.
The portraits are also very well-done. Most of the people represented look like the coolest people you'll ever meet - they have awesome style and even though they're advanced in years, they have this young attitude. Also, from the short bios of each one, most of them went into some form of public service after their time with the Panthers.
I was astounded to learn of what the Panthers achieved. They set up clinics, breakfast programs, ambulance services, newspapers, and neighborhood security. Also, they were so young. Most members were between 17 and 23. Reading the interviews, you can feel how dangerous it was for these young adults to be involved in this movement, yet they were so passionate and so driven that they were able to accomplish amazing things. Many of them died or went to jail and some are still imprisoned today. It is a travesty that we are not taught about the BPP and that many of us know very little about it. Also, what little we do know is contaminated by misinformation. The FBI infiltrated the party and worked hard to destroy it from the inside and the outside. These days, most people think of the BPP as a militant group of black people with guns who hated the police. They don't know what the police were doing to blacks, how the FBI was paying people to join the Panthers and then commit crimes to make them look bad, or about the community services that the BPP provided, greatly improving the lives of thousands of people. They don't know how the BPP worked with other groups and ethnicities, including white anti-capitalists, to further their mutual goals.
It is both inspirational and sorrowful. I highly recommend this book.
Profile Image for Joann Schatz.
381 reviews8 followers
November 17, 2020
Welp, tear-soaked over-indulgent sappy review comin in hot: This book is people, it's just... people. It's all the people who dedicated their lives, their adolescence, their heart, their bodies, everything they had to this movement. It's a collection of all of the people that made up the Black Panther Party - that name that carries weight (negative and positive) throughout the entire world - and were on the ground, on the streets day in and day out making change and working to the bone to care for their community. This book has so much history packed into its pages. All the single-strand histories of people in various chapters of the BPP around the US, but all so similar to each other. Each individual's story was so unique and so interesting and so brave and so inspiring. I've learned a little bit about the BPP and have become immensely curious, which made me pick up this book, but I didn't realize how much of the day-to-day happenings that I didn't understand or have insight to. I didn't really understand how much this book was impacting me as I read it. When I finished the editor's note at the end of the book and closed and it and looked back on the front cover, I suddenly felt the weight of all the stories I just took in and started crying. It just came over me. I am just so grateful to be able to hear people's stories and understand who they are and what they've done. I feel so lucky to have this insight and I'm so grateful for this book.
Profile Image for Pascale Hall.
8 reviews5 followers
February 13, 2018
This book is very readable, and a great starting point on the Panthers, offering little slices into this incredibly multifaceted, often contradictory, organisation. It includes interviews with rank and file members across the country, currently imprisoned Panthers, victims of police injustice and intra-party violence. It delves into the personal resonance of the Panther's message, the grassroots social activism that helped so many, as well as the international reach and domino effect of the Party. I thought the interview/essays of Elaine Brown and Jamal Joseph were particularly insightful. I would really recommend it, although be aware that it's not a sort of chronological, blow-by-blow event recount of the Party's history.
Profile Image for Cassandra.
396 reviews
November 13, 2018
I heard a podcast recently that started of with some of the history of the Black Panthers and it was not what I felt like I knew of them to be so I thought I need to do some more reading and become better education. I really enjoyed how the author put this book together and it has given me a much healthier and broader perspective on the Black Panters. The book goes back and forth from short interviews with past Panters members to history on the organization. I always enjoy books that don’t try and grab me by the short collar and tell me what to think but give me the info and let me decide for myself...this book did a great job at that and I would definitely recommend it.
Profile Image for Jennifer Mogren.
230 reviews
February 5, 2017
I admittedly don't know much about the Black Panthers, other than the brief mentions of violence in history books. I thought this book was so well done! I enjoyed reading pieces of people's stories and hearing their memories and opinions of what the party was about. I had no idea they started free breakfast programs and health clinics. This book opened my eyes to how so many young people joined the BPP to make a difference in their community, and to offer self-defense of lives by offering services to their community.
Profile Image for Jessica.
37 reviews
June 11, 2017
Amazing story from the people who lived it. These interviews with rank and file Black Panthers are notable because they set the record straight, sharing the legacy and vision of the BPP and the love that guided their work. Not only did they make tangible differences during their time in the party, feeding thousands of children through free breakfast programs, providing medical care, and educating communities, but many of them have gone on to do great work since. Eye opening read, and beautiful portraits.
Profile Image for Karim.
181 reviews2 followers
March 27, 2018
A wonderful and perfectly crafted book, I love how this book is a collection of essays and interviews (and pictures) compiles into the narrative of Black Panthers.

