Spaces of Learning: Pedagogy and Movement Building Within the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party (BPP) engaged in a total struggle for liberation. Through engaging in a multitactical struggle, the BPP revolutionized multiple aspects of daily life to organize the masses and build the overall movement for freedom and liberation. In doing so, they developed a pedagogical philosophy grounded in the BPP’s sociospatial locations and the many communities they sought to build. In doing so, we see how pedagogy and space intertwine to be an integral part of the BPP praxis, as well as a core organizing tool for movement building. This pedagogical philosophy developed, however, as the Panthers shifted their conception of revolution and theory of change, as well as how their organization evolved. In this article, we demonstrate the ways in which the Panthers had a philosophy around pedagogy rooted in formal and informal spaces and how they enacted this philosophy through developing their own formal spaces of education. The BPP demonstrates the importance of pedagogy within one’s spatial geographies and the consequent influences on one’s political organizing and mobilization.