The Black Panther Party: An Introductory Paper
The Black Panther Party was a controversial yet crucial movement based mainly in the sixties. For the importance of the party and the impact it had on the civil rights movement onward, it is, on average, not taught in a traditional school setting. The movement may be quickly dusted over while discussing other civil rights movements concerning African Americans but typically does not receive the equal time and attention. The goal of this paper is to introduce, but not fully develop, the ideas and topics the group centered themselves around.
THE BEGINNING
The Black Panther Party (BPP), also known as The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was established by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966.
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Bobby Hutton, a young member of the BPP, was shot at seventeen years old on April 6, 1968. His death and what that meant for other young members impacted the organization greatly. On April 2, 1969, twenty-one members were arrested on terrorist activity charges, this group was dubbed “the panther 21”. Protests were held in honor of this group but to no avail. After the panther 21 the organization began to dwindle as goals began to separate and change for the group. Police raided the home of Fred Hampton, killing him and another member, Mark Clark, a party leader from Peoria, on December 5, 1969. Four days after Hampton and Clark’s death, as a sort of final act, Los Angeles police opened fire on an office serving as a meeting place for the BPP (Workneh and …show more content…
To this day many civil rights centered groups look to the BPP for inspiration and motivation towards their goals.
Activists in Australian urban centers for example incorporated the works of BPP members into their social movements. The oppressed Dalits in India emulated the rhetoric of the Black Panthers, and the representatives of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front, who called themselves Yellow Panthers, also used the organizations as a model. Closer to the United States, the Vanguard Party in the Bahamas closely studied the BPP, drew on its political philosophy, adopted its use of uniforms and its Ten Point Program, and published the newspaper Vanguard, whose scope and format mirrored the BPP’s newspaper, Black Panther, to shape its program of activism. (Duncan)
Closer to present day the BPP survives in the public’s imagination through the publication of memoirs by members and the use of its rhetoric in rap