The Black Panther Party was a political party started by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966. This political organization had most of its impact in: San Francisco bay area, Ca; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and Los Angeles, CA. The Black Panther party began to fall around the end of the 70’s due to an FBI program called COINTELPRO, short for ‘Counter-Intelligence Program.’ The significance of analyzing this party and the effects the FBI had on it is to reveal a side of the civil rights movement that is often shadowed. The U.S. government saw civil rights as a large threat to security and took many initiatives to prevent parties and leaders, such as the Black Panther Party and Martin Luther King Jr., from becoming successful in their movement towards …show more content…
Although the BBP was influenced by Malcom X, they developed ideas of their own. The BBP was welcoming to white activist groups like Students for a Democratic Society, much like MLK was. They believed that revolutionaries should stand together for what they believe is right and break racial barriers (ancestry). Ultimately the BBP strived for equal opportunity for Black people and this was shown through their goals as a party. Originally the Black Panther Party was named the Black Panther Party for self-defense. This reflected their establishment of patrols to monitor police activity is areas such as Chicago. These patrols would consist of members of the BPP with non-concealed weapons, standing a certain amount of feet away from the police to try to prevent police brutality in Black communities. This empowered the Black community by putting the fear into the police instead of the Black citizens who were usually being beaten by an oppressive police force. The BPP party experienced the discrepancy of opportunity and prosperity in Black communities and were willing to take many avenues to promote Black success. The founder of the group explicitly states the goals in a speech where he introduces The Ten-point program. In the