Dr, Pam has been a psychotherapist for over half a century. He participated in the civil rights movement in the South. He is the author of three books, including the historical novel, When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika.
Dr. Alvin Pam on Black Panthers
Amidst a Call Out Culture lies the tales of The Black Panther Party & Racial Relations.
Several generations before the Black Lives Matter movement took hold, there was a bigger, more controversial group fighting for civil rights and equality in America. A new book, When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika, offers a unique look at the Black Panthers Party through the eyes of an author who marched in the south in the 1960s under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Though Pam’s book (that is how the author wants to be known) is historical fiction, it features mostly real figures from a tumultuous era, and meditates on race relations that offer insights into today’s society.
The book has stirred controversy because the author is not a young Black woman, but rather an older white guy. Pam is the last name of the author – not the first.
“Because of accusations of cultural misappropriation, I wasn’t able to get published under my real name,” says Pam. “We live in the time of a hyper-sensitive cancel culture that many people wonder if it is racist and sexist in itself.”
Pam discusses the following:
- How history views the accomplishments of the Black Panther Party.
- What can be done to improve racial equality in the U.S.
- Why racial relations are still terse, half a century after the Black Panthers were dismantled.
- A new perspective on J. Edgar Hoover’s role in suppressing the Panthers.
- Why did several publishers refuse to publish Pam’s book?
- Who gets to tell the story of the Black Panthers.
Pam, a psychotherapist by trade, writes with a unique perspective on a subject matter that is both historical and ever so timely for today’s world. The book is informative, analytical, and enlightening – and sure to stir a debate both for its contents and its author.