Overview

In the early morning hours of December 8, 1969, hundreds of SWAT officers engaged in a violent battle with a handful of Los Angeles–based members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). Five hours and 5,000 rounds of ammunition later, three SWAT team members and three Black Panthers lay wounded. For the Panthers and the community that supported them, the shootout symbolized a victory, and a key reason for that victory was the actions of a 19-year-old rank-and-file member of the BPP: Wayne Pharr. Nine Lives of a Black Panther tells Pharr’s riveting story of life in the Los Angeles branch of the BPP and gives a blow-by-blow account of how it prepared for and survived the massive attack. He illuminates the history of one of the most dedicated, dynamic, vilified, and targeted chapters of the BPP, filling in a missing piece of Black Panther history and, in the process, creating an engaging and hard-to-put-down memoir about a time and place that holds tremendous fascination for readers interested in African American militancy.

Reviews

“An important addition to the growing historiography on the Black Panther Party—a searing inside account by a rank-and-file member of one of the most embattled chapters. The book also offers a powerful retrospective journey of Pharr’s days as a Panther and his tumultuous post-Party years.” —Charles E. Jones, editor, The Black Panther Reconsidered

“An engrossing autobiographical account of a crucial period in the African American freedom struggle, Nine Lives of a Black Panther is an important contribution to our understanding of the rapid rise and tragic decline of the Black Panther Party. Wayne Pharr’s book brought back vivid memories of my own experiences during those tumultuous times.” —Dr. Clayborne Carson, historian and founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University

“Wayne Pharr’s riveting book opens on December 8, 1969, when he and other Panthers defended themselves against a morning attack mounted by the Los Angeles Police Department’s SWAT team on their Central Avenue headquarters. Nine Lives of a Black Panther continues to illuminate the experiences that led him to commit his young life to the black revolutionary struggle, a captivating saga of the Southern California Black Panther Party trials, murders, political rivalries, and splits rarely explained in print.” —Kathleen Cleaver, former communications secretary, Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, and author of Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party

“This is an unrelenting, up-close-and-personal account of a Black Panther leader in Los Angeles. There are no holds barred in this riveting memoir.” —Jeffrey Haas, author of The Assassination of Fred Hampton and cofounder of the People’s Law Office

“With startling revelations, Nine Lives of a Black Panther gives the reader an inside view into the heart and soul of a revolutionary who asserts an uncompromising right to self-defense. This is an essential and unforgettable book.” —Henry “Hank” Jones, Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, San Francisco

Author Biography

Wayne Pharr was a captain of the Los Angeles branch of the Black Panther Party for Self Defence and has traveled throughout the country as a spokesman for the party. He lives in Los Angeles.