Honoring the Black Panther Party on Its 60th Anniversary
Six decades ago, a group of young Black activists in Oakland began policing the police. They fed schoolchildren, started medical clinics, created a multilevel grade school and published a newspaper that reached people around the world.
In leather jackets and berets, they reinvented the color black. And, through their collective willpower, they fanned the flame of self-determination that has long burned within the Black community.
The Black Panther Party, founded in 1966, was one of the most important organizations of the 20th century. This month, as The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation and It’s About Time BPP commemorate the vanguard organization’s 60th anniversary, the Black Panthers will be honored with a gala, numerous workshops, a community day in West Oakland and more.
“We’re opening it up with an exhibition by Billy X Jennings,” says Dr. Xavier Buck, executive director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. On Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Oakland Public Library’s main branch, Jennings, a Black Panther Party historian, leads attendees through an exhibition titled Honoring the Rank & File. He’ll also lead a panel discussion and screening of the documentary film Lords of the Revolution.
“And then,” says Buck, “we’re partnering with Oaktown Thursdays, and doing a special 60th anniversary tribute; LaRussell is the headliner for that.”
On the following day, Friday, Oct. 16, brings a variety of workshops, many led by former Panthers or their children, known as Panther cubs. Mel Charles from Sacramento’s Malcolm X Academy leads a discussion about applying the Panthers’ concept of a Community School to 2026. A critical look at reproductive health comes courtesy of Dr. Mali Collins, who anchors a session titled “The Black Panther’s Agenda for Black Health: A framework for reproductive freedom in 2026.”
A day full of conversations that bring the Party’s ideas into the present will conclude with a set by East Bay hip-hop ensemble MacArthur Maze at the Oakland Museum of California.
The next day, Oct. 17, offers an even broader variety of sessions. Breath and the City‘s Lissette de la Rosa leads a seminar on breath work, pushing attendees to dive deep within themselves. Former Black Panther Charlotte Hill O’Neal, visiting from Tanzania, will lead a discussion about the Party’s international footprint. Saturday’s schedule also includes a discussion about the relationship between Black liberation and ecology, led by Quinton Sankofa.
Meanwhile, actor Roger Guenveur Smith, who played Huey P. Newton in Spike Lee’s 2001 production A Huey P. Newton Story, will celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary in a screening; Smith will be joined by Steven Adams, Fredrika Newton, and Awele Makeba. Also screening at the event is Alive in Bronze, a short documentary about the efforts of Fredrika Newton and sculptor Dana King to create a monument that now stands on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, honoring the life of Dr. Huey P. Newton.
Saturday evening, Oct. 17, is the main event: the 60th anniversary gala. “It’s going to be a pretty big deal,” says Buck, explaining that Bobby Seale will be present while the cover art for a new edition of his book Seize the Time is unveiled.
Buck, the founding director of the Black Panther Party Museum, says the Bobby Seale Legacy Foundation worked with the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation on the slate of events. “It’s the first time that these legacies have worked together. And it’s important because one of Bobby Seale’s greatest regrets was not making amends with Huey before he was killed in ’89.”
That sort of cooperation is at the center of the entire series, and it serves as a metaphor. “It’s all about looking at this current political moment,” Buck says, “and thinking more about unification than division.”
On the theme of coming together, Sunday, Oct. 18, offers a free Community Day event at Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland, bringing the community back to the same grounds where the Panthers held rallies six decades ago.
A number of other events in October commemorate the Black Panther’s legacy, including a Panther Jam at the Shakur Center in Sacramento on Friday, Oct. 9. On Sunday, Oct. 11, there’s the Seize The Time: A Fashion Experience, led by Futurisme Studios and featuring DJ sets by Home is for Homies. And on Saturday, Oct. 17, Pittsburg’s RP Books hosts a conversation with Michael Roosevelt, author of The Black Panther Party Ten-Point Plan: A Liberatory Journal.
More than a half-century ago, when the late Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale charted 10 specific needs of working-class African American people in this country, they couldn’t have fathomed that many of those demands — namely “Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter of Human Beings” and “Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role in the Present-Day Society” — would remain unfulfilled.
Nor could they have imagined how deeply the work of the Black Panther Party has inspired generations, pushing young people to create change both locally and internationally.
And clearly, the work continues.
The Black Panther Party celebrates its 60th anniversary this month with a series of events. Details and more information here.