Survival Pending Revolution: The History of the Black Panther Party

5. Women and the Black Panther Party

5 WOMEN AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY It is our belief that the role of Black Women is the same as everyone else in the struggle to educate, mobilize, organize, and fight to the best of her ability. The word revolutionary has no gender. It is neither masculine or feminine. It is neutral, which means a revolutionary can either be male or female. —Right On!, December 1971 From 1971 to 1980 the Black Panther Party tried to change its public persona from being revolutionaries to being a political reform organization. Women stepped to the fore at this time and led many of the survival programs.This was fortuitous for the party because the reputations of their top male leaders had been severely damaged by political killings and revelations of financial turpitude . The new political direction would have to be productive to wipe out the memory of recent disasters. The decision to turn away from arms to community service aided women ’s rise to prominence within the BPP. The slightly higher educational level of women prepared them for key positions in the organization’s schools and medical clinics. The BPP conducted a skill survey of 119 members in 1973. The fifty-two women and sixty-seven men were from throughout the nation. Forty-two women (81 percent) had graduated from high school, and thirtythree (63 percent) had at least one semester of college. One woman had a bachelor of science degree. Forty-six men (68 percent) had graduated from high school, and twenty-nine men (43 percent) had at least one semester of college . One man had a bachelor of arts degree. The surveys revealed that men and women performed the same jobs within the party’s ministries of health, women and the black panther party / 99 information, and culture. Men and women also worked as secretaries with the central committee, in the finance cadre, and in the area of legal defense.1 The story of the women’s struggle for equality is an integral part of the history of the BPP. From Tarika Lewis, generally acknowledged as the first woman to join the Panther Party, to JoNina Abron, the last editor of the newspaper, women worked diligently to further the organization’s goals. They also had to wage an ongoing battle to change male perceptions of their proper role within the BPP. The decision-making and leadership roles of women in the Panther Party increased exponentially from its founding in 1966. At the same time, however, there was a wide range of personal and ideological experiences within the BPP. As a result, there was no all-encompassing male or female experience during the party’s existence. The first indications of a changed role for female Panthers occurred in 1969 when the government killed, incarcerated, or drove into exile many of the male leaders. Government repression forced the Panther Party to forsake artificial gender categories and use personnel in the most logical manner. At the same time, female members, aware of their ability, began to demand that they be treated as comrades-in-arms, not merely clerks or sexual partners. The organizational changes required a great deal of adjustment on the part of men. The reality that women were taking the same risks facilitated the process. Political change over time and a constant influx of recruits also meant that there was never a static party attitude on women’s liberation. In addition, the position of women cannot be considered separately because men were influenced by similar social factors, though their reaction may have been different. The struggle for respect and equality took place throughout the party’s existence . Even though the gender equity issue sometimes damaged internal relations, it never overshadowed the Panthers’ dominant political message of community empowerment. Panthers were thus more or less inclined to accept changes in gender status depending on their individual makeup, the time period they served in the BPP, the nature of the change, and the caliber of local and national leadership. In many ways the Panther Party mirrored the larger society’s attempts to solve the “woman question.”The American people, buffeted by a decade of po- 100 / chapter 5 litical unrest, war, and cultural change, struggled to redefine themselves in the 1960s and the early 1970s. Many women, regardless of race or income status, were restive and dissatisfied with their traditional role in society. They sought...