Panther baby : a life of rebellion and reinvention / by Jamal Joseph.

"Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited"--Title page verso.

In the 1960s he exhorted Columbia students to burn the university to the ground. Today he's chair of their film division. Jamal Joseph's personal odyssey--from the streets of Harlem to Leavenworth to the halls of Columbia--is as gripping as it is inspiring. Eddie Joseph was a high school honor student, slated to graduate early. But this was the late 1960s in Bronx's ghetto, and Eddie was introduced to the Black Panther Party, just gaining a national foothold. By sixteen, his devotion to the cause landed him in prison, charged with conspiracy as one of the Panther 21. When exonerated, Eddie--now called Jamal--became the youngest spokesperson and leader of the Panthers' New York chapter. Later, during more than twelve years in Leavenworth, he earned two degrees and found a new calling. In raw, powerful prose, Joseph helps us understand what it meant to be a soldier inside the militant Black Panther movement.--From publisher description.