KALW A mural on a West Oakland house celebrates the often overlooked stories of the women of the Black Panther party.
On Center Street and Dr. Huey P. Newton Way, in West Oakland, there’s a bright blue mural on the side of a chocolate brown house. The mural stretches across the entire length of the 2 story victorian. In block letters, at the top, it says, “Women Of The Black Panther Party.” The mural was created by Oakland resident Jil Vest to center the, often neglected, women of the Black Panther Party.
Over the sky blue background of the mural, are these 30 foot tall Black women, all with natural hair. One’s in a military stance holding a gun. Another is holding a protest sign with her fist raised in the air, and another one is cradling a small child. One woman is delivering a bag of groceries filled to the brim, over a backdrop of hundreds of names written in white paint.