Former Black Panther Leader Elaine Brown Receives $4,000,000 From Oakland, Calif., Jury for Elder Abuse

Elaine Brown, former leader of the Black Panther Party, was recently awarded more than $4 million by a Northern California jury, stemming from what was determined to be an assault by an Oakland, Calif., councilwoman in 2015. Suggested Reading New AI TikTok Trend Has Gorillas Posing as Black Women, and Folks are Pissed Steve Harvey’s…

Elaine Brown, former leader of the Black Panther Party, was recently awarded more than $4 million by a Northern California jury, stemming from what was determined to be an assault by an Oakland, Calif., councilwoman in 2015.

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Last week, a jury found that Councilwoman Desley Brooks should pay $550,000 to Brown, who was injured after Brooks pushed her during an argument. Brown was also awarded $3.8 million in damages from the city by the same jury in December 2016.

The Associated Press reports that jurors found that Brooks pushed Brown over stacked chairs, and Brownโ€”then 72 years oldโ€”had to have surgery for a torn rotator cuff.

The jury also determined that Brown was the victim of elder abuse.

The altercation apparently stemmed from Brownโ€™s venture to build affordable housing for formerly incarcerated people in West Oakland.

Brown testified that during a confrontation at Everett & Jones Barbeque restaurant in October 2015, the councilwoman told her the project was โ€œof no benefit to black peopleโ€ and physically attacked her after they had a verbal altercation.

Brown was the first and only woman to lead the Black Panther Party, after founder Huey P. Newton fled to Cuba because of murder charges. She held the post for three years but left in 1977, tiring of the virulent sexism within the movement and the organization specifically.

In her years since being one of the most prominent faces of the Black Panther Party, Brown went on to write several books and in 2003ย co-founded the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, which assists prisoners with housing after they are releasedโ€”the root of Brownโ€™s argument with Brooks.

โ€œI feel grateful to the jury for understanding that this wasnโ€™t an issue of two black women fighting in a bar,โ€ Brown said Monday. โ€œThis was someone who was an elected official who abused her power.โ€

Brooks, in response, said that the judgment was โ€œdisappointing but not unexpected.โ€

Read more at WRAL.

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