In this three-part interview, Gayle “Asali” Dickson shares with Kakoli Mitra a few of the experiences she had as an African-American girl and young woman in Oakland, California (United States) that led her to become an activist in the 1960s and later join the Black Panther Party (BPP). Asali talks about moving into a primarily Euro-American neighborhood in East Oakland as a child and remembering how her white neighbors sold their houses one by one, because they didn’t want to live next to a black family. She describes learning about African-American history for the first time while attending college and being inspired by the speeches of Malcolm X, which motivated her to join, in 1968, the boycott of a local business — Housewives Market — discriminating against black workers. Asali explains the role white supremacy played in the economics, governance, and social structure of the time, including in policing, open carry laws (of guns), and citizens’ vigilante groups, like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). When Asali moved with her new husband to Seattle, Washington, where the first chapter of BPP outside of the state of California had been established, she — along with her husband — joined the BPP in 1969.