Elaine Brown reveals how in 1974 she came to be the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party – and talks about revolution, resistance and activism today
Elaine Brown doesn’t waste time on small talk. Her stint as the first and only female leader of the Black Panther Party may be long in the past, but she remains a present-day revolutionary. It’s why, when she logs into Zoom to discuss her memoir, A Taste of Power – first published in the United States in the 1990s, only now reaching the United Kingdom – she doesn’t want to expend precious minutes on niceties or beating around the bush.
“The situation for Black people in America is largely the same as it was when the Black Panther Party was formed,” Brown explains, from her home in Oakland, California. “We have the highest incarceration and homeless rate; the lowest education and homeownership levels.” She paraphrases Dr Martin Luther King, turning to look at the portraits of her fellow Panthers hanging from the walls of her apartment: Black people in America have double of what is bad, and half of what is good.
