Individual Stories of Black Panther Party Women.
Saturday, March 22, 2003
Session VII 2:30 pm-3:20 pm
Elaine
Brown, former Chairman of the Black Panther Party, Adia Harvey, Ph.D.
Candidate, Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, and Roze, Black Women’s
Network.
Elaine Brown is a former leading member of the Black Panther Party and author of A Taste of Power and The Condemnation of Little B. She is president of the nonprofit education corporation Fields of Flowers, the mission of which is to build a massive model education center for black and other poor children.
Ms. Brown is a board member of Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice, and also sits on the board of The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. Ms. Brown lectures at colleges and universities throughout the country on realization of the vision of a world society without racism, gender oppression or class disparity.
In 2001, Ms. Brown’s papers were acquired by Emory University. In 2002, Ms. Brown re-recorded one of her original songs for the new label Black Panther Records, on a CD featuring hip-hop artists The FUGITIVES.
Adia M. Harvey
Abstract
Many critical assessments of gender dynamics in the Black Panther Party
castigate the organization for perpetuating sexism and embodying patriarchal
ideals. However, this paper argues that one of the Party's most underappreciated
contributions was that it drew attention to the intersection of racism
and gender inequality. Female Panthers' discussions of the ways that race
and gender shaped their experiences in the Party indicate that the organization's
progressive ideology (a) created a conceptual framework that allowed them
to address sexism internal and
external to the organization and (b)promoted a space in which members
could combat it. Thus, greater attention should be given to the ways the
BPP drew attention to the existence of patriarchy in Black communities,
rather than focusing solely on the ways sexism was replicated in the organization.
Biographical Sketch
Adia M. Harvey is a doctoral candidate in
sociology at the Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include
social inequality with particular attention to race, class, and gender;
sociology of women workers, and the study of social movements and collective
action. She currently teaches two classes at Johns Hopkins: Seminar on
Social Inequality and Writing in the Social Sciences. Adia hopes to complete
her PhD by May 2004 and to attain a faculty position.
Roze
Roze is a representative for the Black Women's Network (BWN), an organizer and a networker. She coordinates the BWN project and exhibit, "On Your Shoulder We Stand! Sankofa."
Pat Parker was an activist and a revolutionary
poet. She was in the
Black Panther Party and the Black Women’s Revolutionary Council.
She was the medical coordinator of the Oakland Feminist Women’s
Health Center and a performing artist. As a performing artist, she toured
with the Varied Voices of Black Women. Pat Parker’s first public
reading of her poetry was in 1963. “Parker’s gift is her ability
to capture and further the poetic voice of resistance….” (from
New Bones: Contemporary Black Writers in America Chapter 60)
Pat Parker advocated for human rights in
all her personal and political
work. She self-identified as “wife, mother, activist, revolutionary
poet, and lesbian.” In 1979, Pat Norman introduced Roze to Pat Parker
and Roze has vowed to remain free of closets ever since.