Museum Exhibit Reminds How Black Panthers Planted Seeds for Change

This post was originally published on Sacramento Observer

By Genoa Barrow

Growing old isn’t a privilege afforded to many revolutionaries. Seeing former Black Panther Party members with leathered skin and gray hair instead of leather jackets and Afros is a privilege in itself.

Former members of the Black Panther Party joined together at the California Museum to share reflections on the organization’s legacy and lasting impacts of members’ social activism, and the costs they paid for it.

Speakers emphasized the BPP’s revolutionary approach to community service, such as their free breakfast program, health clinics, liberation schools and sickle cell anemia awareness campaign. Artists Emory Douglas, Malik Edwards and Gail Asali Dickson talked about working on the BPP’s famed newspaper and the importance of art as an educational tool.

“People loved us,” said Ericka Huggins, author of the 2022 book “Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party.” Huggins is often approached by people who benefitted from the BPP’s efforts.

“We’re talking tears of gratitude sometimes,” she continued. “They never believed what mainstream media said because we were feeding the babies, we were taking care of their grandmothers, we were doing all of these things while trying to keep ourselves safe. It’s amazing that each one of us are here, that all of the party members who are here are alive.”

Labeled terrorists by the FBI, the BPP was systematically targeted and dismantled, members were investigated and many of those who weren’t killed faced decades of incarceration and prolonged solitary confinement. 

“We actually taught ourselves to do the sickle cell anemia test. These were just regular folks at a party, and here we were running these medical tests. We tested more people at that time in the history of sickle cell anemia testing in this country. We just did it. We figured it out. We learned to fly the plane while it was in the air.” 

– Malik Edwards on how the BPP took the lead in sickle cell awareness in the 1970s.

“It breaks my heart to think about it,” Huggins said.

The gathering of former BPP members, “By the People, For the People,” helped launch a new exhibit, “Revolutionary Grain: Celebrating the Spirit of the Black Panthers in Portraits and Stories” by documentary photographer and educator Susanna Lucia Lamaina. The exhibit, on display through Sunday, Nov. 2, is based on Lamaina’s book of the same name and features portraits and personal stories of former BPP members. Lamaina said the “deeply personal” work is her way of honoring the organization’s legacy.

“The Black Panthers changed history. Black history, yes, but American history as well,” she said. “We have all benefited from their dedication and commitment to creating a better world and their vision of love for the people.”

A 70-year-old woman recently approached BPP historian Billy X Jennings at the opening of the Black Panther Party museum in downtown Oakland. The woman attended one of the BPP’s survival schools as a youth.

“She told me that that was the best part of her summer,” Jennings said. “She learned so much about Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, about Denmark Vessey, and Marcus Garvey. She had never heard those names before, so for her to tell me that 50-60 years later, it showed that what we were doing sunk in.”

Lamaina was inspired to create “Revolutionary Grain” from her own experiences in the counterculture and social justice movements of the 1960s and ’70s.

“As a young woman, the Black Panther Party helped shape my values around social justice, diversity, equality and inclusion [issues] from a community perspective,” she said.

“‘Revolutionary Grain’ tells an essential American story,” said Amanda Meeker, executive director of the California Museum. “These photographs capture the humanity of the Black Panther Party members, while their first-person recollections illuminate the ways in which the party provided a sense of purpose that continues to inspire their everyday activism today.”

The event was part history lesson and part call to action, as civil rights, diversity, equity, and inclusion are under attack under the current presidential administration. Many former Panthers are still making a difference in their communities, working as educators, lawmakers, social workers, and political activists.

The event was held the same day as the national No Kings marches and rallies brought thousands to the state capital.

Panelists called for continued activism and community service to honor the BPP’s legacy.

“It’s time for us to take [our power] back,” Dickson said. “With the survival programs that we were doing, we were breaking the chains of the old way of thinking. We were freeing people’s minds from that colonial mind of thinking. We were showing people another way. We were giving them a vision of a new possibility and the vision still exists today.”

There is always something to do, Huggins added: “It doesn’t have to be a program, it doesn’t have to be a project. It doesn’t have to be money. It could be anything that you could put a little bit of time to and have somebody join you in it.”

The exhibition is on view in the museum’s rotating gallery at 1020 O St.. The California Museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $8-$10. For more information, visit CaliforniaMuseum.org/RevolutionaryGrain.

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