Black Panthers for Beginners [Paperback]

Herb Boyd (Author), Lance Tooks (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1995

Boyd examines the legacy of the Black Panthers, assessing the tangible and the intangible contributions of these young militants, as well as where they went astray. Contains profiles of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, David Hilliard and others. Illustrations throughout.

Product Details

• Paperback: 153 pages
• Publisher: Writers & Readers (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0863161960
• ISBN-13: 978-0863161964
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,529,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Herb Boyd is a journalist, activist, teacher, and has authored or edited 22 books, including his most recent one, Civil Rights: Yesterday & Today. His book Baldwin's Harlem, a biography of James Baldwin, was a finalist for a 2009 NAACP Image Award. In 1995, with Robert Allen, he was a recipient of an American Book Award for Brotherman--The Odyssey of Black Men in America, an anthology. We Shall Overcome, a media-fusion book with narration by the late Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, is used in classrooms all over the world, as is his Autobiography of a People and The Harlem Reader. His articles can be found in such publications as The Black Scholar, The Final Call, the Amsterdam News, Cineaste, Downbeat, and The Network Journal, among others.
Among the highlights of his remarkable journalistic career was an invitation to fly on Air Force One with President Obama, whom he has interviewed on several occasions.
Over the last decade or so, Boyd has scripted several documentaries, including several with Keith Beauchamp on cold cases of martyrs from the civil rights era that were shown on Biography Channel and TV One. With filmmaker Eddie Harris, he was the writer on three documentaries--Trek to the Holy Land, Cri de Coeur (Cry from the Heart), and Slap the Donkey, that tracks the Rev. Al Sharpton's presidential bid in 2004. The latter film was recently selected to be screened at the Montreal Film Festival in 2010. Boyd is also a frequent guest on national television and radio shows, as well as a keynote speaker at many functions sponsored by noted community and college organizations, where his commentaries on African American culture and politics have earned him an increasingly large audience and popularity. For more than forty years, he has taught at institutions of higher learning. Currently, he teaches at the College of New Rochelle in the Bronx and at City College New York, and is also a national and international correspondent for Free Speech TV.org, a media company that specializes in Internet television.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good outline, October 11, 2001

By 

Bakari Chavanu - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Panthers for Beginners (Paperback)

I'm currently reading other books on the Panthers, and I can say that Boyd's Black Panthers for Beginners is a pretty good introduction to the activist group. He seems to outline the history of the Party and the reasons for its popular appeal.

The book would be a very good gift/read for young students; however, I hope this book will lead readers to read primary sources and more extended works about the Panthers. For example, one should definitely follow up Boyd's "Beginners" with a reading of Huey P. Newton's memoir "Revolutionary Suicide" and other works by Panther members.

The only problem I had with this book is that the author didn't include enough about the "survival" programs of the Party which included the community schools and breakfast programs. Understandably it was important for Boyd to focus on Party's constant run in with the racist police force, but when you finish the book that part of the Party becomes the lasting impression you get of the Party. It almost seems like that history of the Party was little more than a history of police raids, informants, murder raps, court appearances, acquittals, and violence. While this reality existed, it's important that we understand the vision of the Party.

Lastly, I would hope this work inspires a definitive biography of the Black Panther Party. It needs to be written by someone who understands the vision of the Party but at the same time will work to describe the problems that ultimately bring the Party down.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellence, February 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Black Panthers for Beginners (Paperback)

This is an excellent book on the black panthers. In fact, i have amassed more information on the BPP from this book than all of the panther books that i have read so far. Do not be fooled by the fact that this is a comic book, it contains nothing but pertinent information

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Book for someone interested in Black History, August 26, 1999

By 

Reid W. Wyatt (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Panthers for Beginners (Paperback)

All I can say is, this is one of the best ways to spend $10! If you are reading this review, you are interested. Buy this book at once! It is fabulous!