Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party's Promise to the People

by Kekla Magoon

A National Book Award Finalist
A Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor Book
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book
A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book

With passion and precision, Kekla Magoon relays an essential account of the Black Panthers—as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community.

In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s eye-opening work invites a new generation of readers grappling with injustices in the United States to learn from the Panthers’ history and courage, inspiring them to take their own place in the ongoing fight for justice.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Social Justice, Race, Politics, Audiobook, Teen

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 2021

Reviews

[Tamyka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this young adult book about the history of the Black Panther Party and the broader fight for Black liberation. I was extremely familiar with the history of the movement and the Black Panther Party and I think this is a great introductory 101 text for students in 8th grade and up and for teachers and parents of students in grades ECE-12th grade. I appreciated the nuanced approach of the author where she didn’t just approach this with rose colored glasses and really delved into both the successes and challenges of the party as well as conveyed their hopes and dreams. Grade A++, highly recommend.

I do not recommend the audiobook and would give that a 3. It is award winning so you can def try it out, but I didn’t enjoy it at all and felt like it lacked passion and sounded kinda emotionless and rote.

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very compelling and engaging and gives a great amount of context to teens who might be involved with BLM but not have heard much real history about the Black Panthers. TRULY infuriating to read about the COINTELPRO shit honestly (a lot of which I as an adult reader already knew but anytime I read it all laid out like that it's just like, Jesus Christ, fuck the FBI!)

Really good endmatter too, good footnotes and added materials.

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, well-researched and thorough history of the Black Panther Party. Having extensively on the subject, I commend Kekla Magoon's efforts to discuss many of the positive elements of the Panther Party's social programs, but think she did not spend enough time on party leaders, especially David Hilliard. I thought 70 pages was too much time trying to put the black power movement in a historical context, starting with slavery, when a shorter one would have been enough, perhaps starting with Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. I also did not care for the chapter at the end about recent racist problems in the U.S., which seemed extra. Her thesis that the political infighting and alleged sexism was the result of COINTELPRO (J. Edgar Hoover's targeting of the Panthers) sowing seeds of distrust and discontent, rather than drug usage or false narratives, is novel and may well be correct. This is a much more readable and comprehensive history of the Black Panthers than some of the other books previously published although the graphic inserts were distracting for me.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an absolutely fascinating depiction of what the Black Panther Party was like. The book had a great balance of historical information and compelling narratives. The pictures were also really cool to see so this is not a good book to listen to. Enthralling all the way through and incredibly informative this book should be required reading.

[Hoover Public Library Kids and Teens · Rating 5 out of 5]

National Book Award Finalist, Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor Book, Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Walter Dean Myers Honor Book -- yeah, it's that good.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting book. I learned so much about the Black Panther Party. The facts about the BPP really do contradict the public image that has always been perpetuated about them.

[Aja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who wants to understand why the Black Panthers were revolutionary should absolutely read this book. It makes me sick the way society has smeared these people.

[Erin Cataldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I went into this book hardly knowing a thing about the Black Panthers other than their image - and I was so grateful to get to learn more about the organization, the leaders, and the beliefs. This nonfiction book may have been written with young adults in mind but it is also perfect for adults who want to learn more. It is accessible, filled with photographs, and encompassing, but not too bogged down with minutia; it was wonderfully written. Everything I thought I knew about the Panthers was either misconstrued, false, or only half right - there was so much more to the organization than I thought! It's really depressing the way that the Panthers have been portrayed in the media, movies, and the textbooks - they were so much more than the negative press. Fascinating stuff and I'm so glad I actually know the big picture now. I would love to read some of the memoirs written by the founding members and leaders!

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Whether it’s to protect the children, or due to a misguided faith in their own power to solve everything, the perennial mistake of elders is to dismiss the power and potential of youth. On the flip side, the mistake of youth is often to dismiss the wisdom and experience of those who have gone before. In their day, the Panthers didn’t make either of these mistakes. They placed the core of their emphasis on building a cadre of revolutionary youth, and they promoted empowerment through education about Black history. They were undermined and overturned at every stage, perhaps partly because of the truly systemic nature of the change they envisioned, and the fact that they made real progress in these directions in a very short time frame."

This is an excellent primer, aimed at teenagers, on the Black Panthers that I would strongly recommend to teenagers likely to be interested in the topic. It is a strongly positive overall view of the Panthers, written explicitly to inspire similar ambitions, but not one which avoids the internal disputes or controversies. Topics Magoon covers includes sexism within the party (and the struggle against it - Magoon in particular credits Elaine Brown and Ericka Huggins for the many years they ran the organisation), the impact of trauma, differences over armed struggle vs service programs, differences over legal vs illegal tactics. She frequently highlights tensions - such as the reality that many of the most successful pivots politically also were the least popular. Topics like Huey Newton's drug use are dealt with clearly and without sensationalism. The tone throughout is impressive, eschewing the patronising tone often delivered in young adult non fiction for an approach that focuses on clearly explaining unfamiliar ideas with accessible, concise language.
While the first half is focused on explaining the basics, the second half holds up as one of the most thorough and thoughtful summaries of the tangled history of the BPP that I have encountered. Perhaps because of the audience, Magoon is able to pull her focus away from the endless debates about who shot first in various scenarios (she often utilises the phrase "it is unclear exactly what happened..") and into the broader dynamics at play. She dedicates the longest chapter to explaining COINTELPRO, drawing heavily in materials released in recent years, covering the use of provocateurs, fake news, overt state violence and the growing impact of the intimidation and stress on the mental stability of leaders to explain how several incidents could spiral into violence. This same approach is brought to understanding the organisation's splits. The intent is always to provoke understanding and to encourage the reader to consider multiple points of view.
The book isn't perfect - it is frustratingly scant on the BPP's internationalism (a casualty, I suspect, of how much world history would need to be covered for a younger audience to understand the nuances). Magoon also, while explaining the various combination of Marxism and Black Nationalism that motivated the Panthers, drifts from that in her own comments into a more modern terminology in ways that could be confusing.
Ultimately, what drives Magoon is her frustration of how much of the literature about the Panthers is inaccessible to teenagers - the very demographic the Panthers were comprised from. This is a great book to start conversations, and for parents who admired the BPP to read alongside their kids. And while acknowledging that tactics must be different - especially around gun control - she shows how the Panthers can challenge the idea that our world now is inevitable:
"For those who live in the Black Lives Matter era, much of what the Panthers did — such as openly approaching police officers while visibly armed — seems shocking to the point of being unimaginable. Black people today find themselves at risk even when unarmed, and myriad examples from recent years indicate that police officers feel empowered to act with lethal force if they even suspect there might be a weapon, or if they simply feel afraid for their lives, a highly subjective judgment that is easily colored by racial bias

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really thorough break-down of the Black Panthers, their movement, and how their efforts still affect us to this day (and the injustice they fought against is still recognizable and sometimes identical, despite the ~50 years of difference.)

I really, really recommend this one! I think it does a good job of providing the right amount of information & background context, although I've watched a bunch of BP documentaries and am pretty familiar with it.

[Chan Fry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history of the Black Panther Party, though intended for a younger audience, was perfect for me (a near-50-year-old white person) who needed to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of recent history. I think my U.S. history education in public school included a paragraph (at most) on the Black Panthers, possibly the same paragraph that included my entire education about Malcolm X. Kekla Magoon did me a great service and I truly appreciate it.

(I wrote a longer review for my website.)

[Kinsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super enlightening and educating read. There is so much that is not widely known about the Black Panther Party and what they stood for. I think it's really unfortunate what has been widespread about the party and the false information that has spread. Kekla Magoon has done a great job of telling the truth and bringing light to this topic.

