[1] Alston grew up in the inner city of Plainfield, New Jersey, which he described as being, at that time, "Niggertown with all the customs and traditions of racism, sexism and powerlessness".

[3] Alston described seeing his older brother's copy of Malcolm X's autobiography with the subtitle "Former pimp, hustler, robber, who becomes leader of the Black Revolution", which demonstrated to him that "people that come from that kind of background can play a heroic role in the struggle.

"[3] He recalled that witnessing the 1967 Plainfield rebellion gave him "an image of black men and women in heroic roles in our community crashing all the myths about us being 'niggers', all that stuff.

He felt a strong disdain for white people, as preached by the Nation of Islam; however, upon joining the Panthers he changed his views.

[5] Alston observed much sexism during his time in the Black Panther Party, despite the group's stated intention of gender equality, which he didn't fully realize until his stint in prison.