A Taste of Power: The Rhetorical Potency of Elaine Brown

Undergraduate: Cameron Jernigan

Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Foland
Department: Communication Studies

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What roles did women play in developing the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and how did these women create a space for Black women to develop an intersectional Black nationalist, feminist consciousness? This paper examines the historical narrative of the Black Power movement as told by Black women. Specifically, I focus on A Taste of Power, the 1992 memoir of former Black Panther Party Chairwoman, Elaine Brown. Her memoir serves as one of the few autobiographical accounts of the Black Panther Party from the perspective of a woman, especially that of a high ranking member. Borrowing from rhetorical theories of constituted publics, memoir, and public memory, I examine Brown¿¿¿s account of how the movement influenced Black women¿¿¿s intersectional, nationalist, and feminist consciousness.