With passion and precision, Margaret A.

Edwards Award–winning
author Kekla Magoon relays an essential account of the Black
Panthers—as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates
working to defend and protect their community.

REVOLUTION IN OUR TIME

The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People

In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-

relevant history of the Black Panther Party,
Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’
community activism, grounded in the concept of
self-defense, which taught Black Americans how
to protect and support themselves in a country
that treated them like second-class citizens. For
too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote
to the civil rights movement rather than what it
was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew
thousands of members—mostly women—and
became the target of one of the most sustained
repression efforts ever made by the U.S.
government against its own citizens.

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the

proper context of Black American history, from
the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black
Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s
eye-opening work invites a new generation of
readers grappling with injustices in the United
States to learn from the Panthers’ history and
courage, inspiring them to take their own place in
the ongoing fight for justice.

ON SALE SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 • HC: 978-1-5362-1418-5 • $24.99 ($33.99 CAN) • Age 12 and up • 400 pages • Also available as an e-book and in audio

Revolution in Our Time press release • Candlewick Press • www.candlewick.com • page 1 •

 PHOTO BY ALICE DODGE
KEKLA MAGOON’s young adult novel The Rock and the River was the first
mainstream novel for young people to feature the Black Panther Party. In her
pursuit of knowledge about the Black Panthers, she has visited museums, archives,
and historical sites across the country, in addition to reading, watching films,
meeting former Panthers, and attending Panther legacy events. She is the coauthor,
with Ilyasah Shabazz, of X: A Novel, as well as the author of many other award-
winning books for children and young adults. She has received a Margaret A.
Edwards Award, an NAACP Image Award, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, a John
Steptoe New Talent Author Award, three Coretta Scott King Honors, a Walter
Dean Myers Award Honor, and an In the Margins Award, and she has been long-
listed for the National Book Award.

Kekla Magoon conducts school and library visits nationwide and serves on
the Writers Council for the National Writing Project. She holds a BA from
Northwestern University and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine
Arts, where she now serves on the faculty. She lives in Vermont. Visit her online at
keklamagoon.com or follow her on Twitter @KeklaMagoon.

For more resources and information about the book, please visit
RevolutioninOurTime.com.

• page 2 • Revolution in Our Time press release • RevolutioninOurTime.com

 A note from Kekla Magoon
The first seeds of this book were planted nearly ten years ago. I’d published two novels
about teens in the Black Panther Party—The Rock and the River and Fire in the Streets—and I
had begun the research process for X: A Novel, the young adult project about Malcolm X’s
teen years that I would soon begin cowriting with Ilyasah Shabazz, Malcolm’s daughter.
Being out on the conference circuit was amazing, meeting teachers and librarians and
visiting schools and communities to speak about my books. Everywhere I went, it seemed,
folks who were reading, sharing, or teaching the books wanted to know what nonfiction
resources I would recommend for young readers to learn more about the Black Panthers.
This question hit me hard with two divergent feelings: first, I was thrilled that people were
so engaged by my narratives that they wanted more, but second, I had no idea what to say
in response.

A lot had been written about the Panthers for the adult market, but much of the material
skewed academic and informational. In my research, I’d pored over thick tomes of peer-
review essays, a lot of primary source material, books full of small print that operated on
the assumption of a reader’s basic understanding of American history and the evolution and
systemic nature of racism, some dynamic but slanted memoirs, and perhaps the occasional
striking photo essay that came with little written content or context. Few of these volumes
felt fully accessible to me as a college graduate and history major, so how could they
possibly feel accessible to a teen reader? I found myself at a loss for Panther-specific texts
to recommend to the readers of my fiction. There was only one choice. The powers that
be in the universe of story had spoken. If it didn’t exist, I had to write it.

Thus began a years-long journey of research, growth, and learning. The research under
my belt from writing the novels was a great start, but I had to know more and go deeper
if I was going to tell the Panthers’ story right. Starting in the spring of 2012, I traveled
as frequently as I could to learn more. I visited Oakland, the Panthers’ birthplace, and
walked the streets and dove into the archives. I drove through the South, visiting civil
rights movement landmarks that I’d only ever read about in history books. Anytime I
traveled for book events throughout the country over the years, I popped into libraries,
museums, historical societies, archives, any place I thought might give me a greater glimpse
into the heart of this narrative. I met former Panthers, many of whom have found ways
to continue the work they began in the movement. Their stories are powerful, sometimes
shocking, always compelling, and ever relevant to the work that still needs to be done in
our nation—work being done by a new generation of young people reaching across lines
of race and identity to bring all of us finally and powerfully into a more just and equitable
future. My hope is that this story of past generations of activists will inspire, empower, and
remind these young activists to move forward with the confidence that they are carrying
on a powerful tradition.

