A new book about the Black Panther Party, “Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party,” by Stephen Shames and Ericka Huggins is reintroducing the organization’s legacy as a public health champion. Among the commanding photos in the coffee table book are images of efforts to get Blacks across the country tested for sickle cell in the 1970s.
The Black Panther Party started in Oakland and its mission to be the first line of defense in the Black community spread nationwide.
Members saw health as a social justice issue. They hosted neighborhood clinics and engaged Black health professionals and medical students to go out in the community to educate people on sickle cell disease. Dr. Mary T. Bassett wrote about them in 2016 in an online article titled, “Beyond Berets: The Black Panthers as Health Activists.”
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