A Taste of Power: Oakland Women’s Politics Have Been a Long Time Coming
My interview with Elaine Brown, the last Chairman of the Black Panther Party
A classic GOP talking point to smear black women in politics as Jezebels. They slept their way to the top, right?
It’s a misogynist trope, sure, but the Puritanism also betrays a lack of insight into how people really get to know each other, especially in political hotbeds.
I was reminded of another black superstar femme politico from Oakland, whom I interviewed years ago, upon the launch of her memoir, A Taste of Power. Elaine Brown, the last chairman of the Black Panther Party, whose activism and continues in Oakland to this day.
In the city of the Panthers’ origin— Oakland, California — they transformed local politics to such a degree that candidate Lionel Wilson received the votes he needed to become the city’s first black mayor.
No one would guess it today, but mainstream black Democratic Party politics as we know it would have been unthinkable before the Panthers. I’m sure Kamala and Elaine have met each othe…
