The Book Prize Index

The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York versus Lumumba Shakur, et al.

Murray Kempton

"On April 2, 1969 five-man squads of New York policemen, armed with shotguns and wearing bulletproof vests, pounded on a succession of apartment doors throughout New York City, rounding up members of the Black Panther party. Thirteen of twenty-one suspects were charged and tried for attempted arson, attempted murder, and conspiracies to blow up various police stations, school buildings, a railroad yard, and the Bronx Botanical Gardens. But the forces of "law and order" behaved in a decidedly less lawful manner than the defendants. The Briar Patch brilliantly examines the proceedings, from the police undercover operations that first implicated the Panthers, to their acquittal on all charges. It remains a seminal book - not just about the Panther 21, but about the quality of justice in America."--BOOK JACKET.

True Crime & JusticeTrue Crime & Justice · high confidenceTrue Crime & Justice81 signalsLlm Classifier: True Crime & Justice -> True Crime & JusticeOpen Library: Black Panther Party -> Arts & CriticismOpen Library: Trials (Conspiracy) -> True Crime & JusticeActivist BiographyBlack History & Culture

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Award for NonfictionMajor1974Co-winnerSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Lumumba Shakur55%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • New York City60%
    • Bronx Botanical Gardens45%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The book argues that the “law and order” forces behaved less lawfully than the defendants, and that the proceedings reflect the quality of justice in America.

    Model confidence 60%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 55%.