Schooling With Community: A History of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School

• In Event: Black Power, Black Freedom Dreams, and Black Joy in Community Schools

Abstract

Under Huey’s direction, Panther Minister of Information, David Hilliard, called for a full-time day school to extend the education for Panther children. The initial purpose was 1) to protect Panther cubs from teacher harassment, and 2) to provide a viable educational alternative to Bay Area public schools. Founded in 1970, “The Children’s House,” would serve this dual purpose. The school grew to become part of a major community center in the Bay Area (Huggins & LeBlanc-Ernest, 2009). In 1973, the then Intercommunal Youth Institute moved to East Oakland and by 1974 changed its name again to the Oakland Community School and Oakland Community Learning Center (OCS/OCLC). During the day, the school leveraged Panther and community resources to educate students in critical thinking and teacher-student constructed learning spaces. After the school day, the school operated as a central space for local families (Author, 2020). This paper argues that by offering “cutting edge” (Author interview with Gillead, 2018) curriculum and culturally responsive education along with meals, dance courses, teen leadership training, martial arts, and more, the OCS and OCLC became both a locus for many Panther survival programs and the extension of a longstanding Black tradition: utilizing educational spaces as centers of Black holistic communal care. Furthermore, I explore the OCS as an extension of growing campaigns for community control, Black independent schools, and the future of the community school model.

Author

• Robert P. Robinson, CUNY - John Jay College of Criminal Justice