Educate to Liberate

OCS students at the school’s Math Bowl, 1980. Photo courtesy Donald Cunningham.

Quick video description

OCS driver next to van in the school’s parking lot. Date unknown. Photo courtesy Donald Cunningham.
Educate to Liberate: A Black Panther Photographic Time Capsule Unveiled, was envisioned by Lisbet Tellefsen, Archivist-in-Residence of the U.C. Berkeley Black Studies Collaboratory. Tellefsen offers the first public look at an archive of Black Panther Party photos that had gone unseen since the 1970s and early 1980s. The event will culminate in a moderated conversation about the primary focus of many of the archive’s images, the Oakland Community School of the Black Panther Party. Panelists include former OCS director, ericka huggins, and two former OCS students, Erica Watkins and Gregory B. Lewis. The conversation will be moderated by Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest, director of the The OCS Project LLC, a research project devoted to recovering, preserving and sharing the history and legacy of the Oakland Community School.
The OCS Project
Gregory B. Lewis
Youth Institute Student 1971-1973, OCS Student, 1973-1979

Gregory B. Lewis, a Youth Institute and Oakland Community Student School student from 1971-1979, reflects on the significance and impact of OCS on his life.

(July 2018 Interview. Copyright 2018 Angela D. LeBlanc-Ernest.)

Erica Watkins
OCS Student, 1978-1981

Erica Watkins attended Oakland Community School from 1978-1981. Watkins appears in this 1979 Group M class photo. Watkins is standing in the back row, third student from the right.
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(Image taken from the 1979 OCS Memory Book. Courtesy Erica Watkins.)

An OCS Soundscape
Songs played by and performed by OCS students.

The students at Oakland Community School were surrounded by sound and music. It was a soundscape of their OCS experience. Listen to this ten minute sampling of songs The Youth Institute band performed at events, or that the students either listened to, danced to, or sang during school performances over the years.

(This list was curated by Angela LeBlanc-Ernest from Black Panther Newspaper articles, graduation souvenir books, and from personal interviews with students, parents, and teachers.)

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Curating.

Curating resources and information for researchers and community members alike to learn the history of the Black Panther Party’s flagship educational program is central to The OCS Project’s mission.

Creating.

Creating digital projects is one of the primary ways The OCS Project endeavors to archive and share the history and encourage community engagement.

Collaborating.

Collaborating was a hallmark of the Oakland Community School’s success and it is in the same spirit that The OCS Project seeks to accomplish its current and future project goals.

The official red, blue, and green OCS Project letters of the Oakland Community School Project logo.
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