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Black panthers role in the civil rights movement
Black panther party influence on civil rights
The role of the black panther party in the civil rights movement
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The BBP or Black Panther party for self-defence was a black revolutionary socialist organization working for self-defence of black people. They were founded in Oakland, California, by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton on October 15, 1996. They had a huge background of goals, history and beliefs. The Black Panther party reformed the structure of American Society to achieve social, political and economic equality, based on principles of socialism. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale led a revolution that was driven in response to the oppression of black people. They wanted to change that. Their ten-point platform was just the beginning of an unforgettable period in the history of this nation's civil rights movement. The black panthers played a small but a very important role in the civil right movement. The Black Panther party influenced the civil rights era by encouraging African American people to fight against police brutality.
In 1966, Huey P. Newton was released from jail. With his friend, Bobby Seale, he joined a black power group called Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). RAM was a political organization founded in 1962, that devoted the destruction of capitalism and white racism in America. Newton was taking classes at the City College and at San Francisco law school. Both schools that Newton attended were active in North Oakland Center, so Seale and Newton had a lot of connections with whom they talked about a new organization. Eventually they formed a group and wrote their initial platform statement, the Ten Point program. With the help of Melvin, Huey’s brother, they decided on a uniform of blue shirts, black pants, leather jackets, black berets and openly display loaded shotguns (In California, it was legal to carry a loaded...
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... New Black Panthers Party founded in 1989 in Texas, but it has no relation to old group. Still, the Black Panther party holds a unique place in history. Today, thanks to their fight for civil rights, extreme risks, and development of social needs, people around the world can enjoy some of their modifications, such as free breakfast programs. For all African Americans, including women and children, the Black Panther Party was hope for freedom, justice, and peace.
Works Cited
Montez C. (e.d) Black Power: an Examination of the Black Panther Party U.S.A
Susan R. (2005, 11, 14) the Black Panther Party Retrieved from http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Black%20Panther%20Pty.htm
Chris T. (2000) The Black Panthers Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/black_panthers.htm
Erica B. (2001) Justice, By Any Means Retrieved from http://leeblockman.tripod.com/
The Party’s fight for redistribution of wealth and the establishment of social, political and social equality across gender and color barriers made it one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for working class liberation and ethnic minorities (Baggins, Brian). The Black Panther Party set up a ten-point program much like Malcolm X’s Nation of Islam that called for American society to realize political, economic and social equal opportunity based on the principles of socialism, all of which was summarized by the final point: "We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace" (Newton, Huey P). The Black Panther Party wanted to achieve these goals through militant force. In the words of Che Guevara, “Words are beautiful, but action is supre...
This political shift materialized with the advent of the Southern Strategy, in which Democratic president Lyndon Johnson’s support of Civil Rights harmed his political power in the South, Nixon and the Republican Party picked up on these formerly blue states and promoted conservative politics in order to gain a larger voter representation. Nixon was elected in a year drenched in social and political unrest as race riots occurred in 118 U.S. cities in the aftermath of Martin Luther King’s murder, as well as overall American bitterness due to the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the extensive student-led activist opposition to the Vietnam War. The late 1960’s also saw the advent of several movements promoting Black Nationalism to unify the African-American community through the efforts of Black Power, most notably the formation of the Black Panthers in 1967 who were dedicated to overseeing the protection of African-Americans against police brutality and the support of disadvantaged street children through their Free Breakfast for Children program. During this time, black power was politically reflected through the electorate as the 1960-70’s saw a rise in Black elected officials. In 1969 there were a total of 994 black men and 131 black women in office in the country, this figure more than tripled by 1975 when there were 2969 black men and 530 black women acting in office; more than half of these elected officials were acting in Southern States....
Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and others, were the founders of the Black Panther Party. The emphasis of the Black Panther Party and Black Party and Black Power Movement justified the use of violence in the accomplishment of black justice. They believed that African Americans had to fight back to achieve their goal of equality. Therefore, the Black Panther Party and part of the Black Power Movement have been wrongfully associated with violence and negativity. However, the Black Power movement stimulated thousands of African Americans to speak out against the wrongful treatment of whites towards African
In Living for the City, Donna Murch details the origins and the rise to prominence the Black Panther Party experienced during the 1960s and into the 1970s. The Civil Rights Movement and eventually the Black Panther Movement of Oakland, California emerged from the growing population of migrating Southern African Americans who carried with them the traditional strength and resolve of the church community and family values. Though the area was heavily driven by the massive movement of industrialization during World War II, the end of the war left a period of economic collapse and social chaos in its wake. The Black Panther Party was formed in this wake; driven by continuing violence against the African American youth by the local police forces, the Black Panther Party’s roots consisted mostly of educational meetings of local African American college students.
