In Search of Black Power

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Gun Violence Prevention: Black Studies vs. The Academic Epstein Class Sep 02, 2026

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We show African-centered concepts used by on the ground violence prevention workers that are grounded in a Black Studies tradition and show how theorists like Steven Pinker, who have ties to Jeffrey Epstein, present racist theories on violence that impact violence prevention work. We conclude by presenting Cheikh Anta Diop’s Southern Cradle theory as an alternative place to center violence prevention work.

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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)

Black Women's Contribution to Black Advancement Part 2 Aug 27, 2026

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Throughout history women have made remarkable and lasting contributions to Black advancement. They have played instrumental roles in advocacy, policy development, community engagement, and the overall advancement of racial uplift. However, a glaring gap exists in the literature and discourse surrounding these women pioneers. In this two part series of ISoBP we hope to contribute to decreasing that gap.

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Black Women's Contribution to Black Advancement Part 1 Aug 05, 2026

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Baltimore's Black Radical Tradition Jul 01, 2026

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Beyond the Wire Jun 03, 2026

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While The Wire is celebrated for its gritty realism however , it perpetuates an over-sensationalized, externally oriented, and ultimately limited view of Black life in Baltimore. It aestheticizes poverty and violence without sufficiently acknowledging the cultural, historical, and community-based dimensions of African American resilience and self-determination.
By re-centering the narrative around Black subjectivity and agency, rather than dysfunction and surveillance this episode of ISoBP not only critiques The Wire's limitations but also points toward richer, more humane forms of storytelling.

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What Critics of Black “Respectability Politics” Miss. Black Power Beyond “The Boundaries of Blackness” May 06, 2026

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In the 90s and 2000s, a wave of academic texts emerged that challenge the dominate narrative of Black leadership and politics, claiming that the location of Black power in the Black church and “respectable” civil rights organizations limited Black politics. One of the most prominent of these texts is The Boundaries of Blackness, written by Cathy Cohen, which uses the example of the limited response to AIDS by Black civil society in the 80s/90s to argue that Black politics marginalized those most impacted by AIDS because the groups most impacted, drug users and those beyond heteronormativity, exceed the bounds of respectable Blackness.
In this episode, we review this text, arguing that in its desire to challenge the limits of Black leadership, the text tells an overly critical tale of the Black community as innately locked into respectability. The text reads the Black used of genocide as a frame to understand AIDS as reflective of an inability to center non-respectable drug users and same gender loving individuals. This obscures the value of the genocide concept from a Black communities perspective in providing a comprehensive frame which includes serving those impacted by AIDS, as well addressing the role drugs /addiction played in destabilizing the Black community and larger systems of oppression.
By largely preferring a politics of centering the marginalized over a frame of community mobilizing against genocide, the author centers a politics of representation which ultimately requires recognition from white power to be successful. By largely dismissing African centered and Afrocentric politics, the text fails to see the indigenous public health, drug use, and gender sexuality variant idea with Black/ African centered communities that could have been alternative frameworks for representation for marginalized identities, like the work of Mutulu Shakur at Lincoln Detox. It also obscures the role of white supremacy and “injecting oppression” play in forcing so-called “respectability strategies” in the Black community.
While challenging existing Black political leadership, the text fails to challenge the larger dynamic of elite interest convergence black folks must depend on for change, leading to a diversification of the elite power brokers but failing to challenging the fundamental disempowerment of black communities. Finally, the text has been misinterpreted by some to argue the Black community is too innately conservative to be trusted with resources and power, thus being wielded as a tool against the Black community political power building.

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Black Baltimore 19th Century Political History Apr 02, 2026

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In this episode of In Search of Black Power, filmmaker and historian Xavier Frink dives into the roots of Black excellence and resistance by exploring 19th-century political and civic activity in Baltimore and beyond through his documentary Justice and Reconciliation: From Henry Highland Garnet to Harvey Johnson.

This conversation and film are essential in understanding the strategies our ancestors used during the 19th century and also giving us a blueprint for today.

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Baltimore Black Panther Party Mar 04, 2026

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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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Why Venezuela Matters for Black Folks Feb 04, 2026

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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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Juvenile Justice Advocacy in Maryland Jan 07, 2026

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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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