Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California

In this nuanced and groundbreaking history, Donna Murch argues that the Black Panther Party (BPP) started with a study group. Drawing on oral history and untapped archival sources, she explains how a relatively small city with a recent history of African American settlement produced such compelling and influential forms of Black Power politics.

During an era of expansion and political struggle in California’s system of public higher education, black southern migrants formed the BPP. In the e...