The Black Panther Oakland Community School
Community Archives, Activism, and Storytelling
Research Cluster
The Mission
UC Irvine’s Black Panther Oakland Community School (BPOCS) research cluster formed in Spring 2021 to advance research, teaching, and learning about the Black Panther Party’s survival programs through public programs, exhibitions, community archives, and digital project development towards the release of a film documentary about the Oakland Community School.
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Oakland Community School
50th Anniverary
September 2023 marks the Oakland Community School's 50th Anniversary of its opening in East Oakland, California at its 6118 East 14th Street location (now International Boulevard) for the 1973-1974 school year. Celebrate this commemorative event with us on the Oakland Community School Project website as we highlight the school's first year contributions and accompishments. There, beginning in October, you can find an academic timeline, a "This week in OCS History" blog, and more!
Coming in October:
Archivist Conversations
Join us for the first monthly installment of a new OCSProject series, Archivist Conversations. The October topic will be:
The 50th Anniversary of the Oakland Community School’s Grand Opening andCommunity Dedication
During this webinar, we introduce you to the Archivist Conversations Series, talk about the grand opening community dedication of the Oakland Community School in October 1973, and listen to a portion of the audio. Attendees also will have the opportunity to ask questions about Oakland Community School.
About Archivist Conversations: Archivist conversations are a collection of conversations regarding the history and the legacy of the Oakland Community School. These webinars draw upon archival material and experiential resources such as documents, oral histories, and multimedia material. These conversations are part of The OCS Project's yearlong commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Oakland Community School.

That's a Wrap on Summer 2023!

Our summer fellowship program was a success! The summer was filled with research, oral history, transcription, metadata creation, and collaboration around project design for the upcoming 50th anniversity of the Oakland Community School. Four students hailed from U.C. Irvine while 2 additional students were from the University of California, Berkeley.