Jakobi E. Williams

is an associate professor of History and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. He is the author of From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago.

An Arc of Solidarity: Remembering Bob Lee (1942-2017)

An Arc of Solidarity: Remembering Bob Lee (1942-2017)

It was activists like Black Panther Bob Lee and the original Rainbow Coalition who created change in our nation, by daring to enter distant neighborhoods and forge alliances. As a political symbol, the Rainbow didn’t refer just to a series of colors; it signified an arc of connection between different places and people. For Lee and others who participated with him in struggle, this was the only possible starting point for revolutionary solidarity.