The Black Panther Party : A Revolutionary Party Essay

STREET, J. (2010). The historiography of the Black Panther Party. Journal of American Studies, 44(2), 351-375. ProQuest. Web. 9 September 2015

The Black Panther Party was formed on October of 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The Panthers had a very important part in the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers favored aggression, violent self defense of minority communities against the U.S government. The Panthers saw that Martin Luther King’s non-violence was not successful. The party fought to engage in a political revolution for socialism by organized and community based programs. The party agenda was to promote political equality across gender and color. They were active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. The Black Panther Party patrol black neighborhoods to keep track of police activities and protect the residents from police brutality.

Created as an armed force protecting the black community in Oakland, California, the Black Panther Party (BPP) played a short but important part in the civil rights movement. They openly believed in carrying weapons and taking control of their own neighborhoods to aid their communities and resist police brutality. The organization led a revolution that spread across the nation lead by its two notorious leaders, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

Who would know that a ragtag group of a bunch of blacks would turn out to be the most influential black rights movement? A group so controversial that there are many perspectives of how the general public views them. The Black Panther Party strikes up an immense amount of controversy despite their inactivity of almost 35 years. From the law enforcement’s perspective, The Black Panther Party were viewed as radical criminals who randomly murdered innocent police officers. Though from the standpoint of many blacks of the time, they were viewed as heroes and martyrs, those who died and cared for their community. As James McBride vibrantly describes in his memoir, The Color of Water, his relationship toward The Black Panther Party was

I attended the 50 Years of the Black Panther Party on November 14. Black Panther is an African American revolutionary party. Blacked Panther formed in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. As a result of police brutality against African Americans in the 60s Huey Newton and Bobby Seale established this group. Patrol the police was the main reason that they started this group. Black Panther got bigger every year, and now after almost 60 years they are one of the leading movements for human rights. Thanks to Black Panther there is other movements with analogy beliefs.

The Civil RIghts group, the Black Panther Party (BPP), was formed by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California in 1966. Both of them were the leaders of the BBP. A major contributor for the start up the BPP were the assassinations of the Civil Rights Activists, Martin Luther King (MLK) and Malcolm X. Upon these assassinations this lead them to their self defense public stance.

Founded on October 15th 1966 in Oakland, California, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was an organization opposed to police brutality against the black community. The Party’s political origins were in Maoism, Marxism, and the radical militant ideals of Malcolm X and Che Guevara. From the doctrines of Maoism they saw the role of their Party as the frontline of the revolution and worked to establish a unified alliance, while from Marxism they addressed the capitalist economic system, and exemplified the need for all workers to forcefully take over means of production (Baggins, Brian). Mao was important to the Black Panthers because of his different stance on Marxism-Leninism when applied to Chinese peasants. The founders of the Black

By 1966, 32% of African-Americans were living below the poverty line, and almost 2/3 of people living in poor urban areas were Black. The Black Panther Party was a socialist and Black nationalist organization that was founded 51 years ago to address these issues among others. The organization, which had a far-left political position, lasted for merely 16 years and its influence continues to impact the world up till this day. It was the largest Black revolutionary organization to ever exist.

     Organized in the 1960s at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party emerged as a revolutionist group pioneering a strategy of militancy. The Party’s aims were to eliminate the discrimination challenging African-Americans in America since the time of slavery, and to protect their communities from police brutality. Inspired by contemporary radical leaders such as Malcolm X, the party recognized that in order to restructure American society so that civil equality was obtainable by all people, a much stronger opposition was necessary. Party members felt the passive resistance adopted by their predecessors fighting for equality proved

Unlike peaceful methods supported by Dr. King, the Black Panthers followed the ideology of Malcolm X: act now or change will never happen. As such, they were unafraid to confront injustice with an equally as stiff arm as they were presented. Until now in the movement, the peaceful protests left an avenue of abuse against the oppressed. The movement had no one protecting them here and now until change could truly happen. The black panthers answered that call, and in doing so presented very important results.

     The Black Panther had a huge background of history, goals, and beliefs. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, Ca 1966, founded the Panthers. They were originally as an African American self defense force and were highly influenced by Malcolm X’s ideas. They were named after Lowndes County Freedom Organization or LCFO. The Panthers had many goals like; giving back to the ghetto, protecting blacks from police brutality, and to help blacks get freedom and jobs. They also had many beliefs like;

Bobby met Huey at Merritt college and decided to start the Black Panther Party for self-defense of the black community and soon recruited the other members of the group, they were later recognized as the original six. It was Bobby, Huey, Elbert “Big Man” Howard, Sherman Forte, Reggie Forte, and Little Bobby Hutton. They gained 21 more members over the years and spread across the United States to gain control. It started with giving starving children in the ghettos a good breakfast to killing out of rage of their brothers and sisters being killed in front of their own eyes in the moonlight of a cold winter night. All the violence started with a dream of justice for the children killed because of the simple reason that they looked a white woman up and down at the drug store across the street. Justice for the colored community, all lives

There is no doubt that the Black Panther Party started some well meaning social survival programs for minorities. These “Survival Programs” were established by Huey Newton to recognize the needs in the black and minority communities. Many of the programs served as political agendas to enable the people within these communities. It allowed the people to have a voice and to take action to deal with oppression. In 1969 “Free Breakfast for Children” started in Oakland. Free health clinic, clothing programs and schools were opening each

What started out as a need to supply only African Americans with the services and needs of their efforts, was soon labeled as black racism, not only by the white establishment but from within the leaders of the Black Panthers as well. As a result, the Black Panthers soon expanded their circle of influence to previously deprived white groups, usually Communist and other socialist groups which had been set on the fringe of society by America. The focus in the later years of the Black Panthers was on social issues as their Ten Point Plan will attest. Even though the reign of influence within the Black Panther party, as it related to a national movement, lasted less than a decade, in that time, positive social change eventually sprang up from its origins and efforts of the masses. The Panthers assumed a Robin Hood type roll of distributing money and services to the community. Through legal and illegal money the Black Panther Party was able to improve many of the facilities that were used by African Americans. They

The Black Panther Party had a great deal of negative outlooks portrayed on them by not everyone, but more than half of the society. Without a doubt, the Black Panther Party addressed multiple situations with violent acts that implemented negativity towards them. The late Martin Luther King believed that he could obtain equality without having to use violence as a lament, instead the Black Panther’s believed that King’s non-violence movement had failed, and that violence was necessary to get through to the people who saw black communities and minority groups as insignificant. Although, the Black Panther Party only granted membership to African Americans, they weren’t anti-white, the Black Panther Party considered themselves