
Liberated Territory: Untold Local Perspectives on the Black Panther Party
Williams
The histories and character of the party branches vary as widely as their locations. The Cape Verdeans of New Bedford, Massachusetts, were initially viewed as a particular challenge for the local Panthers but later became the mainstay of the Boston-area party. In the early 1970s, the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, chapter excelled at implementing the national Black Panther Party’s strategic shift from revolutionary confrontation to mainstream electoral politics. In Detroit, the Panthers were defined by a complex relationship between their above-ground activities and an underground wing dedicated to armed struggle. While the Milwaukee chapter was born out of a rising tide of black militancy, it ultimately proved more committed to promoting literacy and health care and redressing hunger than to violence. The Alabama Black Liberation Front did not have the official imprimatur of the national party, but it drew heavily on the Panthers’ ideas and organizing strategies, and its activism demonstrates the broad resonance of many of the concerns articulated by the national party: the need for jobs, for decent food and housing, for black self-determination, and for sustained opposition to police brutality against black people. Liberated Territory reveals how the Black Panther Party’s ideologies, goals, and strategies were taken up and adapted throughout the United States.
Contributors: Devin Fergus, Jama Lazerow, Ahmad A. Rahman, Robert W. Widell Jr., Yohuru Williams
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Reviews for Liberated Territory: Untold Local Perspectives on the Black Panther Party
Hasan Kwame Jeffries
Alabama Review
“Students of American and African American history will find Liberated Territory enlightening and instructive for illuminating the history of a widely understudied and commonly misconstrued organization. The five essays advance the momentum for continued scholarly research on Black Power’s local impact, which is essential for a better understanding of the movement’s diverse character and national appeal.”
Karen M. Hawkins
North Carolina Historical Review
“Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow and their contributors challenge the conventional narrative of the 1960s that focuses predominantly on the liberal civil rights movement, to the exclusion of the radical black power movement, and either evades any discussion of the Black Panther party (BPP) or portrays the organization negatively. . . . These narratives demonstrate the importance of local circumstances in Panther history. . . . Liberated Territory makes an important contribution to the growing scholarship on the Black Panther party.”
Floyd W. Hayes III
Journal of American History