One of my favorite highlights is the spotlight shone on the WOMEN that were not only on the front lines but held high ranking positions and the gender bias they faced within an organization that preached so much about equality.

This is a must read for anyone growing up in that era or want a more detailed look at the Black Panthers.
Profile Image for Erica.
85 reviews4 followers
August 16, 2020
This is the result of a historian and a photojournalist working together to compile portraits and interviews from rank and file members of the Black Panther Party (and some essays too). I LOVED reading this- it's a window into dozens of lives and dozens of stories. I learned a lot of new things and complicated some thoughts I had before. Def recommend this and hope to see more places for the ordinary people building movements to share their voices. (4/18/17)
Profile Image for Deidre.
43 reviews7 followers
February 20, 2018
One of the best books on the Black Panthers I've read so far. This book focuses a lot on the worker bees of the movement. They talked in-depth about experiences in the BP, lessons learned and how they applied them to life currently, social issues, etc. I loved the interviews and the portraits of people were excellent
Profile Image for Zuri Reads .
33 reviews
April 3, 2018
This book is amazing and everyone interested in the history of the Black Panther Party must read it! The stories are very intimate and you really find out more about the day-to-day for rank and file members. It focuses on the community - Survival - programs and the work within the communities. My hometown of Winston Salem, NC was actually featured and I learned a lot! I highly recommend.
63 reviews2 followers
November 9, 2017
Great read. My respect for them & my people has increased tremendously. A great read for anyone interested in learning more/the truth on the Black Panthers from the panthers themselves.
2,384 reviews1 follower
April 12, 2018
An incredible book. The short biographies tell so much about the people in the Black Panther organization and the people of that time. So much still needs to happen.
Profile Image for Brian.
466 reviews
October 12, 2020
My only complaint is that it's too short. These great voices had three to five pages to tell their stories, and it wasn't enough
Profile Image for Lauren Read.
323 reviews14 followers
April 3, 2025
Moving storytelling from the front lines. They accomplished so much in a relatively short time. Imagine if COINTELPRO hadn't killed the party (along with too many of its members)....
Profile Image for Sarah.
264 reviews13 followers
February 16, 2017
Wonderful portraits of ex-Panther members, most of whom were rank and file members. I like that this book focuses on "regular" members and not on the leaders of the party. I learned a lot about why and how people got involved, and what the movement meant to those who joined. I also learned a bunch about the party itself. The appendix includes the 10 point program and beliefs, as well as documents showing the FBI's counterintelligence program which worked to destroy and discredit the organization.
Profile Image for Mish.
435 reviews5 followers
April 25, 2018
"The Panther ideological platform, not constricted to narrowly defined black nationalism, was broad enough to inspire and welcome non-black people, while simultaneously affirming both racial and ethnic pride in a way that did not demand xenophobic pandering", page 78, essay written by Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar.

Man, if you had told me a few years ago that the Black Panther Party (previously the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a terrorist organization, I maybe wouldn't have looked further, but I'll be damned if this book wasn't illuminating.

The FBI treated the Panthers like a terorist organization, but the only reason I can think of for this is that the FBI is a bunch or racist assholes, who additionally took incredible ideas (like free breakfast for kids, for example) from the BPP and not only discredited the source but refused to give proper citations. Fuck that noise.

Those who object and say that the BPP is a terrorist organization because it put guns in the hands of their members forget that the NRA does the same thing for white people today, and clearly didn't know that training was required before you got a gun as part of your membership.

In case it wasn't clear, I highly recommend this book be required reading for anyone high school and above. Mild profanity is used but it isn't forced, and the topic is incredibly relevant, still, today.
Profile Image for Kristin.
1,655 reviews23 followers
February 7, 2017
A fascinating and inspiring oral history and pictorial of the "rank and file" members of the Black Panther Party, perhaps the most controversial activist group in American history that was not outright labeled a terrorist group. Most of the members of the party joined in their teens and early 20s, and a good cross section of the various jobs were outlined. Some of the interviewees died before the book was published, and a few remain incarcerated.

The Black Panther Party did some things that in theory would be frowned upon (particularly by myself) under certain circumstances. But as Simone De Beauvoir said, "All oppression creates a state of war, and this is no exception." Most of their social programs are now employed today by the state, such as free breakfasts for children, free health clinics, busing to prisons, etc.

This book references the more famous members, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, etc., but this is really a history of the people who ran the day to day operations of the party, and I found that inspiring. I think most people don't realize how bad it could be for black people in America during the Civil Rights movement (and now), and it's easy for white people to say it's not that bad, etc. I'd give this is a chance, and you could learn a lot.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews

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