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Hey YA Readers!
I was thinking about my history education in high school in writing today’s newsletter. I went to a predominantly white high school in an area that was moving from being rural to being more suburban. My high school American history class was one of my favorites, in part because my teacher elected to do things outside the traditional curriculum. I recall him specifically talking about how if the school board found out we were reading Howard Zinn or The Autobiography of Malcolm X they’d likely be unhappy.
Despite these extra readings adding depth to the class, history in America still seemingly stopped around the second World War. “Time” ran out. It’s hard to really sit with that explanation though, given that months seemed dedicated to the wars (and the weeks of learning why and how the Civil War “wasn’t about slavery”) and very little time was given to social movements.
All of that is preface for saying that I don’t recall learning about the Black Panthers except maybe as a line in a textbook, briefly. I suspect my education, despite being a little more broad than most, mirrors what many white Americans experienced as well.
It wasn’t until I met the Black Panthers in Kekla Magoon’s The Rock and the River that I better understood what this group did to help Black Americans. That their role, pushed to the margins of textbooks (if they were mentioned at all), deserved far more attention.
In the last couple of years, YA has brought more history of this Black political organization to young readers, thanks to the anti-racism movement and, of course, Black Lives Matter. Let’s take a look at some of the fiction and nonfiction in YA exploring the Black Panther Party (and indeed, you’ll see Kekla Magoon mentioned a few times here because she really was the first in YA and has been consistently writing about them).
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Black Panther Party by David Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson
Get to know the purpose and philosophies behind the Black Panther party in this nonfiction comic that digs into the group’s founding, their principals, and some of the major figures within the organization.
Freedom!: The Story of the Black Panther Party by Jetta Grace Martin, Joshua Bloom, and Waldo E Martin
This nonfiction account of the Black Panthers just hit shelves. It, too, is about the group’s history, its founding members, and it includes an array of photographs. It’ll be especially resonant with readers who are passionate about anti-racism and Black Lives Matter, as the parallels between the two become apparent.
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
This one is middle grade, but I’m including it since it’s a book YA readers should be familiar with as well. It’s the first in a trilogy.
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are spending the summer with their mother, who moved to Oakland, California, seven years prior to start a new life. When they arrive, the sisters are sent not to Disneyland, like they hoped, but instead, they’re going to a summer camp run by the Black Panthers. It’s here they get an eye-opening look at their family’s history and the legacy of Black lives in America more broadly.
Revolution In Our Time by Kekla Magoon
We’re entering the Kekla Magoon portion of this booklist, and if you are going to choose one book to read from this list, make it Revolution In Our Time. This highly decorated nonfiction title is an in-depth history of the Black Panthers, highlighting the reasons behind the group’s development and the ways in which members helped teach Black citizens to protect themselves in a country that refuses to keep them safe. Magoon does an outstanding job of exploring the reality that much of the group’s power and movement came because of the dedication of Black women.
The Rock and the River and Fire In The Streets by Kekla Magoon
The Rock and the River was Magoon’s first book. It’s a novel following a teen boy in 1968 Chicago as he becomes involved with the Black Panthers and wrestles with what creating change means — his father is a known Civil Rights activist who believes in nonviolence, but once Sam is involved with the Black Panthers, he’s torn on what he believes and how he can best create change.
I’ve included Fire In The Streets in the same blurb here, as it’s a companion novel set in the same year and location, but this time follows Maxie, a 14-year-old eager to be part of the Panthers. The big challenge on her end is too many people believing she’s far too young to get involved.
“Pulse of the Panthers” by Kekla Magoon in A Tyranny of Petticoats
One of my favorite stories in A Tyranny of Petticoats, edited by Jessica Spotswood, is Magoon’s story of a girl who helps her dad in hosting a training weekend for the Black Panthers at their family farm.
You can find more of Magoon’s work in YA about the Black Panthers in the anthology 1968: Today’s Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change compiled by Marc Aronson and Susan Campbell Bartoletti.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
I hope you’ve found some outstanding, compelling, and vital reads here tis week.
Until Thursday, happy reading!
— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.