The Black Panther Party and Transformative Pedagogy

Place-Based Education in Philadelphia

By (author) Omari L. Dyson

Publication date:

14 November 2013

Length of book:

214 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739177549

The Black Panther Party and Transformative Pedagogy: Place-Based Education in Philadelphia, by Omari L. Dyson, is the first scholarly text to detail the social relief efforts of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Branch of the Black Panther Party. Through a postcolonial lens, this story captures the lived resistances, highlights the socio-historical context, and examines the discourse of former members of the Black Panther Party and local residents of Philadelphia from 1968-1974. Overall, this book provides insight from a multiplicity of sources to better capture the identity(-ies) and complexity of the organization. Not only does this text resolve a dearth in the literature that highlights the multiple facets of the Black Panther Party (especially at the local level), but it serves as a template on effective strategies for researchers, educators, and policymakers to implement on their quest for social and educational transformation.

Preface, by William H. Watkins
Foreword
Chapter 1: Who’s Buying Gold?: A Debt of a Dream
Chapter 2: Time Bakes the Bred
Chapter 3: Panthers "Out of Pocket"
Chapter 4: Providing Community Relief
Chapter 5: Panthers in a State of Siege
Chapter 6: A Telling Legacy
Chapter 7: The Cost of Truly Educating
Chapter 8: A Brief Conversation with Omari L. Dyson
Tables
Endnotes
Bibliography
About the Author

Dyson offers an intricate, thorough, and penetrating examination of the Philadelphia Black Panthers, contextualizing their efforts within a search for transformative and uplifting approaches to teaching and learning. For anyone interested in understanding about just how powerful and politically attuned to place initiatives of the Black Panthers were, this text focused on a largely unstudied Philadelphia chapter is essential reading. Dyson brings together interviews, archival research, and Black curriculum perspectives to understand the roots of a social-educational movement.