When Huey Newton and Bobby seale formed the Black Panther Party in 1966, it was largely a very masculine male oriented organization. It was a year before it had its first female member.
And then in 1968 a 25 year old woman from Philadelphia joined the black Panther party. Her name was Elaine Brown.
It was largely through her efforts that the party became more female-friendly, and in 1971 she succeeded Eldridge Cleaver as the party’s information minister.
When Huey Newton fled to Cuba in 1974 to avoid prosecution in the US, he appointed Brown chairwoman of the party.
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But the party continued to struggle with male versus female rivalries, and when Newton returned in 1977, Brown had had enough, and left the party.
The Black Panthers dissolved in 1982.
Fast forward to 1993, and Elaine Browne wrote A Memoir called A Taste of Power. That’s when I met her.
So here now, from 1993, Elaine Brown.
Elaine Brown will be 82 next week.
She currently heads Oakland & the World Enterprises, an organization she founded in 2014.