Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party​

August 7, 2025–January 11, 2026

This exhibition honors and celebrates the women of the Black Panther Party. Women have been the overlooked foot soldiers of many social movements. The Black power movement is no different: When Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, the original six party members were all men. This exhibition is based on the book of the same name by Stephen Shames and Ericka Huggins, which transforms the image of Panthers from gun-toting male revolutionaries to young women who were leaders, teachers, nurses, and mothers who were also unafraid to confront the white male–dominated power structure whose use of violence gave birth to the Black Panther Party.

Los Angeles Black Panther members at the “Free Huey” rally in DeFremery Park in West Oakland. Oakland, California, July 28, 1968. Photo by Stephen Shames ©Stephen Shames.