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Brilliant, painful, enlightening, tearful, tragic, sad, and funny, this photo-essay book is at its core about healing, and about the social justice work that still needs to be done in the era of hip-hop, Black Lives Matter, and the historic presidency of Barack Obama."" ,Kevin Powell, author of The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood A brilliantly conceived volume. Bryan Shih and Yohuru Williams demonstrate why the Panthers'story,its lessons and failures,even fifty years after its founding remains key to understanding national and international struggles for freedom and justice today."" ,Cheryl Finley, professor and director of visual studies, Cornell UniversityEven fifty years after it was founded, the Black Panther Party remains one of the most misunderstood political organizations of the twentieth century. But beyond the labels of extremist"" and violent"" that have marked the party, and beyond charismatic leaders like Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver, were the ordinary men and women who made up the Panther rank and file.In The Black Panthers , photojournalist Bryan Shih and historian Yohuru Williams offer a reappraisal of the party's history and legacy. Through stunning portraits and interviews with surviving Panthers, as well as illuminating essays by leading scholars, The Black Panthers reveals party members' grit and battle scars,and the undying love for the people that kept them going.

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9781568585550

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Fifty years [since the party's founding], photojournalist Shih and historian Williams observe that the party remains 'one of the most misunderstood organizations of the twentieth century.' To dispel this fog, they met with 45 surviving rank-and-file members, men and women who went on to become teachers, professors, attorneys, elected officials, founders and directors of not-for-profit organizations, and artists. Each is present here in striking photographic portraits and revelatory oral histories...Incisive essays provide a larger historical context. --Booklist, *Starred Review* With a splendid assemblage of pictures and interviews, photographer Shih and historian Williams shine fresh light on the people in and the diverse activities of the Black Panther Party (BPP) on the 50th anniversary of its founding. Shih's photographs of the 45 interviewees have the vibrancy and immediacy of treasured family portraits. The interviewees' compelling recollections are buttressed by succinct but substantive essays...The special virtue of this book is as bottom-up, rather than top-down, history--an illuminating view of the everyday aspects of one of the most misunderstood organizations of the 20th century. --Publishers Weekly This highly recommended compilation of interviews and photographs of the Black Panther Party helps reframe its legacy to include the humanitarian work they performed across the United States. Readers interested in the current Black Lives Matter movement will find resonance in the Panthers' stories. --Library Journal An interesting celebration of a unique era's activism. --Kirkus Reviews A half century ago the Black Panther Party shocked America. With their black berets and black leather jackets and slogans of Black pride. With their Black power fists and their guns in response to police brutality in their 'hoods. And with their self-produced newspaper and free breakfast program for kids. The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution is an hypnotic reflection pool on the movement, the mythologies, and the women and men who challenged oppression as no other organization made in America ever had before. Brilliant, painful, enlightening, tearful, tragic, sad, and funny, this photo-essay book is at its core about healing, and about the social justice work that still needs to be done in the era of hip-hop, Black Lives Matter, and the historic presidency of Barack Obama. --Kevin Powell, author of The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood The Black Panthers: Portraits from an Unfinished Revolution is a brilliantly conceived volume that offers a refreshing take on a well-trod history too often told from the perspective of its Oakland-based, male leaders and their iconic images. Uniquely, this powerful book is driven by Bryan Shih's recent portraits of local chapter rank-and-file members, whose gripping recollections told in oral histories illuminate the complexity and importance of the BPP's grassroots organizing structure in history and for our own times. This innovative volume boasts a remarkable series of essays by leading scholars on a range of topics including Black Power, women, the rank-and-file, ethnic nationalism, health activism and international outreach as well as a treasure trove of archival images from the Black Panther Newspaper. Together, Bryan Shih and Yohuru Williams demonstrate why the Panthers story -- its lessons and failures -- even fifty years after its founding, remains key to understanding national and international struggles for freedom and justice today. --Cheryl Finley, Associate Professor and Director of Visual Studies, Cornell University

Author Information

Bryan Shih is a photojournalist based in New York. A former contributor to the Financial Times and National Public Radio in Japan, he is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar. His work on the Panthers has garnered him one of the highest rankings among entries in the LensCulture 2015 Portrait Awards competition, and has led to his selection for the New York Times inaugural portfolio review.Yohuru Williams is a historian and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University. He is the author and or editor of several books on the Black Panther party, including Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven (Blackwell, 2006), In Search of the Black Panther Party, New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement (Duke, 2006), and Liberated Territory: Toward a Local History of the Black Panther Party (Duke, 2008). He has appeared on Al Jazeera America, Ebru TV, Fox Business, C-SPAN, and NPR.

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