Liberated Territory

“Liberated Territory is a worthy addition to the growing literature on the Black Power era and the Black Panther Party. Its insights should not only foster additional research on the local conditions of Panther chapters and their relationship to the national leadership, but also provide useful insights into the study of the organization as a whole.” - Eric W. Petenbrink, Journal of African American History

“Liberated Territory helps to decenter the Oakland top-down approach to studying the Black Panther Party by critically engaging with the stories of rank and file party members in locations far beyond Oakland. Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow have produced a collection that will quickly become a model for others to emulate.” - Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, author of America’s First Black Town: Brooklyn, Illinois, 1830–1915

“Liberated Territory is a very impressive anthology. Its focus on the local histories of the Black Panther Party helps to fill a yawning gap in scholarship and adds to the expanding corpus of innovative scholarship on the black power movement. By developing a broader understanding of the party’s local chapters, people, and politics, the essays shed light on the provincial nature of the party while providing important context for understanding the national organization.” - Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, author of Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity

“Anyone interested in the BPP, or in Black Power activism in overlooked places such as Birmingham, will learn a great deal from Liberated Territory.” - Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Alabama Review

“Students of American and African American history will find Liberated Territory enlightening and instructive for illuminating the history of a widely understudied and commonly misconstrued organization. The five essays advance the momentum for continued scholarly research on Black Power’s local impact, which is essential for a better understanding of the movement’s diverse character and national appeal.” - Karen M. Hawkins, North Carolina Historical Review

“Yohuru Williams and Jama Lazerow and their contributors challenge the conventional narrative of the 1960s that focuses predominantly on the liberal civil rights movement, to the exclusion of the radical black power movement, and either evades any discussion of the Black Panther party (BPP) or portrays the organization negatively. . . . These narratives demonstrate the importance of local circumstances in Panther history. . . . Liberated Territory makes an important contribution to the growing scholarship on the Black Panther party.”
- Floyd W. Hayes III, Journal of American History