Black History Month: the Seattle Black Panther Party display at the Douglass-Truth Library

-posted by Kelli K.

The Douglass-Truth Library is hosting an outstanding exhibit in honor of African American History Month: the history of Seattle’s Black Panther Party. Full of photographs, copies of the Black Panther Newspaper, books, and even a black leather jacket and black beret, it visually illustrates the views and impact of the Black Panthers in Seattle’s civil rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s.

Making the exhibit possible are: the Black Heritage Society of Washington, the Northwest African American Museum, Gordon Jackins for his recent donation of Black Panther Newspaper issues to the Black Heritage Society, E. Toliver Jr. for his donation of the black leather jacket and beret to the exhibit, and Stephanie Johnson, who spent two days setting up the display with a family of three who volunteered to help her.

In conjunction with this exhibit is the film, Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, which is showing at the Central Library, Tuesday, February 16, 2016, 6:30 – 9 pm.

For more information, here’s a selection of the items Seattle Public Library has about the Black Panther Party:

The Black Panthers
Up Against the Wall: Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party

Framing the Black Panthers: the Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon

We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party

Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America

Nine Lives of a Black Panther: A Story of Survival

Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention

Will You Die With Me? My Life and the Black Panther Party
A great online source, available through Seattle Public Library’s Local History link, is The Pacific Northwest Labor & Civil Rights Project. There you can find the Seattle Civil Rights Project, which has a special section on the Seattle Black Panther Party.