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Baltimore’s Panthers complicate the easy narratives. They were neither reckless radicals nor romantic revolutionaries. They were pragmatic idealists, adapting to legal constraints, financial scarcity, and relentless surveillance while insisting that political struggle begin with feeding children and keeping neighbors housed.
Their story is a reminder that grassroots movements are most vulnerable where they are most necessary and that the state’s gaze has often been sharpest when Black communities attempt to govern themselves. For organizers today, working without the insulation of wealth or patronage, Baltimore’s Panthers offer both a model and a warning: that meaningful change is built locally, sustained collectively, and contested at every step.

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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Trump's attacks on Venezuela are an attempt to terrorize attempts to resist white supremacy worldwide. In this episode, LBS political commentator Lawrence Grandpre and Director of Public Policy Dayvon Love discuss the history of Venezuela, deconstruct the mythology of the US striking Venezuela to fight a “dictatorship,” examine why we must look beyond oil as an explanation for this violence, and how we must resist attempts for Democrats to triangulate the center on questions of military funding in the aftermath of this violence.

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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This episode addresses how racism and white supremacy impact advocacy for juvenile justice reform in Maryland. Additionally this episode discusses some of the major policy reform that is on the table for Maryland General Assembly 2026.

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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A conversation hosted by Baltimore Racial Justice Action between LBS director of research Lawrence Grandpre and Baltimore Green Party chair Andy Ellis. We touch on DOGE, the link between South Africa and the United States on anti-Black visions of government, the political limitations of progressive/leftist notions of political corruption, and the implications of all of this on approaches to reparations and 3rd party politics.

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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Leftist responses to the current moment range from rejecting engaging the state at all to grudgingly accepting centrist Democrats as a lesser evil. In an interview between LBS’s Dayvon Love and Lawrence Grandpre, Love urges the Left to intentionally chart a middle course. Using examples from concrete legislative victories in Maryland, he advocates for intentionally delivering on concert improvements to quality of life for Black masses as a way to build a base for more progressive reforms, while continually expanding the political terrain by pushing radical demands. Rather than this being a typical reformist path, Dayvon concludes by explaining the role of strategic engagement with 3rd party politics can have the put pressure on Democrats to deliver or face real material consequences, using Andy Ellis’s potential Green Party run for governor in Maryland in 2026 as an example.

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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The Alliance of the Sahel states has sent shock waves through the western world, raising the possiblity of anti-imperialist Pan-African block. While this movement has exploded online through the focus on the charismatic Burkino Faso leader
Ibrahim Traoré, in this episode we seek to engage what is happening in the Sahel beyond just him. In this interview between LBS’s Dayvon Love and Lawrence Grandpre, we discuss the history of the Sahel and how these states rose up and joined in alliance in the face of the failures of Western troops to ensure security, in addition to anger at Western economic domination. We look at how the focus on Traore has obscured the important work happening in Niger and Mali. Finally, we focus on how Pan-Afrikanist in the west must materially support concrete Pan-Afrikan state building functions like water and energy and not get stuck in romantic hero worship of Traoré.

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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In this episode, MJ and Rasheem explore the legacy and continued relevance of poor Black women's activism in Baltimore, focusing on housing justice and welfare rights. Drawing on Rhonda Y. Williams’ seminal article, “We’re Tired of Being Treated Like Dogs,” the hosts delve into the political lives of Black women who mobilized against institutional neglect and economic exploitation from the 1960s to the present.

The conversation centers on the historical and grassroots efforts of Black women like Margaret McCarty and Rev. Annie Chambers, who turned personal struggle into collective resistance. Organizations like U-JOIN (Union for Jobs or Income Now) and Mother Rescuers from Poverty emerged from East Baltimore’s neighborhoods and housing complexes such as Murphy Homes, O’Donnell Heights, and Gilmore Homes—communities marked by poverty but rich in organizing tradition.

Rasheem details how federal surveillance, welfare fraud prosecutions, and slumlord neglect were met with tenant strikes, welfare marches, and legislative advocacy. Leaders challenged both structural racism and class exploitation, drawing on a Black Radical Tradition that was grassroots-based, anti-capitalist, and unapologetically of the people.

Key locations such as North Gay Street and Pennsylvania Avenue serve as landmarks of resistance, while institutions like the Soul School became spaces of political education. The episode also touches on national allies like CORE and speakers such as Stokely Carmichael and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who amplified the local struggle on a national stage.

MJ and Rasheem conclude by reflecting on what today’s organizers can learn from this era: the power of coalition-building, the necessity of political independence, and the importance of reclaiming radical traditions that center the voices of poor Black women in the fight for housing, dignity, and justice.

Main Themes:

Housing activism as a form of defense of home and self
The central role of Black women in welfare rights organizing

Tension between Black capitalism and Black radical politics

Political consciousness and grassroots leadership among poor communities

Lessons for contemporary housing and labor justice movements in Baltimore

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In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)

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We welcome back S. Rasheem to In Search of Black Power! In this episode we are exposed to the concept of “Race Work”. In conversation with LBS Dir. of Research Lawrence Grandpre, Rasheem exposes us to critical figures in debates throughout the history of “Race Work”, including integration vs. nationalism & strategic navigation vs. confrontation with oppressive systems.

Rasheem frames the history of Black People’s expansive definition of community care of race work as opposed to the modern concept of social work. Rasheem compares communities holistic linking of spiritual, economic and political self-help as “Race Work” compared to professionalized social work, arguing social work’s increased focus on professionalization and its institutionalization in white institutions risks losing the critical functions of race work and accepting tacit anti-blackness, making Race Work a necessary intervention into social work education and practice.

This is an introduction to the online, New Timbuktu seminar on Race Work taught by S. Rasheem, running from Tuesday in late August through September 2025. For more info visit https://lbsbaltimore.com/series/2025-new-timbuktu-seminar-series-race-work/

Support the show

In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).

The internet show is published in collaboration with Black Liberation Media (BLM)