This lecture is a study of groups in Great Britain, New Zealand, India, Australia, Israel, and Palestine that did not have any direct contact with the Black Panther Party but chose to create movements in their respective countries modeled after the Panthers’ grassroots community organizing and racial coalition strategies. All of these groups emulated the Black Panther Party because each group believed that their struggle as poor, underserved and oppressed people was aligned with the struggle of black people throughout the world. More importantly, the power of the liberation struggle led by the Black Panther Party in the US that impacted the struggles of poor and oppressed people in Europe, the South Pacific, the Middle East, and Asia has been understudied for far too long.

Jakobi Williams’ research interests are centered on questions of resistance and social justice revolutions found within the African American community. His most recent book, From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago, demonstrates that Chicago’s Black Power movement was both a response to and extension of the city’s civil rights movement. Williams is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities grant, the National Humanities Center Fellowship, and the Big Ten Academic Alliance-Academic Leadership Program.