Introduction: The Continuing Significance of the Black Panther Party

Excerpt

In honor of the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, we here at the Journal of African American Studies decided to mark the occasion with this mini-symposium, consisting of three articles and a book review. Founded in 1966, in response to police harassment, brutality, and murder of Bay Area residents, namely, African Americans, the Party quickly evolved over the next few years, compelling it to establish a number of Community Survival Programs in order to address many of the same issues that plague Black communities in 2021. Issues such as the miseducation of not only Black people, but Americans generally, malnourishment, and access to health care, to name a few. People of color as well as poor people are, in many ways, not significantly better off today than they were when the Black Panther Party was in its heyday. …