The Black Panther Party

Founded in 1966 in Oakland by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was created to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect people from police brutality. Despite growing support and passage of civil rights legislation, African Americans in cities across America continued to experience economic and social inequality. Residents of these urban centers were vulnerable to poor living conditions, joblessness, chronic health problems, violence, and limited resources to change their situation. These conditions were some of the main reasons behind urban riots and the increase of police violence which was used to impose order.

In the wake of the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The name was shortened to the Black Panther Party and they immediately set out to put themselves apart from such organizations as the Universal Negro Improvement Association or the Nation of Islam, cultural nationalist organizations that they were often compared to. The groups shared certain philosophical beliefs and tactical features, they often differed on basic matters. For example, African American cultural nationalists generally believed that all white people were oppressors, whereas the BPP recognized the difference between racists and nonracists and made allies with members of the latter group.

From the beginning, the party mapped out a Ten Point Program to initiate national African American community survival projects and create alliances with white radicals and other organizations of people of color. Many of these points addressed the important stances of the BPP: economic exploitation is the root of all oppression in the world and the abolition of capitalism an essential part of social justice. Because of these socialist economic beliefs, the organization soon found itself in the middle of the FBI and its counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO. In 1969, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover viewed the Black Panther Party as the greatest threat to national security.

The Black Panther Party first came onto the national stage in May 1967, when a small group of members led by Bobby Seale, marched fully armed into the California state legislature in Sacramento. Inspired by the belief that African Americans had a constitutional right to bear arms, they marched on as a protest against the pending Mulford Act which would have prohibited public carrying of a loaded firearm. They viewed the legislation as an attempt to obstruct the BPP's efforts to combat police brutality in Oakland. This new publicity was further supplemented when Huey Newton was arrested after a shoot-out with the police that resulted in the death of an officer. From this publicity, the organization grew internationally with chapters in 48 states and support groups all over the world.

Along with challenging police brutality, the BPP launched over 35 survival programs and provided much-needed community help. They provided education, tuberculosis tests, legal aid, transportation assistance, ambulance service, and manufacturing and distribution of shoes to the poor. Most notable of all these programs was the Free Breakfast for Children Program which began in January 1969, spreading to every major American city with a BPP chapter.

The group was declared a communist organization and an enemy of the US government by the FBI. Hoover went so far as to say that 1969 would be the last year of the Black Panther Party. He devoted all of the FBI's resources, through COINTELPRO, to make sure that his statement was true. They used agent provocateurs, sabotage, misinformation, and lethal force to weaken the organization. It all culminated into a five-hour police shoot-out at the Southern California headquarter of the Black Panther Party in December 1969. While in Illinois, a state police raid in Chicago led to the death of Fred Hampton, the leader of the Chicago chapter.

From the mid-1970s through the 1980s, the activities of the Black Panther Party ceased. This in large part due to the dissolution of party leaders, as well as the FBI. Currently, there is a New Black Panther Party which has replicated that of the original, the only difference being that they hold cultural nationalist beliefs. This has led many former Black Panthers to denounce the organization for using the Black Panther Party name.

Sources:
1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-Party