The Black Panther Party: History and Theory of a Political Movement

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What is the relationship between Black liberation and the liberation of all people? What are the possibilities for decolonization in an economically interconnected, globalized, and ‘intercommunalist’ world? What is the meaning of revolution? These are just some of the questions that inspired the formation of the Black Panther Party and their political strategies as they underwent multiple ideological shifts between 1966 and 1983. At its height, the Black Panther Party included dozens of chapters in the U.S., an international branch in Algeria, and coalitions with political organizations in over two dozen countries and six continents. The organization was two-thirds female, and the average age was 19. In this course, we combine a wide range of media in order to develop a historical understanding of one of the most influential American social movements of the last century, combining secondary accounts and primary documents such as movement theoretical writings, government documents, oral interviews, documentary films, photography, and more.