Chapter 1: Learning From Our Past: Lessons about Radical Community-School Partnerships from the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School

Critical, anti-racist educators and community leaders continuously strive to create and imagine educational spaces in which Black youth and families are able to survive and thrive. These spaces often serve as sites of resistance against anti-black violence, racism and racial oppression experienced by Black youth and families in traditional school systems and school practices. Community schools—community-driven educational spaces that emphasize the “whole-child” and center the voices of youth, families and communities—have been increasingly leveraged by education and community leaders as one way to serve and affirm Black youth and families while simultaneously combating oppressive and racist structures and practices. The current research on community schools demonstrates the value that these educational sites have in providing the necessary educational, social, emotional and economic support for youth, families and community members across “diverse” backgrounds (Blank, Melaville, & Shah, 2003; Green, 2015; McKinney de Royston & Madkins, 2019). However, relatively little research has moved beyond the all-inclusive and nondescript “diversity” framing and fully explored how these sites can and have addressed the unique needs of black youth, families and community members—despite black stakeholders historically facing some of the most substantial and dehumanizing educational, social, political and economic conditions in the nation (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005; Taylor, 2016; Shapiro, 2004; Williams & Williams-Morris, 2000). Further, few studies acknowledge the pivotal role community leaders in Black communities have historically played in creating community schools or educational sites parallel to the ideals and practices of community schooling.