Diane Fujino - Black Power Afterlives: The Enduring Significance of the Black Panther Party

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.

INTRODUCTION

The Enduring Significance
of the Black Panther Party

Diane C. Fujino and Matef Harmachis

There is a paradox in writing about the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense fifty years after its founding. The instant recognition of the Black Panther Party (BPP) contrasts with the sparsity of any sustained study of the Partys continuing influence on later generations of activism. As is broadly acknowledged, the BPP is one of the most significant organizations of the twentieth century. There is now a sizeable literature of rigorous studies of the BPP, but nearly all of these, by design, examine the party during its existence. Yet even a cursory review of some of todays most visible activist and cultural productions are revealing of the Black Panthers ongoing impact. The widely covered Black Lives Matter protests against police violence call to mind, in different form, the BPPs famed police patrols. Mega-celebrity Beyoncs 2016 Super Bowl halftime performance was a clear reference to and celebration of the BPP. Football star Colin Kaepernicks widely coveredand controversialtaking a knee against police brutality during the national anthem at NFL games harkens back to John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising the Black Power fist at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, with all three athletes inspired by the BPP. The 2018 smash hit movie