An Ecological Analysis of Radical Black Thought from the Black Panther Party

Author: Joshua Fishkin

Field of Study: Social Sciences

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Matthew Cole

Easel: 38

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: Recent scholarship has attempted to expand common notions of ecology to include human beings and their struggles to survive within their environments. Within that trend, scholars have begun centering radical Black ecology, a discipline that seeks to understand how radical Black thinkers have conceived of their spaces and attempted to influence their surroundings. While much progress has been made in developing that understanding, there is still a large gap in the literature surrounding the ecological implications of radical Black political thought. Using the political writings of Black revolutionaries from the Black Panther Party –including Huey P. Newton, Angela Davis, and Eldridge Cleaver– this work finds a number of ecological applications within tracts that have previously been limited to social or historical analysis. This work places these writings in conversation with historical and contemporary Black ecological thought, creating new ground for understandings of Black space, place, and environment.