This comprehensive history of the Black Panther Party begins with a brief accounting of the experience of Black people in America from 1619 to the early 1960s; essential to understanding why and how the Black Panther Party was formed in 1966. The author compares the Party’s formation to an earthquake: a lot was happening for years beneath the surface that led to the decision to start a new kind of activist movement in the Panthers. A narrative that looks at the party’s history both chronologically and thematically, with chapters and sections devoted to their organizational structure and their essential community outreach, as well as their political beliefs, forms of protest, and the disturbing, at times infuriating response of local police departments and the U.S. government, which engaged in concerted efforts to undermine, attack, frame and even murder Black Panther Party members in an attempt to destroy the organization. Extensive, well-documented research is the foundation of a volume that includes stories about many of the Panther leaders across their history and across the country, including many women. The median age of members of the Black Panther Party was 19, a fascinating fact for readers to consider; it’s extraordinary to realize some of the key leaders in the Panthers were under age 20. Black-and-white photographs and other visual material is included. (Age 12 and older)