Kenyatto Amen-Allah grew up in Central Area in the generation after the Civil Rights era. As a child in the late 1970s, he attended the Black Panther Party’s Liberation school and remembers how it provided positive messages to him before he attended public school. An activist since childhood, his current work with the Black Panther Legacy Committee is evidence of the Black Panther Party’s lasting message in Seattle.

In a video-taped interview conducted by Janet Jones on August 2, 2005, Kenyatto Amen-Allah shared memories of attending the Liberation school and growing up around the BPP. He also talks about the Central Area’s problems with gangs and drugs in the 1980s and how hip-hop helped ease some of those tensions.

Video editing by Nathan Roberts.