"The Revolution has always been in the hands of the young." -Huey P. Newton
"In moments of nervousness and fear, when the ground is shaking and it feels as if the world might come crashing down, sometimes people forget that earthquakes are, in fact, not sudden. Nor do serious political movements arise in one fell swoop. Nothing happens overnight. The major turning points of history are seismic, born of eons of slightly shifting geologic plates. They do not emerge from nowhere. They are born of deep unrest." (p. 9)
"the founders of the new America enshrined in the most integral document of the land the notion that Black people were less valuable-indeed, less human-than white people." (p.17)
"The chasm between the principles upon which this Government was founded, in which it still professes to believe, and those which are daily practiced under the protection of the flag, yawn so wide and deep." -Mary Church Terrell (p. 27)
"passive resistance did not mean "not fighting back." It meant fighting back smarter, fighting back stronger, and never mirroring the simplistic physical lashing out that racist white people relied upon." (p. 46)
"Even though white police officers armed with guns regularly committed acts of brutality, people assumed that they were in the community to do good, yet they just as readily assumed that Black people carrying legal guns in the community were there to cause trouble, even when they had not done anything wrong. The very idea of Black people with guns upset many Americans, regardless of what they had done with them or what they planned to do with them." (p. 80)
"The most important tools for liberation and revolution were intellectual engagement and mental freedom, not the carrying of weapons." (p. 99)
"violence may beget violence, but if you are Black in America, nonviolence also begets violence." (p. 134)
"Rule number 23 of the BPP: Everyone in a leadership position must read no less than two hours per day to keep abreast of the changing political situation." (p. 160)
"If a Panther broke a rule or was late, they would be "brought up on charges" and disciplined. The discipline usually involved either physical activity, like running around the block; political education, like having to read a book and write a paper about it; or simply an extra duty, like cleaning up around the Panther office. The Panthers thought discipline should be productive for the member and the Party." (p. 161)
"each person the Panthers trained was expected to turn around and share their knowledge by seeking to educate and empower ten others." (p. 163)
"Because of their constant presence, people in the communities learned that they could turn to the Panthers for help with any problem, small or large. "The Panther office became the emergency center for damn near everything," ...The Panthers made it a point to really be there for people, and Black communities grew to love them. And above all, the Black Panthers loved the people right back." (p. 164-165)
"this idea of love, this undying love for the people, It's love that would make you work in the welfare centers and the housing takeovers, and organizing the schools and then do those community patrols and then sell newspapers and try to raise money for political prisoners, It's love that would make you, when you ... saw the cops had somebody against the wall with their guns drawn, that would make you [go] stand between those cops and those drawn guns for someone that you hadn't met but that you understood was your brother or sister." (p. 165-166)
"In a time when the other nationalist organizations were defining women as varefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen, women in the Black Panther Party were working right alongside men, being assigned sections to organize just like the men, and receiving the same training as the men, further, the decisions about what a person did within the ranks of the party were determined not by gender but by ability." (p. 168)
"The thing I really loved about the Black Panthers was that they refused to be ignored." -Father George Clements (p. 257)
"There are more than a few remarkable things about this tragic trend. (speaking about shootings in the US) One, in responding to these scenes, law enforcement officers have repeatedly proved themselves capable of apprehending armed active shooters without using lethal force. This stands in sharp contrast to the viciously biased way Black suspects are treated when there is even a hint of suspicion that a gun could be present." (p. 294)
"In this country, it would seem, white American scan do no wrong and deserve to be protected at all costs. If the price of their comfort is the lives and liberty of Black Americans, this country is more than happy to pay. The Panthers' stories, and all these that followed, illuminate a shocking disparity in how people of different races are treated." (p. 296)
"I have come to realize that picking up the gun was/is the easy part. The difficult part is the day-to-day organizing, educating, and showing the people by example what needs to be done to create a new society. The hard, painstaking work of changing ourselves into new beings, of loving ourselves and our people, and working with them daily to create a new reality-this is the first evolution, that internal revolution" - Safiya Bukhari (p. 299)

