Children of the Movement: Growing up with Parents in the Black Panther Party
This program is offered in partnership with The Guardian.
In March, The Guardian published a landmark article and produced a short film spotlighting the self-described “Panther cubs”—offspring of members of the Black Panther Party. This project, two years in the making, offers an intimate portrait of what it meant to grow up in the shadow of a revolutionary movement.
Now mostly in their 50s, these children of the revolution vividly recall their upbringing during the Party’s active years from 1966 to 1982. At school they sang the Black National Anthem instead of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. They were taught to live with constant awareness: never sit with your back to a door, always find the exits, trust few. For many, a parent’s incarceration left lasting trauma.
More than 50 years later, three Panther cubs—Ericka Abram, K’Sisay Sadiki, and Sharif El-Mekki—reflect on their unique childhoods, their pride in carrying forward the Party’s ideals, the pain they still carry, and their evolving views on collective action, community, and the limits of protest as a political strategy.
What does it mean to be Black in America, both now and then? What cost are we willing to pay for radical change? And what lessons emerge for dealing with the current political crisis in 2025? Join The Guardian and CBH for a special screening and conversation with chief reporter Ed Pilkington, Guardian deputy editor Lauren N. Williams, and the three featured Panther cubs. Together, they draw powerful connections between past and present at a time when Black Americans are still killed by police at nearly three times the rate of white Americans and Black self-determination remains a flashpoint in national discourse.
Above photo by Stephen Shames
Participants
Ericka Abram is the daughter of Black Panther Party Chairman Elaine Brown and Black Panther Party Minister of Education Masai Hewitt. She was born in LA, raised in Oakland, and grew up in Beverly Hills. She’s a curator of culture and public speaker who enjoys swimming and working on stained glass. A graduate of Spelman College, Ericka is developing projects for production, including an HBCU sitcom and a documentary about her great-grandfather, Emmett J. Scott, the first Black film producer in America. Photo by Kendall Bessent
Sharif El-Mekki is the founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, a nonprofit dedicated to lifting Black students by developing highly-effective Black and fellow educators who incorporate Black culture and fight for justice. The proud son of two Black Panther parents, Sharif co-founded the Black Male Educators for Social Justice Fellowship in 2014 to inspire new generations of Black men to work for social justice through teaching. Photo by Shan Wallace
K’Sisay Sadiki is a performing artist, producer, and dedicated advocate for justice. She leads her father’s campaign—the International Campaign to Free Political Prisoner Kamau Sadiki—continuing a legacy of social justice through public education, organizing, and creative expression. Her one-woman show, Iterations of a Black Panther Cub, draws from her lived experience as the daughter of veteran Black Panthers to explore the personal dimensions of political struggle and resistance.
K’Sisay also serves as a Senior Policy Associate at the New York Immigration Coalition, where she works to advance equity and protections for immigrant communities across the state. Beyond her advocacy and creative work, she finds joy in Saturday dance classes at Alvin Ailey and traveling with her grown children. Photo by Ashley Peña
Ed Pilkington is chief reporter for the Guardian in the US. He has been with the newsroom since 1993, covering issues that are core to the Guardian’s global reporting priorities, including politics, criminal justice, race, immigration, poverty and inequality, and gun violence. Ed is the author of Beyond the Mother Country, examining the events that led to the UK’s Notting Hill White Riots.
Lauren N. Williams is deputy editor of the Guardian’s US newsroom, overseeing race and equity reporting. Previously, she was senior editor at The Atlantic covering human interest and culture stories about American identity and features editor for Essence, where she assigned and edited stories on reproductive rights, gun violence, politics, public health, and social justice. Lauren was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.
