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 Panther Party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale saw links between the Chinese peasants and the oppression of blacks in America and used Mao’s “little red book” as a guideline for social revolution (Baggins, Brian).
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...
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These movements have many similarities in the goals that they wanted to achieve, however they have some differences as well. In the document written by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, they voiced their demands ...
... led by Edward Hanrahan raided a Black Panther apartment in search of unregistered guns. “ When the raid was over they had the guns, and two panther leaders were dead…Fred Hampton…and Mark Clark…” (211).
The Black Panther Party, which was co-founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966, was a political party that pushed to overcome social oppression. After the assassination of Black activist Malcom X, the Panthers decided they had enough of seeing their race be denied the freedom they deserved. Members of the Black Panthers were tired of a society that continued to consider them “niggers.” They were tired of not having the chance to get out of poverty and live comfortably. They were tired of not getting a quality education that public schools in America should’ve been providing them. They were tired of being beaten, harassed, and unruly discriminated against by police solely because of the color of their skin. They wanted to live in the beautiful nation that America appeared to be for Whites. They wanted freedom and equality for African-Americans.
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,
Acoli, Sundiata. A Brief History of the Black Panther Party and Its Place In the Black
Deprived of social equality and economic prosperity, The Black Panther Party emerged as the leading group seeking public reform. The group’s most prominent and revolutionary leaders, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, proposed a set of demands called “The Black Panther Platform: What We Want, What We Believe”. Structured similarly to the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence, this list addressed and proposed solutions to structural obstacles such as education and employment that were built upon hegemonic ideas. These solutions became known as counter hegemonic ideologies,- ideologies that challenged the existing hegemony and evoked resistance.
The Black Panthers aren’t talked about much. The Panthers had made a huge difference in the civil rights movement. They were not just a Black KKK. They helped revolutionize the thought of African Americans in the U.S.
Bloom, Joshua, and Waldo E. Martin. Black against empire: the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
The Black Panther Political Party was the conception of Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, political activists, in 1966. The Panthers was built upon the foundation of Malcolm X’s ideology of self respect and revolution for the oppressed while contributing positively in communities (“Black Panther Party”).The Black Panthers was composed of black nationalist and unconventional Marxist eager to become respected revolutionaries on behalf of black Americans (Joseph 177). This group was constantly harassed by...
“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 Black Panther Party was born to elevate the political, social, and economic status of Blacks. The means the Party advocated in their attempt to advance equality were highly unconventional and radical for the time, such as social programs for under privileged communities and armed resistance as a means of self preservation. The Party made numerous contributions to Black’s situation as well as their esteem, but fell victim to the ‘system’ which finds it nearly impossible to allow Blacks entry into the dominant culture. Thus, the rise and fall of a group of Black radicals, as presented by Elaine Brown in A Taste of Power, can be seen to represent the overall plight of the American Black: a system which finds it impossible to give Blacks equality.
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 Panthers protected the Black Community during racial times while supporting them with their power. They have supported civil rights in many locations where they have formed and furthered the society of black people. They brought freedom and equality to black people effected by racial segregation.
Roy, Joseph T. "New Black Panther Party." Http://www.splcenter.org/. Southern Poverty Law Center, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. .
The "Ideology of the Black Panther Party" and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" are similar and very different at the same time. One of the biggest points that both documents get across is the fact that both hoped to achieve the same goal. They both wanted to contribute to the overall Civil Rights Movement and convince the nation that the African Americans should have equal rights. They were both enraged by the Freedom Riders who were attacked and they were tired of waiting for their human rights. They both created a persuasive tone that conveyed their claim of wanting equal rights to mostly the white moderates since they were the majority of the voters and the ones who can cause the most change by law.