Red Emma’s

Driven by the Movement collects the stories of twenty ordinary people who did extraordinary things for the Black liberation struggle during the pivotal decade of 1965–1975. These activists came from across the US and all walks of life—single working mothers, clergy, students, teachers, military veterans—to organize against police brutality, poverty, hunger, substandard schools, and colonialism in Africa.  Drawing from her own experience at the heart of the movement, JoNina Abron-Ervin’s on-the-ground reporting offers a rare look into the pragmatism, optimism, compromise, and contradiction and the everyday acts of dedication that animated the Black Power era. This new edition includes expanded material on the history of the Black Panther newspaper as a source of mass political education and on the Black Panther Party’s legendary survival programs, such as its Free Breakfast for Children and healthcare programs. A foreword by writer and organizer William C. Anderson connects two torchbearers of the Black radical tradition across generations.

JoNina Abron-Ervin is a journalist, grassroots community organizer, and former member of the Black Panther Party. She was the last editor of the Black Panther newspaper and the managing editor of The Black Scholar _magazine. JoNina is a retired Western Michigan University associate professor of communication and cohosts the _Black Autonomy Podcast. W. Paul Coates is the founder of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing. Black Classic Press, founded in 1978, specializes in republishing obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. BCP Digital Printing was founded in 1995 as a parallel entity of the Press. The printing company uses state of the art digital technology to produce books and documents On Demand. The acquisition of digital printing technology distinguishes the press from other small publishing companies and places Black Classic Press on the forefront of 21st century technology. As a former African American Studies manuscript and reference librarian at Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Mr. Coates was responsible for the collection and acquisition of African American books and related materials, including the selection and purchase of rare and non-rare items. A former member of the Black Panther Party, he led the effort to establish the Black Panther Archives at Howard. Mr. Coates is a graduate of Atlanta University's School of Library and Information Studies, and SDC/Antioch University, from which he received as a distinguished alumni, the Doctorate in Philosophy, Honoris Causa in 2015. He is an active Black bibliophile and collector of cultural artifacts. Mr. Coates is co-editor of Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History (Howard Univ. Press). He was a founding member and chair of the National Association of Black Book Publishers. In addition, he served as adjunct instructor of African American Studies at Sojourner-Douglass College, Baltimore, MD. He formerly owned and operated The Black Book (1972-1978), a Baltimore-based bookstore. His experience with the purchase, sale, and collection of books by and about Blacks is a love affair that has continued more than six decades.