Black Panther Woman

Activism grounded in love. Phillips enlarges the history of the Black Panthers by showing women’s experiences as integral to the group’s work. A revealing, well-researched biography. ~Kirkus Reviews

A distinctive, memorable story that powerfully shows what it takes to survive as a political prisoner in the U.S. ~Library Journal, STARRED

This groundbreaking volume is more than the first book-length treatment of Ericka Huggins. Phillips’ most poignant contribution is focused on Huggins as a spiritual seeker and leader. ~Ms. Magazine

A remarkable story of awakening, commitment, grit, and fearlessness in the wake of personal pain, grassroots struggle, and state violence. This first-ever historical biography of Ericka Huggins is itself a meditation on the pertinence and power of spiritual wellness and encourages us to consider what a radically holistic movement for liberation might need. Wholly original and illuminating! ~Rhonda Y. Williams, author of Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power in the 20th Century

Deftly and ethically tackling the challenge of writing about a living historical figure who was involved in an impactful resistance movement, Phillips positions Huggins’s life as a lesson about how to sustain political struggle through spiritual development. Black Panther Woman enmeshes oral history, corroborating interviews, and critical documentary assessment to offer a truly textured analysis not only of one person’s life, but a demonstration of the virtue of patient rigor. Phillips sits still with Huggins in order to deepen the collective narrative of an already layered telling of the Black Panther Party. Her detailed review of Huggins’ life—before, during, and after imprisonment—identifies the joy that is possible through liberatory skill building in ways that resist the growth of dehumanizing institutions and carceral states. Historically, soulful political organizing has been essential and the way Phillips portrays Huggins’ life models ways to cultivate collective self-care in order to effectively deal with systemic oppression in our own time. With words and records that are at once reflective and introspective, Phillips creates a stunning mosaic of Huggins and her time. ~Stephanie Y. Evans, author of Black Women's Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace

Both a memoir and an interpretive history of the Black Panther Party, Mary Frances Phillips gives us a tender rendering of Ericka Huggins's prison organizing and path to spiritual wellness. The cross-fertilization of radical resistance with care strategies captures a more nuanced portrait of the Black Panther Party. ~Ula Y. Taylor, author of The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam