I believe that we must share a common context for what has happened before we can shape what should happen. The Black Panthers believed that such a world could only come through true revolution. Equality that is reflected in housing, in the police force, in education, in integration of society, in self-determination for all. Leroy GoodwinI believe we have entered another Civil Rights era, and I have a perhaps naive hope that this one will finally complete the mission that was left incomplete during the time of MLK and Malcom X and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense: full, meaningful equality. Until we seize power, not visible power where a black man looks like he's running things-but real, actual power everything else is bullshit Peace and order are bullshit they are meaningless without justice.' I don't say this type of thing much, but here goes: I believe that if you live in the US, this is one of those books you should read.

Listen to an interview with the authors here: Informed by twelve years of meticulous archival research, as well as familiarity with most of the former Party leadership and many rank-and-file members, this book is the definitive history of one of the greatest challenges ever posed to American state power.īlack Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Bold, engrossing, and richly detailed, this book cuts through the mythology and obfuscation, revealing the political dynamics that drove the explosive growth of this revolutionary movement, and its disastrous unraveling. The authors analyze key political questions, such as why so many young black people across the country risked their lives for the revolution, why the Party grew most rapidly during the height of repression, and why allies abandoned the Party at its peak of influence. cities and powerful allies around the world.īlack against Empire is the first comprehensive overview and analysis of the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. In the face of intense repression, the Party flourished, becoming the center of a revolutionary movement with offices in 68 U.S. government and positioned itself as part of a global struggle against American imperialism. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement that called for full citizenship rights for blacks within the U.S., the Black Panther Party rejected the legitimacy of the U.S. In Oakland, California, in 1966, community college students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton armed themselves, began patrolling the police, and promised to prevent police brutality.

Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom