War Before The True Life Story of Becoming a Black Panther, Keeping the Faith in Prison and Fighting for Those

In 1968, Safiya Bukhari witnessed an NYPD officer harassing a Black Panther for selling the organisation's newspaper on a Harlem street corner. The young pre-med student felt compelled to intervene in defence of the Panther's First Amendment right; she ended up hand-cuffed and thrown into the back of a police car. This book traces Bukhari's life-long commitment as an advocate for the rights of the oppressed. Following her journey from middle-class student to Black Panther to political prisoner, these writings provide an intimate view of a woman wrestling with the issues of her time - the troubled legacy of the Panthers, misogyny in the movement, her decision to convert to Islam, the incarceration of out spoken radicals, and the families left behind. Her account unfolds with immediacy and passion, showing how the struggles of social justice movements have paved the way for the progress of today.