A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story. - book reviews

American Visions, April-May, 1993 by Gary A. Puckrein

A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story by Elaine Brown (Pantheon. 1992. $25.00) - "I have all the guns and all the money. I can withstand challenge from without and from within." With these words, Brown proclaimed to the assembled leadership of the Black Panther Party that she was in charge, replacing the organization's charismatic leader, Huey Newton, who had fled to Cuba.

In August 1974, when she assumed leadership, the Black Panther Party was the only armed revolutionary organization operating in the United States. The party had more than a million dollars in its coffers; there was a staggering amount of party-owned real property and a massive inventory of supplies, vehicles and weapons. All of this was under the control of one woman, who had to face dangerous male egos capable of plotting her assassination and federal and local police determined to exterminate the party. Whatever your thoughts on the Black Panther Party, this is a powerful, at times even scary, book that will hold you spellbound.