Nine Lives Of A Panther Book
In the early morning hours of December 8, 1969, 300 armed SWAT team members descended upon the headquarters of the Los Angeles branch of the Black Panther Party at the intersection of 41st and Central Avenue. After five hellish hours, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and brutal exposure to explosions and suffocating tear gas, three SWAT team members and three Black Panthers lay wounded. As Wayne Pharr, the 19-year-old leader of his Los Angeles based BPP chapter, was escorted to a police car and put behind bars, he never thought he would see the light of day again.
Nine Lives of a Black Panther: A Story of Survival offers Pharr's blow-by-blow account of the events leading up to, during, and after the attack and how his team prepared for and survived this massive military-style battle, one of the most devastating raids in the history of urban America. From a tactical standpoint, the LAPD considered the encounter to be a disaster. For the BPP, the shootout symbolized a victory. Pharr's riveting story offers detailed accounts of his experiences being hunted, beaten, and almost killed by the LAPD while illuminating the history of one of the most dedicated, dynamic, vilified, and targeted chapters of the BPP.
In addition, Pharr reveals why BPP cofounder Huey P. Newton expelled the entire Southern California chapter and deemed it "too dangerous to remain a part of the national organization." The Los Angeles branch was the proving ground for some of the most beloved and colorful characters in Panther lore, including Bunchy Carter, Masai Hewitt, Geronimo "Ji-Jaga" Pratt, and Elaine Brown. Pharr's story not only fills in a missing piece of Black Panther history, it is a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down memoir about a time and place that holds tremendous fascination for readers interested in African American militancy while offering new perspective from the front lines of the black liberation struggle.