![]() ![]() Scholar bell hooks suggests that before racial integration, African Americans struggled to create “a counter-hegemonic world of images that would stand as visual resistance, challenging racist images.” 5 Given the media attention on the BPP’s militant appearance, this counter-archive of images produced by supporters of the BPP, such as Shames, ensured that the true commitments of the organization would be documented and preserved. ![]() 3 Following these early schools and recognizing the failure of public schools to adequately prepare Black youth for the life ahead of them, the BPP formed the Intercommunal Youth Institute (later renamed the Oakland Community School) in January 1971, to begin breaking this “seemingly endless cycle of oppression.” 4įrom 1967 to 1973, photojournalist Stephen Shames had unprecedented access to the BPP, documenting the organization, the Institute, and its individual members. With its programs to serve the people, the Party sought to remedy the practical and ideological deficits of civil rights ‘progress’ as it was embodied in the War on Poverty.” 2 By working directly in and for local communities, the BPP ensured that their programs served those who needed the services they provided.Īs part of their commitment to Black communities, the BPP began liberation schools led by volunteers after school in storefronts, churches, and homes in 1969. The programs “were instituted as parallel alternatives to the Johnson administration’s anti-poverty scheme …. The commitment to these programs came from the BPP’s recognition that the legislative strides made in the 1960s, namely the Civil Rights Acts of 19, did not break down the barriers to equality still faced by Black communities. In fact, by 1970, a People’s Free Medical Clinic was a requirement in every chapter. ![]() Community service had become a central component of the BPP’s mission, and the group committed itself to organizing nearly two dozen social and educational programs to benefit Black communities across the nation, from free medical clinics to voter registration drives. In 1968, just two years after the Black Panther Party (BPP) was founded in Oakland, California, the Party’s headquarters mandated that all chapters inaugurate “serve the people” programs. ![]()
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