The OCS Project

The Oakland Community School Project is a multi-media research project that was an outgrowth of my research on the community programs of the Black Panther Party. The Party’s elementary-level institution, which began as a home-based education institute for children of Black Panther Party members who were taught by Black Panther Party members, became one of several educational institutes and programs the Party developed over its 16-year lifetime and would receive commendations and awards from the county and state of California. I wrote my Master’s thesis on the Oakland Community School and co-authored a book chapter, “Revolutionary Women, Revolutionary Education: The Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School” with former OCS director, ericka huggins in the edited anthology, Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle (Gore, Theoharis, Woodard, eds.). It would be eight years before I would create a research project about the Oakland Community School.