The Black Panther Party also known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was a powerful militant group of African Americans that represented “Black Power” and self-protection. During the aftermath of the Malcolm X assassination, two student activists at Merritt Junior College in Oakland, CA, named Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founded the Black Panther Party for Defense in October 1966. Although most of the media concentrations was on the leader of the Civil Rights movement throughout the 1960's, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panthers opposed with Martin Luther King’s philosophy, also utilized inspiration, especially in poor black communities. The primary reason the Black Panther Party initiated was to encourage a change to occur in the neighborhoods with a rising prejudice towards minorities, specifically, African Americans. The most important things that caused intense community obliteration were the Black Panthers'’ stand for unity, opportune equality, and the demand to bring racism to a halt.
The Black Panthers wanted to be apart of a society of Revolutionary Freedom with the ability to fight for the oppressed to gain equal rights and to end police brutality. The Panthers were a dominant organization because of its support from the black community. The whites in the North were endangered and alienated by the Black Panthers’ radicalism and readiness to use violence. In 1968 and 1969, The Panthers’ were perceived as a threat to the federal government whom effectively disband the organization by creating ways to stop them. Huey P. Newton said, “Black people must control the destiny of their community. Because Black people desire to determine their own destiny, they are constantly inflicted with brutality from the oc...
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...on, the Black Panthers was an unforgettable movement that causes destruction to gain the success and put a positive impact in the communities and has immensely changed the lives of African Americans to this day. The members of the Black Panthers took an oath to take a stand against the oppression that was created by the Caucasian race to gain revolutionary freedom, opportune equality, and the demand to bring racism to a halt.
Works Cited
Bloom, Joshua and Waldo E. Martin. Black Against Empire: the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Berkley: University of California Press, 2013.
Foner, Philip Sheldon. The Black Panthers Speak. Da Capo Press, 2002.
Marxists Internet Archive. Black Panther Party. 229 March 2012.
Newton, Huey P. Revolutionary Suicide.
Robinson, Susan. "The Black Panther Party." 14 November 2005. Gibbs Magazine. .
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...
Introduction In Panther Baby, Jamal Joseph, an autobiography, tells about his life and his experiences as a member, later becomes a leader of Black Panther Party in New York City and a prison in Leavenworth, Kansas during between 1960’s and 1980’s. He writes this book, Panther Baby, of his personal story in which he shares his experiences in the Black Panther Party, New York and Leavenworth, Kansas. This paper will review Joseph’s story and will have an evaluation and ethical analysis that focus on our course’s theme of ethics and social responsibility. This story narrates about Joseph’s experiences in Black Panther Party in New York City and a prison in Leavenworth. Black Panther Party is a At the beginning of the story, Joseph’s first
An individual who was developed from the black power movements, was Richard Aoki, a third generation Japanese American. He had spent time living in the internment camps as a child during the second world war. When he grew up, he became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party, and the only Asian American to have held a formal leadership position as "Field Marshall". He worked in the Black Panther party by arming them with weapons and training them in firearm usage. He continued his work by helping lead the Third World Liberation Front strike at Berkeley in 1969. This demonstration was to draw together the experiences of the oppression that third world minorities had experienced throughout their colonization period, from the United States. Experiences such as genocide of native Americans, enslavement of Africans, colonization of Chicanos, and the Asian immigration exclusion acts. The movements were created in order to achieve independence and demanded political power for those third world minorities who were had been, and were still being oppressed. They employed tactics such as, "informational picketing, blocking of campus entrances, mass rallies and teach-ins. Popular support was often met with repression in the form of police arrests, teargas and campus disciplinary actions." This impactful demonstration led to a large number of Asian American students, to become involved in community based organizing efforts, to increase awareness and strength for the Asian American movements. These students worked to produce vital means in which they were able to attain more information on their roots and the struggles that their ancestors had gone through. By fighting to create college curriculums that represented their histori...
