Last February, a group of friends and I were privileged to come upon two issues of the Black Panther Community News paper that were published in 1991. We submitted the physical copies to the Warfield Center Archives (part of the African & African Diaspora Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin) and I made these digital copies which sat unopened on a thumb drive until now.
The choice to donate the papers to an archive rather than keep them was first, a decision among friends (who each had an interest in personally owning the papers) to preserve the peace but more importantly, about ensuring that anyone could access them. I realized this afternoon that Subvert and Worship–a project about visual culture and the palimpsestic nature of Black time and Blackness–is the perfect home for the digital copies.
I hope anyone who stumbles upon this project and takes the time to download these issues of the Black Panther Party Community News paper feels as much excitement and joy as I did the first time I held them.
Summer 1991: 15 pages
This issue reflects on the legacy of Malcolm X; includes a tribute to the late Richard Navies; describes news events from California, New Jersey, the City School of New York, and the Supreme Court ruling on search & seizure; an article arguing for reparations; a section on international news describing events in Haiti, South Africa, Mozambique, and the United States; a list of obituaries for Fallen Comrades; a section on political prisoners/prisoners of war; a historical analysis of the Afrikan Prisoner; a section highlighting the Black Panther party platform including an excerpt of Mao Tse Tung’s criticism of liberalism.
Fall 1991: 17 pages
The feature story for this issue is “In Celebration of Afrikan Resistance.” It includes news events from New Jersey, college communities in New York, Texas, and the Supreme Court; a section on Black economic development and reparations; a section about the history of the Black Panther Party; a “bootlicker’s row” admonishing Colin Powell; an international news section with stories about the Pan African Congress and South Africa; a report on the first African African American Summit; a political prisoners and prisoners of war section; a fallen comrades section featuring a story on George and Jonathan Jackson; a section on health featuring a story on the Healthy Babies Project; a section of book reviews on books on Marcus Garvey; an illustration of the rebellion led by Nat Turner.
subvert and worship 
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