Revolution in Our Time press release • RevolutioninOurTime.com • page 3 •

 An Excerpt from Revolution in Our Time

Early in the morning on May 2, 1967, a group of thirty Black people piled into cars
in Oakland, California, and struck out on the highway, headed for the state capitol in
Sacramento. The group was made up of twenty-four men and six women. Among them
were members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, other community residents,
and the family members of Denzil Dowell, a young Black man who had been shot and
killed by police officers about a month earlier. The trunks of the cars were filled with
pistols, shotguns, and semiautomatic weapons.

Everyone was nervous. But the eighty-mile drive from Oakland to Sacramento gave
them plenty of time to think and to remember why they were going to the capitol:
because they did not want what happened to Denzil Dowell to happen to anyone else.
Denzil was a Black teen accused of robbing a local liquor store. Police officers shot him
multiple times, although he was unarmed and possibly in the act of surrendering. Then
they left him to die without even calling an ambulance.

It wasn’t the first time that area police had shot a Black suspect in questionable
circumstances. Police officers rarely gave Black citizens the benefit of the doubt. Far
beyond Oakland, throughout the nation, Black Americans struggled with similar issues.
An entire movement for civil rights was underway, one goal of which was to protect
Black people from race-based violence. Young people led peaceful public protests aimed
at calling attention to racism, changing unjust laws, and demanding equal treatment.
Unfortunately, those changes hadn’t come in time to save Denzil Dowell. So for the past
few months, the Panthers had been leading armed community patrols that monitored
police officers at work, in hopes of preventing more senseless violence.

Now they were headed to the state legislature to protest a bill called the Mulford Act,
which would make it illegal for citizens to carry guns in public. This piece of legislation
had been introduced specifically to prevent the Panthers from carrying the weapons
they used to protect citizens from such police brutality. As American citizens, they knew
they had a right to protest a law they disagreed with, so they were headed to Sacramento
to publicly share their views in front of elected officials.

When they arrived at the state capitol, the Panthers parked their cars right in front
of the building. They got out, retrieved their guns, and began loading them with live
ammunition. The guns hadn’t been loaded during the long drive because it was illegal
to carry loaded weapons (except pistols) in a car. The Panthers had carefully studied
California gun laws, and they followed them to the letter. It was still legal to carry
unconcealed weapons in public places, and the Panthers planned to do so as part of their
protest against the Mulford Act.

• page 4 • Revolution in Our Time press release • RevolutioninOurTime.com

PHOTOGRAPH: JACK MANNING/NEW YORK TIMES CO./GETTY IMAGES

At that moment, California governor Ronald Reagan was standing out in front of the
capitol, speaking to a group of students and members of the press. The Black Panthers
gathering their weapons nearby frightened him. He abruptly ended his talk and left the
scene.

The journalists turned around to see what had startled the governor and saw a fresh
story coming at them. They turned their microphones and cameras toward the Panthers,
capturing their approach on the capitol.

The chairman of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale, led the way up the courthouse
steps. He had a .45-caliber pistol holstered at his hip. Right behind him, toting a twelve-
gauge shotgun, was sixteen-year-old Lil’ Bobby Hutton, the youngest Panther.

The Panthers knew they might be arrested, even though they were not breaking the law.
They knew that police or security guards in the capitol might even shoot at them. They
were prepared to shoot back if they had to. They were willing to go to jail if they had to.
But no matter what happened, they intended to deliver their message.

The Panthers approached the front doors and came face-to-face with a security guard
standing at the entrance. The guard may have been uncomfortable at the sight of the
Panthers, but he knew the law, too. “Well, you aren’t violating anything with your gun,
so if you want to, you can go inside,” he said.

