In Search of the Black Panther Party

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Controversy surrounded the Black Panthers from their founding in Oakland, California, in 1966. Labeled by J. Edgar Hoover as “the single greatest threat to the nation’s internal security,” the group has been both celebrated and vilified. This interdisciplinary collection offers a nuanced analysis of the Panthers, featuring contributions from historians and scholars in political science, sociology, and more. The essays explore the Panthers' revolutionary violence, radical ideology, urban politics, popular culture, and media representation. They examine the Panthers as distinctly American revolutionaries shaped by specific local conditions and interconnected with other movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. One contributor analyzes the legal foundations of the Panthers’ struggle, highlighting their engagement with the Constitution. Other essays delve into individual stories, including a former Panther wrongfully imprisoned for murder and an FBI agent tracking the Oakland branch. The collection also assesses the Panthers' relationships with groups like Students for a Democratic Society and the Young Lords, their use of revolutionary aesthetics, and the complex dynamics of media manipulation. This scholarly exploration reveals that the quest to understand the Black Panthers is just beginning.