Through the history of African Americans in America, few political moments were more important than the formation of the Congressional Black Caucus. The thirteen black members of the House of Representatives founded the CBC in 1969. Their goal was to establish a voice for African Americans who felt forgotten and downtrodden. One early goals of the Black Caucus was to end the Apartheid in South Africa. During the early years of the organization, there was strife internally and externally. After the Reconstruction of America, African Americans were without organization amongst their representation in Congress until the establishment of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“The Ten Point Plan”, written by the group called the Black Panthers, was a document created to bring out equality and social justice for all blacks in America. The Black Panthers became a political party after blacks in America started to gain more power within themselves as a group through protests, by 1966 blacks were ready to take their progress into the political arena. The Black Panther Party or BPP was created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale who wanted a political party that would treat blacks fair and give them a voice within the government in order to help create equal laws. In “ A Huey P. Newton Story”, “The Ten Point Plan” is described as a basis for the BPP as it was a series of ten different grievances
The dominant culture perceived the Black Panther Party to be a threat, prevented their success whenever possible, and greatly contributed to their ultimate demise. In 1968 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover proclaimed: “The Black Panther Party is the single greatest threat to the internal security of the United States” (156). The Party’s founder, Huey Newton, came to represent “the symbol of change for Americans, (by) questioning everything scared to the American way of life” (237).
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966, in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Armed with sincerity, the words of revolutionaries such as Mao Tse-Tung and Malcolm X, law books, and rifles, the Black Panther Party fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police, and presented a Ten Point Platform and Program of Black political and social activism. Its "survival programs"-such as food giveaways, free health clinics and free breakfast programs for children-were popular fixtures in Black neighborhoods in the early 1970s, but for the white power structure and the vast majority of the white public, the Panthers represented only anti-government militancy; a view which engendered the wrath of the police and FBI and led to the murder of several Party members by law enforcement.
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; Malcolm X was a great person, and they believed that gun use was ok if necessary, or if people were oppressing the poor.
They cared about the poor and wanted better for the black community. They gave back to neighborhoods by feeding families in need. They also started a breakfast program for inner city kids that were going to school with no food in their stomach. Black panthers were fatherly and motherly figures to many African Americans. They led as phenomenal role models for the children, inspiring them to strive for more. They wanted nothing but the best for the children and others in the community. They stood with pride and courage walking around the neighborhood with guns for protection. They only carried weapons to protect themselves from the ignorance of the Caucasians. They even held peaceful protests to calmly fight for the rights of their people.
From bold investigations of mob brutality, protests of mass murders, segregation and discrimination, to testimony before congressional committees on the vicious tactics used to bar African Americans from the ballot box, it was the talent and tenacity of NAACP members that saved lives and changed many negative aspects of American society. While much of its history is chronicled in books, articles, pamphlets and magazines, the true movement lies in the faces—black, white, yellow, red, and brown—united to awaken the conscientiousness of people, and a nation. Work Cited www.en.wikipedia.org www.naacp.org www.spartacus.schoolnet.co
The Black Panther Party was started in Oakland, California in 1966, when “Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton took up arms and declared themselves apart of a global revolution against American imperialism” (Bloom). They wanted to empower the black people to stand up for themselves and defend themselves against the police and their unjust ways. The police were the oppressor’s that kept blacks down and kept blacks from gaining any self-rights. In the book “The Forbidden History of the Black Panther Party”, Bloom quoted from Huey P. Newton stating that “Because Black people desire their own destiny; they are constantly inflicted with brutality from the occupying army, em...
Shortly after Rachel was written in 1916, the New Negro Movement began to gain traction in the African American community. This broad cultural movement focused on promoting a public image of African Americans as industrious, urban, independent, and distinct from the subservient and illiterate “Old Negro” of the rural South. Unlike his predecessor, the New Negro was self-sufficient, intellectually sophisticated, creative, knowledgeable and proud of his racial heritage (Krasner, Beautiful Pageant 140). While these concepts had been promoted since the turn of the century, it was not until 1917-1918 that they began to crystalize as a concerted effort among African American intellectuals. These men actively supported the creation of black drama because they recognized that “At a time when African Americans had virtually no political recourse, their voice could best be heard through…a creative and humanistic effort to achieve the goal of civil rights by producing positive images of African Americans and promoting activism through art” (“New Negro Movement” 926). The New Negros therefore shared the same overall goal as black intellectuals such as DuBois, but believed that black artists should focus on presenting the reality and beauty of the “black human experience” instead of an idealized vision of what life should be. Ultimately, the transition from “political” art to that which held creativity in high esteem was complex and divisive. Fortunately, just as Dubois emerged as the primary advocate of the former Political Theatre, so too would Alain Locke help guide the New Negros to support the idea of Art Theatre.
The San Domingo revolution led to the abolition of slavery, independence of Haiti from France and the proclamation of a black republic. However, unlike many historians, CLR James in his work, The Black Jacobins, does not depict the struggle for independence as merely a slave revolt which happened to come after the French Revolution. He goes beyond providing only a recount of historical events and offers an intimate look at those who primarily precipitated the fall of French rule, namely the black slaves themselves. In doing so, James offers a perspective of black history which empowers the black people, for they are shown to actually have done something, and not merely be the subject of actions and attitudes of others.
The fight for equality has been fought for many years throughout American History and fought by multiple ethnicities. For African Americans this fight was not only fought to gain equal civil rights but also to allow a change at achieving the American dream. While the United States was faced with the Civil Rights Movements a silent storm brewed and from this storm emerged a social movement that shook the ground of the Civil Right Movement, giving way to a new movement that brought with it new powers and new fears. The phrase “Black power” coined during the Civil Right Movement for some was a slogan of empowerment, while other looked at it as a threat and attempted to quell this Black Power Movement.