Praise for Black Power Afterlives
What Fujino and Harmachis have done with this collection of articles is comparable in scope to Charles Joness The Black Panther Party (Reconsidered), and Judson Jeffriess Comrades, both superb and deeply critical anthologies, but with a provocative twist: what would be the historical impacts of the Black Panther Party half a century hence? As a young member of the original collective, I can say without contradiction, we were so busy, and often so nerve-wracked that we barely thought about the next fifty minutes, much less fifty years! Fujino and Harmachis show us that history is never done. It runs like a river, sometimes rushing, sometimes meandering, but always moving.
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, author of We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party
Black Power Afterlives constructs an urgently needed bridge between the Black Power era and the Black Lives Matter movements of today. Deftly sidestepping well-trod ground, the authors trace how the Panthers international engagements, artistic practices, ideological frameworks and community organizing have continued to influence new generations of activists. By locating the Panthers richest legacies in the work of students, poor Black folks, and Black queer feminists, and in the sustained commitment of political prisoners, it reminds readers of the transformative possibilities of struggle.
ROBYN C. SPENCER, author of The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panthers Party in Oakland
The Black Panther Partys 1966 armed actions against police brutality in Oaklands Black community reorganized mainstream consciousness in the United States. The BPP exposed entrenched notions of gun-ownership as the exclusive right of white Americans. The Partys armed cop-watch, aesthetic exaltation of Blackness, and challenges to capitalism also released Black resistance from the states ideological grip. Black Power Afterlives is the first book to explore this post-60s reorganization of Black consciousness, resistance, and humanity. Its intervention is as urgent and rich as the legacy of the Black Panthers.
JOHANNA FERNNDEZ, author of The Young Lords: A Radical History
Black Power Afterlives gives us concrete insights into the continuing significance of the Black Panthers without the common iconization and stereotypes. Through carefully chosen writings and interviews we are reminded of the transformative power of movements and real people that envision a far more just and equitable future for humanity and the planet.
CLAUDE MARKS, director, the Freedom Archives
The vivid, engaging, and compelling testimonies that Diane C. Fujino and Matef Harmachis have collected in Black Power Afterlives offer unparalleled insights about the origins, evolution, and continuing influence and impact of the Black Panther Party. This is an indispensable book, one that demonstrates how oppositional social movement organizations fuel future struggles long after they seem to have departed from the scene.
GEORGE LIPSITZ, author of How Racism Takes Place
Tender and determined, these meditations on the enduring afterlives of the Black Panther Party illuminate the incandescent dreams of freedom joining one revolutionary generation to another. The essays and conversationson art and prison, ecology and the spiritfocus on the lessons rank-and-file Panthers have to offer todays rank and file. They remind us of the eternal dedication and determination required of us all.
DAN BERGER, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era
Black Power Afterlives shares important insights about the Black Panther Party and radical activism. Examining an inheritance that bridges two centuries, it explores mobilizations against poverty, exploitation, imprisonment, violence, and war. Fred Hamptons Rainbow Coalition sought to wrest victories from police in order to secure Power to the People. With prescience, Hampton warned that he would not die slipping on icy Chicago streets, and that we either organize with radical intent or forget him. Black Power Afterlives remembers Fred and the sacrifices of those who fought and fight for their communitiesespecially political prisoners. Recognizing the need to free them all, and our communities, Black Power Afterlives builds an archive and a foundation for continued struggles.
JOY JAMES, author of Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics
There are more stories of the deep and continuing legacy of the Black Panthers than can be contained in any one book, but Black Panther Afterlives does a good job at beginning to fill the gap. Editors Fujino and Harmachis present us with a must-read book, essential to a true understanding of the positive ways in which Panther politics can and do enrich our lives today.
MATT MEYER, secretary-general, International Peace Research Association; coeditor and author, Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st Century Revolutions
2020 Diane C. Fujino and Matef Harmachis
Published in 2020 by
Haymarket Books
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618
773-583-7884
www.haymarketbooks.org
ISBN: 978-1-64259-208-5
Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com).
This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.
All royalties from this book go to the Yuri Kochiyama Fund for Political Prisoners in support of former Black Panthers and other political prisoners and liberation struggles broadly.
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations and institutions. Please email for more information.
Cover design by Eric Kerl.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.