Resources referenced:
- Guerrilla Warfare by Che Guevara
- The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
- I Speak of Freedom by Kwame Nkrumah
- The Lost Cities of Africa by Basil Davidson
- The Nat Turner Slave Revolt by Herbert Aptheker
- American Negro Slave by Herbert Aptheker
- Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennett Jr
- American Negro Poetry--story of the Negro by Arna W. Bontemps
- Black Moses by E.D. Cronin
- Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. DuBois
-The World and Africa by W.E.B. DuBois
- Black Mother, the. Years of the African Slave Trade by Basil Davidson
- Studies in a Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon
- From Slavery to Freedom--Negro in the United States by John Hope Franklin
- Black Bourgeoisie by C.F. Frazier
- The Other America by Michael Harrington
- Garvey and Garveyism--The Philosophy and Opinions of Garveyism by Marcus Garvey
- The Myth of the Negro Past by Melville J. Herskovitts
-A History of Negro Revolts by C.L.R. James
- MUNTU: The New African culture by John Janheinz
- Blue People by LeRoi Jones
- Black Muslims in America by C.E. Lincoln
- Malcolm X Speaks by Malcolm X
- The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Mwmmi
- Ghana by Kwame Nkrumah
- We Charge Genocide by William L. Patterson
- Africa's Gift to America by J.A. Rogers
- World's Great Men of Color: 3000 B.C. to 1946 A.D. by J.A. Rogers
- The Negro in Our History by Charles H. Wesley and Carter G Woodson
- The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Van Woodward
- Native Son by Richard Wright

- Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver
-Black against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr.
- A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story by Elaine Brown
- Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas by Emory Douglas
- Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention by Jamal Joseph
- Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton by Bobby Seale
- Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers by Stephen Shames and Bobby Seale
- The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution by Bryan Shih and Yohuru Williams
- March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Pattillo Belas
- Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Belas
- Claudette Colvin: Twice toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
- Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Stories by Ellen Levine
- March by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
- How to Build a Museum: The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture by Tonya Bolden
- Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Now is Your Time! The African-American Struggle for Freedom by Walter Dean Myers
- Heart and Soul: The Story of American and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon
- Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon
- blackpast.org
- EdLiberation.org
- itsabouttimebpp.com
- slaveryandremembrance.org
- snccdigital.org
- zinnedproject.org
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (documentary)
- The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 (documentary)
- Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement (documentary)
- Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners (documentary)
- Merritt College: Home of the Black Panthers (documentary)

[Christin's_Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insanely powerful and informative.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many other readers and students of history, I was eager to read this book as soon as I heard about it. As another reviewer noted, Kekla Magoon's earlier books, The Rock and the River and Fire in the Streets, had only served as an appetizer on the topic of the Black Panther Party as did Rita Williams-Garcia's One Crazy Summer in which three sisters visit their mother in Oakland and have their racial consciousness after they learn about their mother's involvement with the Black Panthers. I'm old enough to remember all the hysteria associated with the Panthers, the way they looked, and the way the media portrayed them. I can also remember reading about raids on their offices and residences. In this thoroughly-researched book for teens, readers will be able to learn about the reasons behind the formation of the Black Panther Party and its leaders as well as how they worked for change. Providing breakfast for children, food for the community, and health care were priorities as they recognized the need to feed the body as well as the mind and soul. It's clear from the text, the references, and Source Notes that this book was a labor of love for Magoon and that she admires much of what the Panthers did and stood for. While I would have loved more detail about some of the leaders, I could see how this group offered hope and promise to Black men, women, and children, and how their existence heralded changes that still need to be made today. Magoon offers quite a bit of Black history leading up to the Black Panthers' origin as well as makes a case that the Panthers' very existence had long-reaching effects, even influencing the Black Lives Matter movement and other recent social justice movements. I'm not sure that this influence has been as pervasive as she seems to think, but it's worth a thought or two. For teen readers especially, though, the book reminds them that social transformation happens because of youth, something that has played out recently, and that they can work for change now rather than waiting until they are much older. Another noteworthy aspect of this history is how Magoon painstakingly makes sure she includes the women who were involved in the Panthers, a glaring omission in many other civil rights stories. Even the sidebars offer interesting asides that some readers will want to follow up on. Overall, I finished the book impressed with the research, the writing, the Panthers' mission, and those lost opportunities for change. Reading the book will certainly make a cynic out of even the most fervent believers in this nation's fairness or its justice, legal, and law enforcement system. I could go on and on about incarceration rates and the prison industrial complex, all touched on here, but I urge everyone who cares about our country and its wounds to read this book and then decide for themselves what the Panthers brought to this nation and why their stories have been omitted from history curriculum and the civil rights narrative. And yes, as another reviewer noted, apparently, teachers aren't supposed to mention any of this to their students. Thank you, Kekla Magoon, for this important contribution to the history of our nation.

[Sara]

Highly recommended for young adult readers as a survey text covering the history of the BPP and contextualizing the anti racist youth activism that both proceeded & followed it. Magnified excerpts of primary source documents throughout not only engage, but provide informative examples of close reading for young readers. also obviously you will never hear anyone in public education say the word cointelpro so kids need to read this.

[Sam Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Kekla Magoon is a truly fantastic writer. She’s one of those authors who doesn’t seem to have any holes in her game: YA fiction, check; MG fiction, check; PB biography, check; and now, YA nonfic, check. The only thing keeping this engrossing book from 5 stars is the slightly slow-moving “Kindling” chapters, which give a needed background for young readers (but which may turn away other more experienced readers, including young people with more than a passing knowledge of Black History). Still, this book is an achievement and deserves all the awards it received and more.

[Brenda Kahn]

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. This comprehensive history of the Black Panthers is a must-read for anyone/ everyone who wishes to truly understand racism in the U.S. This is a book I will return to again and again.

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book with a vague understanding of the Black Panthers, but I underwent a direct study of this group until reading Magoon's book. Most of my exposure to the Black Panthers came from a white perspective that just focused on a very narrow view of this group as militant, uncompromising, and irrational.

It was good to read a Black author describe this group in a more complex, nuanced way.

She starts with a protest in Sacramento and then spends some time creating a larger historical, cultural, political context for why this group would take direct action to advocate for the rights of Blacks in the US. The chapter "Post-Party Concerns" addresses several contemporary concerns for Blacks in America, such as the prison system, the Black Lives Matter movement, shootings of unarmed Blacks by police.

In between there is a detailed history of the Black Panthers' origins, many key leaders, descriptions of the party platforms, the FBI's response to the Black Panthers, raids on party members, a schism in the party, and the waning of the party.

Magoon writes a 315 book with copies pictures throughout making it accessible. (The page total is 390 if counting the back matter: acknowledgements, key people, time line, glossary, further reading, source notes, bibliography, image credits, copyright acknowledgments, and index.

Ideal readers for this book would be those ages 13 to 18, but I can also see this book working in an 100 level college class as one of a half dozen books for a course in US history, race and ethnic studies, or US political science.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

so glad to have read this!!!

this book offers a guide to the Black Panther Party, from its formation to its end. the author discusses important figures, events, values, and movements that led helped shape the party- before, during, and after. I truly learned so much.

the formatting and style of the book made it easy for me to engage with and understand, and the pictures helped put a face/image to the history. the book was written for young adults, and the author aimed to empower and educate young folks regarding their ability to make change in the community around them, and her presentation of history helped to do that well.

the existence of the BPP truly demonstrated the power of the people to take action and organize within their communities- protecting, educating, empowering, and serving them with courage and dedication

go read this book!! so much untaught history and narrative shifting/retelling to be found here

for example, this book was super revealing as to the lengths the govt will go to in order to control narratives/views of Black folks- a whole fbi initiative/sector (cointelpro) was dedicated to subverting and infiltrating the BPP just because they were practicing their legal rights and protecting/serving their own. they were deemed dangerous bc they knew what was happening to them, called it out, and did something about it. how powerful is that?!

loved reading this book

**I might edit this review tomorrow when I'm more awake haha

[George Kasnic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by my middle school media specialist. A detailed examination of the BPP. Covers history from 1619, then focuses closely and in detail on the BPP movement, philosophy, leaders, allies, opponents, victories and defeats. It covers the reasons behind decisions made, the inconsistencies of dominant societal reaction, and the end of the movement, and it’s roots in its historical successors.

