“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”: Community Activism and the Black Panther Party, 1966–1971

Abstract

This article examines the Black Panther Party's community activism from 1966 to 1971, with two aims in mind. First, it provides an overview of the numerous “survival programs” organized by the party in human sustenance, health care, education, and criminal justice, detailing their revolutionary intentions. Second, and more importantly, it challenges scholars to start considering ways in which community activism and revolutionary violence operated in tandem as part of the same strategy for Black liberation. In this way, it emphasizes the necessity to move beyond stagnant characterizations of the party as either humanitarian do-gooders or violent street toughs to construct a more complex interpretation of the BPP's legacy.