INTRODUCTION

In schools, newspapers, and popular culture, the Black Panthers are often presented as armed Black radicals.

Images of the 65 community survival programs that the Panthers created in Oakland—among them a free clinic, vibrant community learning center, and busing for seniors program—are less prevalent. One of the most impactful and long-lasting of these programs was the Oakland Community School (OCS), an elementary school in the Fruitvale neighborhood of East Oakland.

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At the OCS, students were nourished in body and mind. They were provided with three meals a day, encouraged by Black teachers and staff, and taught to become critical thinkers who were engaged with their community and its history.

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The materials we have gathered provide valuable insight into the evolution of the Panthers’ schools, from the Children’s House into the Intercommunal Youth Institute and later into the Oakland Community School.

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When people look back at Panther schools and see how they changed over time, some critics say that Oakland Community School diluted the revolutionary, radical spirit of the Children’s House and the Intercommunal Youth Institute.

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This collection of documents tells a different story. Though Panther ideology was not central to the Oakland Community School curriculum, in providing predominantly Black, low-income students — students who may have otherwise been marginalized and harmed by the public school system — with care, healthy food, and emotional support, while also sparking their curiosity and critical thinking, thinking, the OCS not only served the community, but also disproved the narrative of the uneducable Black child. This in itself was a radical act.