Kingdom of No Tomorrow by Fabienne Josaphat is a powerful piece of historical fiction told in the third person through the eyes of Nettie Boileau, a Haitian-born young woman whose father had been killed by dictator Papa Doc Duvallier’s thugs, the Tonton Macoute.  Her father, a gentle rural doctor, was also a revolutionary. Orphaned at the age of 12, Nettie was raised by her aunt in Oakland, California, and the story continues from there. Influenced by her late father, Nettie prepares for medical school. In college, she works in a clinic doing research on sickle-cell anemia, administering care to patients from the slums, and is introduced to the Black Panthers by an already-radicalized woman friend.

She becomes infatuated by Panthers’ charismatic leader, Melvin Mosley, an organizer involved in their well-known Service to the People health and education programs – free breakfast before school and early schooling for youngsters.  The Panthers’ community mission is in sync with Nettie’s work as a health aide, taking vitals, giving insulin shots, administering simple health care to impoverished walk-in patients who can’t afford care elsewhere. Services she once offered in her home and then in a doctor’s office moved to local Panthers’ offices.

As their passionate relationship deepens, Melvin announces his intention to move to Chicago to join Fred Hampton in organizing community action. Nettie, now pregnant, goes with him. In addition to the human services aspects of their respective jobs, his role is providing security, defending Panthers’ school and clinic sites against violent raids by police. Guns are a constant. Panther phones are tapped. Melvin’s daily movements necessitate extreme caution because of J. Edgar Hoover’s infiltration of undercover FBI agents to disrupt Panther programs and eradicate the group Hoover called “the greatest threat among the black extremist groups to the internal security of the United States.” In 1969, Hampton was shot and killed by Chicago police while sleeping in the apartment he shared with his pregnant fiancée. Author Josaphat notes that it took ten years for the truth about the killing to come out.

Despite their moments of intimacy, Nettie is always second in line for Melvin’s attention. There are hints of infidelity, but his primary focus is the Panthers. Always looming in the background is the armed violence between the police and the Black Panthers. The split in the Panthers’ movement regarding violence and non-violent, community-invested initiatives echoes tensions experienced in other White and Black radical organizations at the time. Even some of those closest to Melvin are people involved in dealing drugs and too readily given to violence.

Some readers will be turned off by the stereotypical language of the movement: honkies, “off the pigs,” “you dig?” The language reflects the tone of the era.  For today’s readers who lived in safe cities and suburbs during the turbulent sixties, this story will call up the anxieties of daily news stories about the growing violence by groups angered by longstanding unequal treatment – roach-infested housing, hunger, failing schools, overzealous police and more. For those unaffected by such discrimination, the rise of Black Power was a force to be protected against. This book gives long-overdue recognition to the role of women in the Panthers movement.

Violence against activists at the time was even more abusive than police treatment of George Floyd decades later. And many of the resisters returned the violence in kind. As the title suggests, there were limited options for the people embracing the violence of the movement. I won’t tell you what the outcomes were for the main characters. For me, the book is a beautifully written, sexually intense story of men and women, separately and together, fighting for self-determination, dignity and opportunity against powerful forces dedicated to denying their humanity. Published in 2024, it’s a stirring read today.

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