Sustaining a Social Movement: Gray Panther Ideology and Tactics

Abstract

The Gray Panthers, formed in 1970, are an intergenerational social movement focused on peace, health care, housing, income adequacy, and social justice. Despite the loss of founder Maggie Kuhn in 1995, and a diminished membership since its peak in the 1980s, the Gray Panthers continue today. Key elements in this organizational success are their distinctive ideology and tactics. Here their concept of “the person” and their “outrageous” activist techniques are analyzed using published and archival Gray Panther materials and drawing on the author's involvement as active member during 1977–1978, 1980–1987, and 2004–2010, and his perspective as an anthropologist and historian.