Love as Power: The Black Panther Party’s Enduring Legacy
Oakland, California
Black history is American and world history. The ingenuity, brilliance, creativity, and resourcefulness of Black people and our movements have shaped the world as we know it. Yet, one of the most insidious tactics of psychological and spiritual warfare used by oppressors is to rewrite history, obscure truth, and distort the stories of marginalized voices.
Few stories have been more demonized, vilified, and distorted than that of the Black Panther Party. The truth? Their mission, ethics, and embodiment were a beacon, a light and a blueprint for how we can heal, uplift one another, and dismantle the systems that keep us fractured, overwhelmed, and divided.
Since childhood, I’ve been enamored with the Black Panther Party—their presence, their strength, the way they carried themselves with intelligence and unwavering discipline. Their militancy was not about aggression but about love—a love so fierce, so radical, that it governed their very existence to protect, empower, and nourish us.
“Love” is a word that has been stripped of its depth and power. But here at Whole with Joy, when we say our work is rooted in a love ethic, we mean the kind of love the Black Panther Party embodied. The love that protects. The love that builds. The love that defends. The love that uplifts and seeks justice.
As Ericka Huggins said: “Love is an expression of power we can use to transform our world.” This is the love that Whole with Joy is striving to nurture, a love in action. A love that moves. A love that builds. And the Black Panther Party’s survival programs give us a blueprint for how to do just that.
Walking the Land Where They Stood
This past year, I had the privilege of visiting Oakland, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party. I joined a tour led by the Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network, walking the streets where Angela Davis, Ericka Huggins, Assata Shakur, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, and so many others once stood. There is power in placing your feet on the ground where history was made, where stories still linger in the air.
What I learned during my visit was that the real story of the Black Panther Party was one of human rights—the right to live, to have access to food, to affordable housing, to healthcare, to self-defense, and to self-determination. Their survival programs were designed to sustain and empower the community. They understood that we save ourselves.
The Free Breakfast for Children Program fed over 20,000 children a day before the U.S. government—threatened by the program’s success created their own federal breakfast program. The People’s Free Medical Centers provided access to healthcare, while their political education programs taught community members about their rights, their history, and their power.
Elder Satura Ned, an original member of the Black Panther Party, shared that theirs was a dynamic, intentional grassroots movement built on storytelling, real-time connection, and deep listening. They didn’t just talk about revolution; they went into their communities, across the country, to listen to hear what people needed and to build coalitions beyond what many thought possible.
They united people across lines that society told them were uncrossable. Black and White. North and South. Urban and rural. Jews and Gentiles. They understood that liberation cannot be achieved in isolation. It requires collective power.
And that is precisely why the Black Panther Party was demonized. Not because they were violent. But because they were effective. Because they mobilized. Because they built community. Because they exposed the failures of the U.S. government by stepping in to care for the people it refused to serve.
They Fear Our Awakening
The state has always feared the collective power of an awakened people. That’s why the Black Panther Party was labeled a “threat” by the FBI’s COINTELPRO, targeted with assassination, surveillance, and disinformation campaigns designed to fracture the movement. The goal was to erase their legacy to make us forget.
But we must not forget.
It’s up to us to go beyond the surface, to seek truth at the source, to listen to the voices of those who lived these experiences, not the voices of those who profit from telling lies, spreading propaganda, and dehumanizing Black liberation movements.
At its core, the story of the Black Panther Party is a love story. Because love protects. Love liberates. Love unites. Love harmonizes. This is what love does. This is who love is. Look at how the Panthers loved us—how they moved, how they fought, how they built. And yes, how they defended us when necessary.
As Huey P. Newton said before he was assassinated on the streets of Oakland:
“You can take my body, but you cannot take my soul.”
No matter how hard they try to bury the legacy of the Black Panther Party, no matter how they have fractured the movement, they will never kill its spirit. The essence of what they stood for lives on.
The Black Panther Party left us with a blueprint. A model for community building. A strategy for survival. A framework for love in action. They were embodied soldiers of love.
The question is: Will we study it? Will we embody it? Will we carry it forward?
Resources
Here are photos from the BPP Alumni Tour:
“Educate to Liberate” : Two documents listed highlighting the Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Platform and a list of the 65 community survival programs they created from 1967–1982.
To learn more about the Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network and their ongoing work, visit: https://bppaln.org/
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