Black Panther Party

Foundation

The party was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1968 in the city of Oakland, California. The party was created to further the movement for black liberation, which had been growing steadily throughout the sixties thanks to the prominent civil rights movement and the work of people like Malcolm X. Though the party always maintained a respectful attitude towards Martin Luther King, it made it clear from the beginning that it sought no compromise with the "white power structure" and was not fighting for integration, but rather for revolutionary black nationalism. The party similarly rejected non-violence as a creed and specifically chose to organize around a platform of "self-defense" (which became part of the party's original name, "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense").

Ten point plan

The party was founded on a ten point program, listed below and available here [1] in full with the party's explanatory comments for each of the points. The Ten Point Plan was one of the party's central documents, and distributing it was a major method of propaganda, education and recruitment.

The Ten Points:

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
2. We want full employment for our people.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black Community.
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.
7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.
8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
9. We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

Breakfast program

The Party began a variety of pioneering community programs, initially in the Oakland area, including a sickle-cell anemia testing program, free clinics, and food distributions. By far the most famous and successful of their programs, however, was their Free Breakfast for Children Program, initially run out of a San Francisco church, which fed thousands of children throughout the party's history.

The Party also strove to end drug use in the African American community, disrupting the operations of drug dealers, distributing anti-drug propaganda, and setting up community drug rehabilitation programs.

Some members ran for office on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket.

Self-Defense

The BPP advocated and practiced armed self-defense of black communities against what they viewed as the "foreign occupying force" of racist white police. They sometimes "patrolled the cops", that is, followed policeman along their routes in black neighborhoods and intervened (or at least observed) if the police abused their power.

Merger with SNCC

The Party briefly merged with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, headed by the fiery Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Toure).

COINTELPRO & East/West split

The Party was targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program, which systematically attempted to disrupt their activities and dissolve the party. COINTELPRO achieved this through a combination of infiltration, public propaganda, and the exacerbation of interfactional rivalries, mostly through the mailing of anonymous or forged letters.

On December 4, 1969, the FBI and Chicago Police raided the home of Panther Fred Hampton. The people inside the home had been drugged by an FBI informant, William O'Neal, and were all asleep at the time of the raid. Hampton was shot and killed, as was the guard, Mark Clark. The others in the home were then dragged into the street and beaten and subsequently charged with assault. These charges were later dropped.

Decay and Disintegration

The Party eventually fell apart due to rising legal costs and disputes resulting from COINTELPRO. Several prominent members went on to join the armed group, the Black Liberation Army, while others (e.g. Eldridge Cleaver) embraced a more conservative, pro-establishment philosophy. Many languished in prison for years as a result of COINTELPRO cases.

A group calling themselves the New Black Panther Party emerged from the Nation of Islam decades after the fall of the original Black Panthers. Members of the original Black Panther Party have been publicly and adamantly critical of them. For example, the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation insists that there "is no new Black Panther Party".

Famous Black Panther Party members

• Elaine Brown
• H. Rap Brown
• Bunchy Carter
• Eldridge Cleaver
• Angela Davis
• Fred Hampton
• David Hilliard
• Bobby Hutton
• George Jackson
• Mumia Abu-Jamal
• Huey P. Newton
• Nile Rodgers
• Bobby Seale
• Assata Shakur
• Afeni Shakur

References

• Seale, Bobby. (1968). Seize the time. Black Classic Press; Reprint edition (September 1997).

External links

• The Bobby Seale Homepage
• The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation
• 10-point program of the Black Panther Party
• Hartford Web Publishing collection of BPP documents.
• Maoist Internationalist Movement: Black Panther Newspaper Collection

Referenced By