The Seattle Black Panther Party Legacy Group was organized following the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party’s 50th anniversary in 2018. It is a historical community organization composed of both veteran Black Panthers (notably including Seattle chapter cofounders Elmer and Aaron Dixon) and community activists including co-chair Ruby Love, board members Stephanie Johnson-Toliver, Gary Melonson, and Nadia Miller, along with young community activists dedicated to the preservation of the memory and legacy of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party. The Legacy Group is currently undergoing preparations to open a demonstration site for the Interpretive and Research Center in the Historic Metropole building on 2nd and Yesler in the fall of 2025, creating a physical space for historical discussion, remembrance, community building, and visibility. 

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Our historical-site-in-development is called an interpretive center as opposed to a museum; why is that? The difference between an interpretive center and a museum is that museums tend to be stationary, inflexible, rooted in a viewer-and-object dynamic with minimal interaction and community engagement, while an interpretive center sits on the site of a historical event and interprets that piece of history. The Legacy Group is currently in negotiations to buy land in the historic central district of Seattle to build a permanent site for the Interpretive and Research Center in order to interpret history as it was during the years that the Black Panthers were active in the historic Central District.

 

The permanent site will include 2 floors for the interpretive and research center and 5 floors of affordable housing for the community. We anticipate that this will happen in the next 3 or 4 years after the site is secured. The Seattle BPP Legacy Group is also working to expand its online presence with a variety of initiatives focused on investigating and sharing the history of the Black Panthers, an often-misconstrued group in general accounts of American history. Look forward to a series of interviews with key members of the team behind the Demonstration Center and articles highlighting Black history, with a focus on the Black Panthers and Seattle, along with to-be-announced community interaction and engagement!

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History:

The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was the first chapter formed outside of the state of California.  A year and a half before the start of the Seattle chapter, the Black Panther Party was born in Oakland, California. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale started the organization on October 15, 1968, and it was originally called the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.  Its goal was to prevent police brutality as well as establish a new social, political, and economic order, heavily based upon Marxist doctrine, to improve the Black community.​

The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was founded by a collection of Seattle activists including brothers Aaron and Elmer Dixon in 1968, following a series of events that included the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the murder of Bobby Hutton days later.  Hutton was the first member of the Black Panther Party to die at the hands of Oakland police; along with a series of frustrating, angering and racially motivated acts against Blacks in Seattle.   At one point, the Chapter membership approached 300.  The Chapter founding raised the level of struggle, resistance, and Black consciousness in the city.

During its most formative period, the Seattle Chapter sponsored free breakfast programs for all children, education programs, and established the first free medical clinic in Seattle’s Black community, originally named the Sydney Miller Free Medical Clinic, after a fallen Seattle Panther, and later known as the Carolyn Downs Family Medical Clinic, still in operation today!

 

The University of Washington has researched and archived a great deal of information on the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party.  Learn more here:

 

[Source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/Panther2_schaefer.htm, http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/BPP_news%20coverage.htm]​