It's All Good Bakery

It’s All Good Bakery in Oakland is a simple red-and-white storefront, serving up such treats as sweet potato pie, 7-Up pound cake, fruit cobblers, and banana pudding. Along with baked goods, the bakery also displays a wall of photographs and periodical covers devoted to the history of the Black Panther Party. The tribute is only appropriate. On January 2, 1967, the site where the bakery now sits became the first official office of the Black Panthers.

In fact, the bakery is just one of several other historical Black Panther sites in the area. Just around the corner is the former site of Merritt College, where bright college students and future Party co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale developed the ideas that would become the Panther’s 10-Point Platform. A couple of blocks away, at Market and 55th, is where the Panthers used armed patrols to stop traffic to protect children crossing the street in the absence of a traffic light.

David Hilliard, the former chief of staff of the Black Panthers, designed the bakery’s tribute wall. The owner of It’s All Good, Kim Cloud, participated in the Black Panther’s free breakfast program as a child. Many of the desserts at the bakery are made from his family’s heirloom recipes.