A valuable addition to the history of African American resistance.
An account of the young activists who banded together to form the Black Panther Party and push for change.
This detailed, thoroughly researched account covers the Black Panther Party’s origins until the final office closed in the early 1980s. The party had its beginnings in the contentious relationship between the police and Black people in Oakland, California. However, founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were also influenced by their families’ experiences with Jim Crow, the agitation of the civil rights era, and the developing Black Power movement. Nonviolence held no appeal, but the words of Malcolm X resonated, and the 1966 establishment of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense represented a new approach. As Eldridge Cleaver, Tarika Lewis, Elendar Barnes, and others joined, the party expanded its reach and mission, seeking to improve education, health, and criminal justice systems and speaking out against the Vietnam War. Law enforcement, including the FBI, viewed its members as threats and began to actively seek to undermine the party and destroy its leadership. Debut author Martin is joined by scholars Bloom and Martin Jr., who co-authored an award-winning history of the Panthers. Their insights into personalities and relationships give an intimate look, set against the background of U.S. history, at their struggles and determination to end the oppression of their people. Many photographs from the period enhance the text.
A valuable addition to the history of African American resistance. (Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program, authors’ note, timeline, glossary, photo credits, endnotes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64614-093-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
A chilling look at a time when the government waged war on civil liberties, with the public a complicit ally.
Brimner brings to life a shameful episode in American history when citizens working in the film industry were accused of disloyalty and subversion and persecuted for defending their First Amendment rights.
In 1947, tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States were at an all-time high. The House Committee on Un-American Activities, which included members with ties to the KKK, called Hollywood actors, directors, producers, and screenwriters to answer accusations that they were Communists. Ten who appeared refused to answer questions, citing their Constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly. The “Hollywood Ten” were afterward denied work by all Hollywood studios. Brimner vividly chronicles the hearings and their fallout, braiding stories of individuals into the overall narrative. Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo worked under pseudonyms; director Edward Dmytryk, unable to work covertly, later cooperated with the committee and named names. Drawing heavily on hearings transcripts, Brimner also includes a great deal of historical background to put the story in context. He notes that the origins of HUAC were rooted in America’s first “Red Scare” following the Russian Revolution, and he challenges readers to consider if things are all that different today, citing contemporary examples. The many archival photographs included are testament to the overwhelming whiteness of both Hollywood and Congress.
A chilling look at a time when the government waged war on civil liberties, with the public a complicit ally. (bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62091-603-2
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
The best social justice guidebook we’ve seen in some time—but still disappointingly imperfect.
Styron (Reading My Father, 2011, etc.) encourages teens to take change-making into their own hands in this engaging, approachable, and informative handbook.
The book is broken down into four sections: The Why, The Who, The What, and The How. The second section highlights “a few great moments in US protest history” and “teenage rebels with a cause!” The book goes on to cover climate change, immigration, LGBTQIA rights, race, religion, women’s rights, intersectionality, and (briefly) disabilities. Most of these topics in turn feature a short comic, an introduction to the subject matter (including brief background history and contemporary issues and actions), interviews with contemporary figures from the various movements, and a few spotlights on contemporary activists and organizations. The final section includes everything from how to be an ally and using social media for activism to how to stage a walkout or sit-in. Overall, the content is impressively intersectional, but the uncritical highlighting of some creators (e.g. an interview with Lena Dunham) and protests (e.g. the Boston Tea Party, which utilized cultural appropriation on occupied land) and scant attention paid to the history of disability rights and current concerns in an age of threatened health care as well as other content-related choices make it impossible to recommend this volume wholeheartedly.
The best social justice guidebook we’ve seen in some time—but still disappointingly imperfect. (table of contents, glossary, resources) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-451-47937-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
