Up Against the Wall

Violence in the Making and Unmaking of the Black Panther Party

By: Curtis J. Austin

Narrated by: Gary Roelofs

Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Curtis J. Austin chronicles how violence brought about the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, dominated its policies, and finally destroyed the party as one member after another - Eldridge Cleaver, Fred Hampton, Alex Rackley - left the party, was killed, or was imprisoned. Austin shows how the party's early emphasis in the 1960s on self-defense, though sorely needed in Black communities at the time, left it open to mischaracterization, infiltration, and devastation by local, state, and federal police forces and government agencies. Austin carefully highlights the internal tension between advocates of a more radical position than the Panthers took, who insisted on military confrontation with the state, and those such as Newton and David Hilliard, who believed in community organizing and alliance building as first priorities. Austin interviewed a number of party members who had heretofore remained silent. With the help of these stories, Austin is able to put the violent history of the party in perspective and show that the "survival" programs, such as the Free Breakfast for Children program and Free Health Clinics, helped the Black communities they served to recognize their own bases of power and ability to save themselves.

A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book.

©2006 The University of Arkansas Press (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Austin's energetically researched, deeply passionate book will be indispensable for students and scholars of the era." ( CHOICE)

"We desperately need good historical scholarship about the Black Panther Party, and this strong history is a good place to start." (Tim Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name)

"A serious, sober, and probing contribution to the ongoing project of historicizing and understanding the Party and its importance." (Waldo Martin, author of Civil Rights in the United States: An Encyclopedia)

Fascinating and interesting

Where does Up Against the Wall rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A great historical and in depth perspective on the making of the BPP. It was told very well. Narration was good also.

Any additional comments?

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost."

Great to see the other side

After growing up and hearing one side of the story regarding the Black Panters, I found it very refreshing to get details from the Panthers themselves and unclassified documents. You won't get much of this info from school textbooks.

well researched but poorly structured

Curtis Austin has put together a history of the Black Panther Party (BPP) from the mid 60's through to the early 70's. This was they heyday of the party, although it did continue along until the 80's and it's influence is still felt. It covers both the bad (violence etc) and the good (breakfast for school kids and other community outreach) that the party undertook.

If we were scoring this based solely on research, this book would get top marks. But once you add in the writing and the structure the score drops significantly. It's listless in places, with no real drive to the book, and is also all over the place in terms of content structure. Austin has researched well, he just hasn't been able to make a compelling read out of it.

The main thing that stands out is that there lacks a general 'thesis' of the book - the introduction (for what there is of one) should give an overview of the book, where it is going and what we can expect to learn from it. This book doesn't really provide that. It's lacks context for the rest of the content. If there was a main theme to the book it's probably more around what the police were doing against the BPP and the persecution by groups like the FBI, rather than actually focusing on the BPP and who they were.

An example of how the poor structure hurts the book is the inclusion of a paragraph more than halfway through, explaining that comments and interviews with BPP members are not trustworthy due to existing fears of prosecution and retribution. Something like this should be included up front, not buried in the middle of the book, as it provides a significant context for a lot of what is to follow.

The flow is also strange. While it is generally chronological there are sections slipped into the middle a chapters that just don't make sense. In the middle of chapters talking about (yet along) raid by police/FBI it delves into the daily life of a member and what they did - before returning to the police raids. There is not reasons for this excursion, it just is there. And it doesn't happen once, it happens many times. All this just worked against the book, breaking the narrative flow and continually causing problems with engagement.

The BPP is an interesting topic, and I learned a huge amount from this book. But it was a bit of a slog to get through it all.

Gary Roelofs does well with what he is given. He was easy enough to listening to and kept me engaged. He's clear and well paced. I would be interested in hearing his work on a book that flows better.

Important step in journey of understanding

Any additional comments?

White, female, Generation X, born and raised in Northern Ontario (Canada) - that's me. There were two black teenagers in my high school in the 80s, and both of them were very popular with their classmates. In other words, I have absolutely zero direct experience with the societal issues that formed the context of this book. I'm an outsider looking in, not able to fully appreciate the institutional and cultural resistance to equality that was so prevalent in different parts of the United States during that period, or how violent protests were believed by members of the black community to be one of the few options available to them.

Understanding the personal conflicts within the BPP, the evolution of the BPP over time, the role of women in the organization, and the seemingly contradictory activities of providing community services (such as breakfast programs) yet also aggressively engaging in violent activities -- these are all highly subjective topics and I don't think I'll be ready to express an informed opinion until I've explored several more accounts and perspectives. This is the first book about the Black Panther Party that I've read/listened to, and it's really been an education for me, learning about the events, the context, the ideas, and individual people. I recommend this book to anyone who seeks to learn more about the Black Panther Party and this period of American history - make it part of a broader collection of reading on this topic.

I provided this personal opinion in exchange for a complimentary copy of the audiobook from the author, narrator, or publisher.

This should definitely be read by the author.

Or at least a black man. Hard to hear a white voice say nigga. Please make it stop.