60 Years Later, the Black Panthers are Still the Blueprint

Movement for Black Lives

Sixty years ago in Oakland, California, the Black Panther Party was born into an America that unapologetically treated Black life as disposable.

In a deliberate response, the Panthers refused to accept systemic cruelty, or wait for a hostile state to save us. They re-imagined care as power-building and created what our country refused to provide:

• Free breakfast for children the state sent to school hungry
• Free medical clinics where public hospitals turned us away
• Free groceries, Freedom Schools, and sickle cell screenings organized nationwide

Basic care became radical and easily accessible, a powerful expression of community love and self-reliance. Their vision recognized that a community that can feed, heal, and educate itself cannot be controlled.

When police and government crackdowns couldn’t dismantle our programs, they attempted to rewrite our history and impact instead with slander campaigns. A massive movement consisting of thousands of cooks, nurses, educators, writers, and organizers was intentionally minimized to the methods of protection used to address systemic violence from unwarranted police raids to bomb threats.

They tried to bury the story, but the collective’s blueprint outlived the erasure. Today’s mutual-aid networks, community fridges, free clinics, and neighborhood food programs across the nation are living proof that the Panther Party’s vision is still alive and built by thousands of people doing daily work – most of whom never become household names.

For the 60th anniversary of the Black Panther Party, we’ve decided to honor six revolutionaries, whose names you may not know, but whose impact you’ve felt and seen across every facet of our fight – from health and disability justice to education, coalition building, women’s leadership, and organizing far outside of Oakland.

Preserving our elder’s stories has made one thing clear: the Party dedicated decades of care to the community, and now they deserve to receive that same care. The Elder Care Fund is our commitment to making liberation a lifelong right. They kept the people’s promise, and now it’s our turn to keep it for them. The fund is M4BL’s commitment to ensuring the liberation of political prisoners is a lifelong right – extending to the medical, spiritual, and healing care our elders need whether they’re still incarcerated or returning home.  It’s our opportunity to return support to leaders who actively, and unapologetically, fought for intergenerational liberation.

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