Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination

Abstract

The Black Panther Party (BPP) for Self Defense, organized in Oakland, California, in 1966, has been the subject of increased interest by academics over the past decade, but while most chroniclers have concentrated on the political impact of the party, in Body and Soul sociologist Alondra Nelson of Columbia University focuses her attention on the important, but less well-known, health-care programs administered by the Party. Clinging to the image of gun-toting, bereted, leather jacket-wearing militants, most Americans do not appreciate the social programs instituted by the Black Panthers for inner-city communities, including food, clothing, and even legal aid. Nelson argues that the development of health programs by the BPP were part of a “shift in emphasis from self-defense to self-help,” (72) and places the creation of the Party's health-care programs in the larger context of health-care activism of the 1960s and 1970s. Central to the BPP's outreach was improving the health-care delivery for inner-city blacks who suffered from both inadequate and racist health-care facilities and delivery.