Stephen Shames was a 20-year-old college student at Berkeley when he first came into contact with the Black Panther Party. With the backing of the co-founders, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, Stephen was given full access to photograph the protests and rallies and also tender behind-the-scenes moments of party members with their families.

A relatively unknown aspect of the Black Panther Party, which these photographs bring to light, is the place occupied by women, among them Gloria Abernethy, Evon Carter, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis, Ericka Huggins, and Adrienne Humphrey who were on the front line of every struggle. It’s estimated that six out of ten Panther Party members were women. While these remarkable women of all ages and diverse backgrounds were regularly making headlines, these same women were building communities and enacting social justice, providing food, housing, education, healthcare, and more to the people. Comrade Sisters is their story. As Angela Davis points out, this exhibition “reminds us that women were literally at the heart of this new political approach to Black freedom.

From Our Archives: Whatever Happened to the Revolution?

Mougins, France
Comrade Sisters: Women Of The Black Panther Party
Mougins Centre de la Photographie
43 Rue de l'Église, 75015
Thu, Jun 28-Sun, Oct 6

The accompanying book:   Comrade Sisters: The Women of the Black Panther Party