In “The Black Panthers: Portraits From an Unfinished Revolution,” the photographer Bryan Shih and the historian Yohuru R. Williams tell the rarely heard stories of the rank-and-file members of the organization through portraits, interviews and scholarly essays. Fifty years after the Black Panthers’ founding, in October 1966, the volume, published by Nation Books, goes beyond charismatic leaders like Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver and allows the group’s members to reflect on their personal experiences. Below are portraits by Mr. Shih, along with short biographies as they appear in the book and audio excerpts of the testimonies.
Claudia Chesson-Williams
Claudia Chesson-Williams (b. April 23, 1951) was a member of the Corona, Queens, Branch of the Black Panther Party. She later worked in the Information Technology Department of Columbia University for twenty-three years, and then for Greenhope Services for Women, an alternative-to-incarceration program. She is part of the Black Panther Commemoration Committee New York, which hosts an annual festival to raise money for political prisoners.
Phyllis Jackson
Phyllis Jackson (b. September 15, 1950) grew up in Tacoma, Washington, before joining the party at the National Headquarters. She served as a communications secretary and ran a voter registration campaign. She is an associate professor of art history at Pomona College, teaching arts and cinema of Africa and the African diaspora.
Nelson Malloy
Nelson Malloy (b. September 22, 1946) helped found the Winston-Salem Chapter of the Black Panther Party in North Carolina, and he also ran the chapter’s free ambulance service. He was shot by fellow Panthers and left for dead in the aftermath of a botched assassination attempt (in which Malloy was not involved) to silence a potential witness in a murder trial against Huey P. Newton, the charges for which were eventually dropped.
Ajamu Strivers
Ajamu Strivers (b. August 19, 1950), a self-described “service brat,” lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico; France; and Arizona before his family settled in Sacramento, California, where he joined the Sacramento Branch of the party. He later worked for the state of California in roles including elections, telecommunications, warehouse management, and health and safety.
Herman A. Bell
Herman A. Bell (b. January 14, 1948) grew up in Brooklyn, New York, before moving to Oakland to play college football on a scholarship. He is currently incarcerated in Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, where he has served more than forty-two years of a twenty-five-years-to-life sentence for killing two New York City police officers. While in prison, he earned bachelor of science degrees in psychology and sociology and a master’s degree in sociology and has been active in various prison programs. While incarcerated, he also helped found the Victory Gardens Project in rural Maine, which taught gardening and farming skills in the context of political awareness.
Charlotte O’Neal
Charlotte “Mama C.” O’Neal (b. March 9, 1951) joined the Kansas City Chapter of the party, but not long after fled the United States with her husband and chapter founder Pete O’Neal, after he was convicted of transporting a gun across state lines. They currently reside in Tanzania, where they created the United African Alliance Community Center, which offers a variety of arts and educational programs. She is a musician, poet, speaker, and writer.
Mike Tagawa
Mike Tagawa (b. February 19, 1944) was born in Minidoka Relocation Camp in southern Idaho, one of several such camps in which Japanese citizens were interned during World War II by the US government. After being released, he and his family moved to the Central District of Seattle. He joined the US Air Force and later the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party. He currently works as a bus driver for King County Metro in Seattle.
Hazel Mack
Hazel Mack (b. June 12, 1951) was a member of the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Chapter of the party. She graduated from Temple Law School and serves as regional managing attorney for Legal Aid of North Carolina. She is also founder and board president of the Carter G. Woodson K–12 Charter School.
William Johnson
William “BJ” Johnson (b. March 4, 1949) grew up in Corona, Queens, where he also joined the party. Later he was the road manager for a singing group called the Variations that he says opened for James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., and Aretha Franklin.
Katherine Campbell
Katherine Campbell (b. October 8, 1951) was raised in San Francisco, where she also first encountered the party. In addition to working on the newspaper, she was a longtime worker at the Oakland Community School, where she was in charge of preparing special menus for people with allergies.
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