The black population in America had been suffering from economic and social inequality for what it seemed forever. At this point, Huey and Bobby though their society has had enough. Oakland needed someone with enough power and grit to reestablish the long needed equality for African Americans. That someone would be the Black Panther Party. This party has changed the history of civil rights.
In the paper, The Black Panther Platform: “What We Want, What We Believe” the militant civil rights organization, the Black Panthers, outline their goals. Ranging from communal self-governance to government entitlements, the group focuses on the issue of racism in the United States and places the weight of the problem on the shoulders of White capitalism. The group prescribes militant self-defense as the tool African-Americans can use to further their societal position. Prior to the Black Panthers, no mainstream civil rights organization set forth a doctrine of militancy as opposed to non-violent protest and civil disobedience. Focusing on a broad definition of all forms of discrimination Black people face, de facto and de jure, the Black
Bobby Seale and Huey Newton founded the Black Panthers in 1966, together they created a formal organization. With a platform of bringing jobs, education, housing, medical care, and most importantly justice and the end police brutality. For Newton, “the black ghetto was merely a colonized nation at war with an oppressive police state”. They took on an aggressive stance because they believed being peaceful like Martin Luther King was not making enough change. Their use of guns sent a message that “police are not bulletproof”.
The party itself was quite unique in the sense that did a little bit of everything. From embracing their right to bare arms at city hall or creating programs to help their community they did it all. They were successful because besides fighting police brutality, which was their initial goal, they improved the community by launching more than 35 Survival Programs. The Black Panther Party created significant opportunities in their communities to help each other, from tuberculosis testing to the Free Breakfast for Children program that provided free breakfasts for students. This party was so successful in West Oakland, it spread to other major cities in the US.
The Panthers focused on community empowerment through programs like free breakfast programs, health clinics, and educational initiatives. They emphasized the need for political and economic autonomy for Black people, calling for the end of police brutality and racial inequality.
The Black Panthers were an African American party that was willing to violently defend and speak up for
Huey Newton said, “Black power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.” In 1966 in Oakland, California the Black Panther Party for Self- Defense was created by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. The formation of this party was a direct result of the civil rights movements and people feeling like the efforts of the peaceful protest weren’t enough. Their philosophy was based of the ideals of the late Malcom X and the panthers were widely known for their radical style of rebelling against police brutality. With the Civil Rights Movement in action some group’s methods of fighting for equality proved to be ineffective and because of this the Black Panther Party rose.
The Black Panther Party Platform The Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Sale and Huey Newton in 1966 and it remained active until 1982. The Black Panther Party was an organization with black nationalism and socialism at the core of their beliefs and ideologies. The BPP was known for its armed citizen’s patrol which they used to monitor the behaviour of officers from the Oakland Police Department in order to protect local residents from police brutality (Baggins, 2002). The Black Party Platform or more commonly known as the Ten-Point Program was a set of guidelines of the Black Panther Party.
1) The black panther party effected segregation by giving black people the benefits and support that the state couldn’t do for them. For example, they cared for their needs, championing their causes, educating their consciousness with radical views, defending them from the racist police and putting people in power instead of politicians. Most people in the media portrayed the party as an violent organization even though they were just a party trying to give African Americans power.
This document not only asked for a fair criminal justice system for the African American community it also demanded better living conditions, education, and for African Americans to be thought as equal. In contrast to the Black Lives Matter movement the Black Panther Party movement had a stronger tactics and a stable objective which led to the Black Panther Party movement to be active for sixteen years, while the Black Lives Matter movement is struggling to stay active after about four years. Another reason why the Black Panther Party movement was effective was because they allowed for other groups to join and expanded their support to groups outside the United States. Huey Newton stated,” We must gain security in ourselves and therefore have respect and feelings for all oppressed people,” he was letting America
Their reasoning for doing so is made evident in the following: “At the center of their politics was the practice of armed self-defense against the police. While revolutionary ideas could be easily ignored, widespread confrontations between young armed black people and the police could not” (Bloom 13). Although nonviolent confrontation, consisting of “revolutionary ideas,” was suitable for the Beats because their obstacles related to the human mind, the Beats recognized that the only solution to their problem was the “practice of armed self-defense.” While pleas to create change could easily be ignored by the government, there would be no way to overlook physical aggressions made by the Black Panther Party. The Black Panthers were mindful of the impression of Black people because of the historical implications of racism in America, and used this fear of the “other” to their advantage.
The need for blacks to have their own so called justice against prejudice in a nation they felt were not supporting them in becoming an equal part of a world which had struggled for the rights of blacks since slavery. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense were perceived as a militant organization unlike the Ku Klux Klan. Many of those in political power felt that the panther’s organization was the next uprising for blacks following Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X for civil rights. Huey Newton followed the approach of Malcom X in trying to achieve that all black were self-contained and become a working product of society.
They wanted to cater to inner-city Blacks as well to the low income populace. The Black Panther Party began to pick up popularity in the late 60s because they were ready to fight police brutality. The Black Panther Party received media coverage that boosted their social presence and members. They became a national and
The impact of the Black Panther Party, along with other Black Nationalist groups and leaders, can still be felt today. Research, movies, and documentaries continue to be made on the impact of race on American society, and how it is intertwined with the BPP especially. With movements like the Black Lives Matter movement, and songs like Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’, Americans continue to look into the racial past of the United States and the FBI’s goal to obliterate the Black Panther Party, as the argument of whether or not they were equivalent to terrorist and hate groups like the KKK still goes on today. The Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) seeks to fight against many of the same principles that the Black Panther Party once stood for.
The Panthers would take anyone that would help them. Newton and Seale wanted to not just protest Black rights, but also wanted to get involved and help black families in poverty. They started a free breakfast program, and had a school for inattentive kids. “In addition to challenging police brutality, the Black Panther Party launched more than 35 Survival Programs and provided community help, such as education, tuberculosis testing,
