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Each One, Teach One: The History and Legacy of the Black Panther Party for an Elementary School Audience

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Bringing Human Rights Education to US Classrooms

Abstract

The well-manicured grounds of a Jesuit university are hardly the place you might expect to meet someone accused of murder, unless that person is Richard Brown, a human rights activist and advocate, and unless the charges were lies, carefully crafted to maintain centuries-old systems of oppression. Then again, Jesuits consider themselves contemplatives in action, and can be found around the world wherever the meanest, most severe human rights offenses occur. In that way, perhaps my initial meeting with Mr. Brown makes sense. This chapter begins with the gentleman so accused, a teacher in a graduate school human rights education (HRE) class, and some unexpected common ground. In it you will find a curriculum for teaching about the Black Panther Party (BPP) for Self Defense and a piece of the party’s legacy, the Campaign to Free the San Francisco (SF8). This history remains relevant today and is a vital piece of our collective cultural inheritance.

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Authors

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Susan Roberta Katz Andrea McEvoy Spero

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© 2015 Susan Roberta Katz and Andrea McEvoy Spero

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Blundell, J. (2015). Each One, Teach One: The History and Legacy of the Black Panther Party for an Elementary School Audience. In: Katz, S.R., Spero, A.M. (eds) Bringing Human Rights Education to US Classrooms. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137471130_3

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