The book does a great job covering the BPP social action programs, leadership of Black women, making the reality of the movement reflective of their wide-ranging good works, rather than their image of legal armed resistance. There is also an excellent set of capsule biographies at the end, along with a comprehensive timeline illustrating the BPP.

The book loses one star for a glaring historical oversight which the author and editors missed. Reconstruction is presented as the resurgence of white domination in the South, when it really was a flowering of African American initiative and political power. The book misses this opportunity to present an early example of what African-American culture could achieve when given a fair opportunity.

[Jaclyn Hillis]

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today.

“Watching these race and class disparities play out once again in the streets of our nation, it is clear to me that the history we study is still happening right in front of our eyes, just as it was happening in the Panthers. They took action. Will we?”

If I had a coffee table, this book would definitely be on it.

FURTHER RECOMMENDED READING:
- The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker & Marcus Kwame Anderson

[Ishika · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a life changing read, and I feel so inspired. I actually had no idea this was a book geared towards young adults until the end — no wonder it was so clear and defined so many crucial terms/moments in history!! I learned so much that was of course overlooked in my public school history education. I have a huge page on my notes app filled with moments where I was so fascinated and devastated and inspired. I was tearing up at every chapter. I think the authors note was my favorite part of this book. I love how she highlighted the importance of young people in activism and I felt so seen. The whole book highlighted the historical significance of activism on college campus and teenagers being so involved in revolutionary movements. I would recommend this book to every single person but especially to my friends who are also in college. I’m so glad this book exists and it’s 100% my new favorite thing.

[Danielle Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

“[Former civil rights movement leaders] declared in retrospect that the biggest mistake of the civil rights era was to believe that all the problems could be solved in their lifetime, and they failed to train the next generation to take up the mantle in the necessary ways to maintain the struggle. … in their day, the Panthers didn’t make this mistake.”

This book is a history of the Black Panther Party, sure, but also a treatise on how young people can affect change. Throughout the text, Magoon never lets us forget that history is only as good as the lessons we keep learning from it.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminded me of Lifting as We Climb: Black Women's Battle for the Ballot Box, in that both are important and recent books on Black history that cover the basics. Teens can definitely read this and it talks about Black history in a way that isn't done in most classes (ex. using "enslaved people" instead of "slaves").

[Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best book I will read this year. I will be shocked if something overtakes it.
As a white person and even as a white educator, the Black Panther Party has always been a bit of a footnote. Briefly mentioned but never fully discussed. And in the times it was mentioned, it was always as a stark contrast to the nonviolent resistance of the 1950's and 60's civil rights movement. It was really amazing to read a full history of the BPP, their rhetoric, growth, and incredible work in Black communities. This book also had the most succinct explanation of socialism I've read.
This should be required reading for all.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from a great layout—I particularly liked the use of blue overlay on black and white photos to make them less old fashioned—this is an engaging history where the author lays out the conditions of Black people in 1960s Oakland and elsewhere. Knowing those conditions, the Black Panthers make a heck of a lot of sense. I'm hoping this will be read far and wide.

Read for Librarian Book Group

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book, telling the true story of the Panthers. I lived through this time but knew only what the media reported, which was always negative. The book sets the record straight, is easy to read, and includes photographs and sidebars that add much to this history. The Panthers' goals and their actions on behalf of the Black community were admirable. What the FBI and law enforcement did to the Panthers was horrifying.

[vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty comprehensive look at the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party. It’s written in a positive manner, explaining how COINTELPRO sought to sabotage the Panthers while most active chapters were focused on feeding and educating the community. I kind of wish it had been more narrative in parts; the chapters are divided further into smaller subjects… this came across a bit choppy on the audiobook. This is a history I loved learning about in college, where I wrote a huge paper on Angela Davis’s fight to free political prisoners in the face of literal government interference.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great and important read. Geared towards teens I'm finding these YA books about critical topics an accessible way to learn more and get my mind thinking.

The white narrative I've been told in school and through media about the Panthers is such a sham. Surprise surprise.

[besala · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Print & Audio