In this powerful episode of America: A History, Liam sits down with acclaimed historian Robyn Spencer‑Antoine to unpack the real story of the Black Panther Party - far beyond the leather jackets, headlines, and Hollywood mythology.

Drawing on decades of scholarship, Spencer‑Antoine traces the Panthers’ origins in Oakland’s local civil rights struggles, the socioeconomic inequalities that shaped Black life in the Bay Area, and the global revolutionary ideas that influenced the movement.

As she explains, the Panthers emerged from “this confluence of political consciousness, this sense of possibility, and a desire for a different future, a remaking of America.

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Special Guest:

• Robyn Spencer-Antoine, an acclaimed historian and Associate Professor at the CUNY Graduate Center. She specializes in African American social protest after World War II, urban and working-class radicalism, and gender. She is also the author of The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland, a landmark study that re-centers women’s roles and organizational evolution within the Party,.

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Highlights:

02:17 - The origins of the Black Panthers

08:42 - A uniquely Western movement

11:23 - Huey Newton

15:04 - Provocative versus passive activism

21:23 - The 10 point program

26:39 - The political leanings of the Black Panther party

34:43 - Stigma and stereotypes

42:48 - What happened to the Black Panthers?

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Contact us: america@podcastsbyliam.com

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