Women, Survival, and the Black Panther Party in Baltimore

Abstract: This article highlights the case studies of four women in the Baltimore branch of the Black Panther Party: Angie Hatten, Connie Felder, Lula Hudson, and Nkenge Touré. Drawing from oral histories, personal interviews, and archival sources, this article demonstrates that these women embodied the Black Revolutionary Woman and, in doing so, were essential to the branch’s survival. Baltimore women were militant, ideologically engaged revolutionaries; however, the lived realities of their embodiment of Black Revolutionary Womanhood varied based on local context, and their negotiations of gender were often carried out in practice. Baltimore women revolutionized traditionally feminine and masculine spaces and navigated the rise to leadership with differing approaches. While these stories are not an exhaustive history of Baltimore Panther women, they offer a starting point for engaging with gendered understandings of branch-based organizing and shed light on the visible invisibility of women’s work in the revolutionary struggle.