Driven by the Movement: Reports from the Black Power Era

A collective portrait of the Black Power movement by radical journalist and former Black Panther JoNina Abron-Ervin

Driven by the Movement collects the stories of twenty ordinary people who did extraordinary things for the Black liberation struggle during the pivotal decade of 1965-1975. These activists came from across the US and all walks of life--single working mothers, members of the clergy, students, teachers, military veterans--to organize against police brutality, poverty, hunger, substandard schools, and colonialism in Africa. Drawing from her own experience at the heart of the movement, JoNina Abron-Ervin's on-the-ground reporting offers a rare look into the pragmatism and optimism, compromise and contradiction that animated the Black Power era. This profile of a moment records the real work of revolution, with its diversity of tactics and its everyday acts of dedication.

The second part of the book includes two additional essays by the author: the first, a history of the Black Panther newspaper as a source of mass political education through its large distribution, recounted by one of its former editors. The latter essay tells the story of the Black Panther Party's survival programs, such as its groundbreaking Free Breakfast for Children program, as well as free health clinics, housing co-ops, and bussing to prisons, which supported communities around the country while drawing links between racism, poverty, and capitalism.