Portraits of former Black Panther Party members at Suzun Lucia Lamaina’s exhibit “Revolutionary Grain: Celebrating the Spirit of the Black Panther Party in Portraits and Stories” in Macky Gallery, March 5, 2026. (Ainsley Coogan/CU Independent)
Education and communication are the two most important aspects for youth activism, according to former Black Panther Party members Aaron Dixon, Billy X Jennings and Gayle Asali Dickson. To become Panthers, they underwent a six-week training period, which heavily emphasized historical education.
“The first thing they gave you was this book list,” said Jennings, who was a member of the Oakland chapter from 1968 to 1974.
“You’re going to learn something if you go out and represent us,” he said.
The book list was 25 books long, and encompassed theory and history so that activists could begin to link the current issues they focus on to issues of the past.
“Number one is reading, you know, educating yourself,” Dixon said.
Dixon was a member of the party from 1968 to 1978 and was captain of the Seattle chapter for four years.
In mid-February, Panther Party members visited the University of Colorado Boulder and met with campus organizations, such as Black Student Alliance and Black Women’s Alliance. Their presence was also seen by the broader CU Boulder community. The Panthers participated in a four person panel and Q&A to discuss their history and legacy under the Trump administration. Additionally, an exhibit showcasing the stories of over 40 Panthers is available in Macky Gallery through March 15.
Valentín Figueroa and Khaleigh Reed sat down with the Panthers for dinner, with a few other students and professors. Figueroa is the chair of activism for Black Student Alliance, and Reed is the president of Black Women’s Alliance.
During the dinner, which Figueroa described as full of banter, he began to think about how their activism from half a century ago has impacted him today.
“Without them, I could not have taken Africana Studies, or really any of these beautiful cultural studies I have taken,” he said. “I’m also kind of in the presence of greatness and the people who really paved the path for me.”
In a more intimate setting, the students were able to converse with the visiting Panthers.
Reed explained that she spoke with Ericka Huggins, who had a leading role in the party for 14 years. With Huggins, she shared her desire to pursue documentary filmmaking, and they were able to connect over discussions of future opportunities in the industry
“She (Huggins) goes, ‘Listen with every part of your being and live with your fear, but remember to love yourself,’” Reed said.
Reed connected that quote to her classes, the duties of being president of a student organization and her work for other community organizations, such as Colorado Black Women for Political Action.
On Feb. 12, the four former Panthers conducted a program in partnership with the Department of History and the Center for African and African American Studies. Dickson, Huggins, Dixon and Jennings joined panel attendees to discuss the history of the Black Panthers and the legacy that the party has under the current federal administration in the United States.
Their visit was accompanied by the traveling exhibit “Revolutionary Grain: Celebrating the Spirit of the Black Panther Party in Portraits and Stories.” The exhibit was created by Suzun Lucia Lamaina, an artist based in California, and is available at the Macky Gallery until March 15.
Otim Fauchon, the events coordinator for BSA, attended the panel “The Black Panther Party, the 1960s Black Freedom Struggle, and Their Significance in Trump’s America: A Panel Discussion with Former Party Members.”
“It was excellent, hearing their perspective, how they actually fought back against systems of oppression and how they were able to organize,” Fauchon said.
The discussion included personal stories from when the Panthers worked with programs in the party, such as the Oakland Community School, the breakfast program and the newspaper.
“They probably went through the worst domestic issues that we’ve seen since slavery, and it was very interesting to hear how they were able to combat and build up programs such as the breakfast program,” Fauchon said.
During the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast for School Children Program reached chapters nationwide, feeding thousands of children for free. It was one of over 65 programs the Panthers created to assist the community.
At the panel, Jennings spoke about how the Black Panther party set examples for others to follow, and how the paper was the main mechanism for distributing those examples.
The newspaper was called “The Black Panther,” which Dixon described as the Party’s “most important weapon.” It had a circulation of 200,000 to 300,000 copies worldwide for 16 years. The paper’s goal was to define what was happening to communities around the world.
“If you look at the Black Panther Party, how we organized, you can actually do the same thing today,” he said. “You can start those programs today in all communities, because we set the table, and showed you how to do it.”
During the party’s active years, the Panthers created the Ten-Point Program, a set of goals developed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The program advocates for freedom, employment rights, housing rights, access to education and more.
“If you pull up the Ten-Point Platform Program, people, young people especially, but people will always come up to us and say, ‘You can look at it and see it’s worse today, and they’ll tell you we need this even more so today,” Dickson said. She was a member of the party from 1970 to 1976.
Poster of the Ten-Point Platform and Program at Suzun Lucia Lamaina’s exhibit “Revolutionary Grain: Celebrating the Spirit of the Black Panther Party in Portraits and Stories” in Macky Gallery, March 5, 2026. (Ainsley Coogan/CU Independent)
She said that the standards for acceptable living conditions have declined in recent years, compared to when she was working on the newspaper for the Black Panther Party, and how the program is even more relevant today because of those changes.
“Decent housing was no roaches, no rats, no poor quality plumbing, no leaks in the roof. Electricity to keep you warm,” she said. “Now they don’t even have a house, you know.”
Student group members mentioned the importance of these educational tours and visits to universities.
Fauchon said that it helps dismantle false narratives that have been previously pushed, such as the narrative the Black Panther Party was a “radical and awful group.”
“I think it’s especially important to know what the group truly stood for, and what they truly believed, and how they sought peace for all communities,” he said. “Whether that’s with their Rainbow Coalition or other means.”
Learning from the programming and conversations with the party members expanded past history, but into education about activism as well. Reed, Fauchon and Figueroa all said that there aren’t organizations that are like the Panthers present today, but that current movements are beginning to follow in their footsteps in some ways.
Programming through universities about the Panther party demonstrates to the public that there are ways to organize against policies and governments.
“There are ways to organize and fight against it, and there are ways to improve our community, because it’s been done before, and they were the ones to do it,” Fauchon said.
As campus protests continue to happen at CU Boulder, from protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to No King’s Day, conversations around student activism stay increasingly relevant. Dixon recommended student activists to connect with each other in educational settings, to form study groups and read books.
Figueroa went to the protest against ICE on campus on Jan. 30, and he was shocked by the number of people who were a part of it.
“It was like a sea of people. I couldn’t even see the end of the line,” he said. “But I would like CU to be a little more active.”
While he wishes for more political protests at the university, Figueroa also believes that facilitating programming like the university has done with the Panthers has begun to put the university on the right track because of the welcoming environment it created.
“The Black Panthers didn’t just fight for Black people, and that’s what also makes them amazing, right?” he said. “Because Black people are the people that have struggled everywhere in the world.”
The Panthers didn’t just bring educational opportunities to Boulder, but compassion. Both Reed and Figueroa continued to emphasize the kindness they received from the Panthers.
“No matter where we go, every corner there’s a struggle to be met. There’s racism to be met,” Figueroa said. “But somehow, these people found it within their hearts to be compassionate for others while they’re facing all these other racial discriminations in the US. I find that to be really beautiful.”
Contact CU Independent News Editor Ainsley Coogan at ainsley.coogan@colorado.edu
