In this nuanced and groundbreaking history, Donna Murch argues that
the Black Panther Party (BPP) started with a study group. Drawing on
oral history and untapped archival sources, she explains how a
relatively small city with a recent history of African American
settlement produced such compelling and influential forms of Black
Power politics.
During an era of
expansion and political struggle in California's system of public
higher education, black southern migrants formed the BPP. In the
early 1960s, attending Merritt College and other public universities
radicalized Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and many of the young people
who joined the Panthers' rank and file. In the face of social crisis
and police violence, the most disfranchised sectors of the East Bay's
African American community--young, poor, and migrant--challenged the
legitimacy of state authorities and of an older generation of black
leadership. By excavating this hidden history, Living for the City
broadens the scholarship of the Black Power movement by documenting
the contributions of black students and youth who created new forms
of organization, grassroots mobilization, and political literacy.