If there was any one man who demonstrated the anger, the struggle, and the beliefs of African Americans in the 1960s, that man was Malcolm X. The African American cultural movement of the 1920s lost momentum in the 1930s because of worldwide economic depression. The Great Depression helped to divert attention from cultural to economic matters. Even before the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment and poverty among blacks was exceptionally high. It was under these difficult conditions that Malcolm X experienced his youth in the South. Malcolm X was a very controversial character in his time. He grew up in a very large family. His father hunted rabbits to sell to the white people for money, and his mother stayed home to take care of all the children. Several times when he was young, his family was forced to relocate due to the racist groups that would burn or run them out of their home like the Ku Klux Klan. One of these groups called the Black Legion killed his father by tying him to the railroad tracks. Malcolm’s father had life insurance but was not given to his family because they said that Earl Little had committed suicide. This was quite impossible because his head was bashed in and he tied himself to the railroad. Without his father’s income, Malcolm's family was forced to get government help and food. Applying for this type of assistance brought many white Social Workers into their home. They asked questions and interrogated the entire family. Malcolm’s mother always refused to talk or let them in.
The concepts of Reform and Revolution are nearly polarizing by their very nature, with one seeking to modify, and the other seeking to destroy and rebuild. If an organized Black movement was to find itself in an opportunistic position -whatever that may be- with which to attempt a radical movement (in either case; reform or revolution, the resulting movement would need to be large and radical if it would hope to accomplish its goals before the opportunity for change ceases to present itself) it would only serve to befall their efforts if they found themselves in a splintered state of conflicting ideologies. But, in either case, be it reform or revolution, a reconfiguring of the thought processes behind how one looks at the nature of American politics is undoubtedly necessary in order to look into the potential for future Black liberation.
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....
Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2004, 124.
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 driven heavily 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,
Since the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-nineteenth century, African American leaders have proposed many different theories and methods to address the injustices posed by the white majority on to the African-American population. One point that all the leaders agreed on, however, was that things had to change, the injustice and discrimination that the black community faced couldn’t be tolerated anymore. The most well known of these leaders was Martin Luther King who amongst others started one of the most prominent civil rights groups in the struggle for African American rights in the sixties: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Founded by college students, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Bloom, Joshua, and Waldo E. Martin. Black against empire: the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
Charles, M. (2003). Time Longer Than Rope: A Century of African American Activism, 1850-1950. London: vintage publishers.
After the death of Malcolm X the movement started to get funky. It seemed as though after the assinaition of Malcom X, the revolution’s focal point began to change. The movement began to head towards a more intense, and nitty gritty level. It seemed as though all the non-violent organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, as well as the Christian Leadership Conference had little hold on what was about to happen to the movement. The death of Malcolm X brought a new direction in the movement. In a society of a violent system it was hard for young blacks to take charge in an non-violent organization, it seemed to be a hypocrisy. And the idea of tolerance was wearing thin for the whole generation.
Every member of the Black Panther Party throughout this country of racist America must abide by these rules as functional members of this party. Central Committee members, Central Staffs, and Local Staffs, including all captains subordinated to either national, state, and local leadership of the Black Panther Party will enforce these rules. Length of suspension or other disciplinary action necessary for violation of these rules will depend on national decisions by national, state or state area, and local committees and staffs where said rule or rules of the Black Panther Party were violated. Every member of the party must know these verbatim by heart. And apply them daily. Each member must report any violation of these rules to their leadership or they are counter-revolutionary and are also subjected to suspension by the Black Panther Party. The rules are:
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.
Since its beginning, and with increasing emphasis since World War II, the NAACP has advocated nonviolent protests against discrimination and has disapproved of extremist black groups such as SNCC and the Black Panthers in the 1960s and 70s and CORE and the Nation of Islam in the 1980s and 90s, many of which criticized the organization as passive.... ... middle of paper ... ... DuBois, Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkens and the hundreds of thousands of nameless faces who worked tirelessly cannot and must not be forgotten (NAACP 1). The history of the NAACP is one of blood, sweat and tears.