Huey Newton was co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party, and its chief theoretician. In 1967 Newton was arrested and charged with killing an Oakland police officer during a dispute, leading to a much-publicized "Free Huey" campaign. In 1980, Newton earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of California. He died in 1989.

Toni Morrison is a Nobel-prize winning American author, editor and professor. Among the best known of her novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.

Elaine Brown became, in 1974, the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party. Today, as an activist, writer and popular lecturer, she promotes the vision of an inclusive and egalitarian society, focusing on resolving problems of race, gender oppression and class disparity in the United States.