The Panthers entered the capitol rotunda, a high-ceilinged, clean, and shiny space.
People turned to stare at them. In their black leather jackets and berets, with guns boldly
displayed, the Panthers seemed shockingly out of place in the halls of government. Most
of the group had never set foot in a legislative building before. Bobby Seale looked
around, trying to figure out which way led to the visitors’ gallery, where citizens could
go to watch the state assembly proceedings. “Anybody here know where you go in and
observe the Assembly making these laws?” he called out.

“Upstairs on the next floor,” someone answered. So the Panthers went upstairs, looking
for the visitors’ room. The reporters surrounded them the whole way, shouting
questions and jockeying to get in the best camera position to document the Panthers
walking through the capitol.

Following signs for the Assembly Chambers, Bobby Seale walked through a door on
the second floor—and found himself standing not in the visitors’ gallery, but right on
the Assembly floor! Members of the press—on purpose or not—had misdirected the
Panthers, and they had ended up somewhere regular citizens weren’t supposed to be.

Revolution in Our Time press release • RevolutioninOurTime.com • page 5 •

PHOTOGRAPH: JACK MANNING/NEW YORK TIMES CO./GETTY IMAGES

 Frightened legislators began shouting for the Panthers to leave the room. Security
guards approached the Panthers in the doorway. One reached out and took Lil’ Bobby
Hutton’s shotgun away from him. Lil’ Bobby cried out in protest, “Am I under arrest?
What the hell you got my gun for? If I’m not under arrest you give me my gun back!”
He knew he wasn’t breaking the law by carrying the weapon and was within his rights to
ask for it back.

The security guards escorted the Panthers out of the Assembly Chambers. They went
willingly. The Panthers had not come to the state capitol to shoot anyone. They had
come to read a statement, which Bobby Seale presented on the capitol steps, amid the
chaos created by frightened politicians and journalists:

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense calls upon the American
people in general and the Black people in particular to take careful
note of the racist California Legislature which is now considering
legislation aimed at keeping the Black People disarmed and power-
less at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the
country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression
of Black People.

He launched into reading Executive Mandate #1, a brief summary of the Panthers’
beliefs and goals, which included demands for equal treatment:

Black people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated and

everything else to get the racist power structure of America to right
the wrongs which have historically been perpetrated against Black
people. . . . The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense believes that the
time has come for Black people to arm themselves against this terror
before it is too late. . . . A people who have suffered so much for so
long at the hands of a racist society must draw the line somewhere.
We believe that the Black communities of America must rise up as one
man to halt the progression of a trend that leads inevitably to their
total destruction.

The event made news far beyond Sacramento. It had been an honest mistake, barging
directly into the legislative session, but it worked out just fine for the Panthers. After all,
they had wanted to be noticed and to have their message heard. Networks all over the
country aired Bobby Seale’s statement. But the greater impact came from the sight of
those rows of Black people with guns, dressed like a small army behind him as he spoke
such fiery words. People around the country wondered, Who are these Panthers?

• page 6 • Revolution in Our Time press release • RevolutioninOurTime.com

PHOTOGRAPH: JACK MANNING/NEW YORK TIMES CO./GETTY IMAGES

 Praise for

a NovEl
by
I lyasa h Shaba zz
with Kek la Magoon


Seven Starred Reviews

 “A completely absorbing novel. . . . Readers

for whom pre–civil rights America is ancient
history will find this poetic interpretation eye-
opening and riveting.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 “Riveting. . . . Malcolm’s voice is often funny,

always perceptive, and as appreciative of
beauty as he is critical of the disparity between
the rights of whites and blacks.”
—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

 “This could be a novel about any adolescent
and his dark night of the soul, but it’s in fact
a powerful, fully credible reimagining of the
young adulthood of Malcolm Little, who, after
reaching rock bottom in prison for robbery,
will discover a better path and a new identity
as Malcolm X.”
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
(starred review)
“The story of a reckless young man finding
himself, X: A Novel is historical fiction at its
best—an artistic exploration of a part of a
renowned person’s life, one that stays true to
his time and place.”
—The Huffington Post
“Shabazz and Magoon expertly guide the
reader by presenting loaded scene after loaded
scene. . . . The result is a satisfying (and
appropriate) complexity.”
—The New York Times Book Review

Revolution in Our Time press release • RevolutioninOurTime.com • page 7 •

PHOTOGRAPH COPYRIGHT © 2015 BY EVERETT COLLECTION/SUPERSTOCK