How Did The Media Portray The Black Panthers?

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party as a civil rights revolutionary party in Oakland, California in 1966. Since the time of slavery until the 1960’s and even today, Black people’s rights have been ignored from the government and white individuals in power. In the media, the Black Panther Party was described as a group of dangerous militants determined to threaten the lives of white people. On the contrary, the Black Panther Party was infuriated by the government’s neglect of the black community, so the Party was determined to protect and preserve black communities because the government refused to. To do so, Newton and Seale were not afraid to utilize their Second Amendment rights to protect themselves and their community.

For example, in December 1969, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) raided the Black Panther headquarters with the means of confiscating the Party's rifles. According to Bobby Seale, lhe LAPD arrived with a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, an uncountable amount of officers, and five thousand rounds of ammunition, gas masks, a helicopter, a tank, and one military-grade grenade (allpower.wordpress.com “How did the media portray the Black Panthers?). At the beginning of the raid, the Black Panther Party resisted the attack. However, after a five-hour battle, the Black Panther Party finally surrendered. According to an article published by the Los Angeles Times on December 9th, 1969, the police operated the mission with such force for self-protection against threatening militants, claiming the “Blacks use arsenal of automatic weapons, shotguns, and grenades.” (Torgerson). However, from the perspective of the Black Panthers, the raid was an example of the numerous customary attacks from the police on black people. The media's retelling of the same event was different from the Party’s interpretation because the interest of mainstream media leans towards the interest of those with authority. In this instance, the media’s claims were parallel to those of the LAPD and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Los Angeles Times article was biased against the perspective of the LAPD and the FBI. By ignoring the perspective of the Party, Dial Torgerson, the author of the article, augmented the detrimental stereotype portraying the Black Panthers and black people in general as dangerous. However, the reality of the group was much different than the media’s depiction. The Panthers truly were fighting against the threatening of their community’s lifestyle. Still, the media failed to properly publicize the Black Panther Party’s true