Guns in hand, more than two dozen Black Panthers promenaded into the California State Legislature to rebel against a gun-control bill. This excessive stunt increased the recognition of the Black Panther Political Party making them the new leaders and image of the Black Power Movement and from this they have gained many supporters, worldwide, for their ideology of black nationalism (Joseph 210). In the midst of a non-violent movement, the panthers propagated their aggressive rhetoric in order to shed light on the stagnant pace of the civil rights movement and the continued mistreatment of blacks by whites. By using rhetoric, the Black Panther Party strongly encouraged self-defense for African American if need be. Together the men and women of the party took dynamic actions to combat racial discrimination. Although both genders collaborated on diminishing racial inequalities, another inequality unfolded within the party (“The Black Panthers”). One of the visions for the Black Panther was to protect all oppressed minorities, but ironically the oppressed a minority which were African American women. Because of sexism within the Black Panther Party, the infrastructure has been damaged due to the recurring conflict between both genders.
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...
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"The Clayman Institute for Gender Research." Women Key in Shaping Black Panther Party. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .
"The Struggle for Women's Equality in Black America." The Struggle for Women's Equality in Black America. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .
"University Times." University Times Lecturer Explores Women’s Role in Black Panther Party Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. .
"Voices of Color-Invisible Women: Sexism in the Black Panther Party | Www.socialism.com."Voices of Color-Invisible Women: Sexism in the Black Panther Party | Www.socialism.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
"Rise of the Black Panther Party." N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. .
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...
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
Malcolm X stated that the most disrespected, unprotected and neglected person in America is the black woman. Black women have long suffered from racism in American history and also from sexism in the broader aspect of American society and even within the black community; black women are victims of intersection between anti-blackness and misogyny sometimes denoted to as "misogynoir". Often when the civil rights movement is being retold, the black woman is forgotten or reduced to a lesser role within the movement and represented as absent in the struggle, McGuire 's At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power does not make this same mistake.
Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000
and the academic endeavour, to illuminate the experiences of African American women and to theorize from the materiality of their lives to broader issues of political economy, family, representation and transformation” (Mullings, page xi)
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....
"Open Statement - The Help." Welcome to the Association of Black Women Historians Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
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.
Acoli, Sundiata. A Brief History of the Black Panther Party and Its Place In the Black
Bloom, Joshua, and Waldo E. Martin. Black against empire: the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
In Radicalism at the Crossroads, Gore’s purpose is to “insert both the analysis of black women radicals and their collective experiences into the history of postwar radicalism by
18 Jan. 2011. Darity A. William, Ed. Jr. “Black Panthers” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 2nd Ed. Vol.
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.
In the weekly readings for week five we see two readings that talk about the connections between women’s suffrage and black women’s identities. In Rosalyn Terborg-Penn’s Discontented Black Feminists: Prelude and Postscript to the Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, we see the ways that black women’s identities were marginalized either through their sex or by their race. These identities were oppressed through social groups, laws, and voting rights. Discontented Black Feminists talks about the journey black feminists took to combat the sexism as well as the racism such as forming independent social clubs, sororities, in addition to appealing to the government through courts and petitions. These women formed an independent branch of feminism in which began to prioritize not one identity over another, but to look at each identity as a whole. This paved the way for future feminists to introduce the concept of intersectionality.
As the rule of capitalism, the rulers’ power depends on the populace’s power. However, the concept of nonviolence challenges the power of rulers through the intentional removal of this co-operation. As Martin Luther King implies; “Through nonviolent resistance the Negro will be able to noble height of opposing the unjust system while loving the perpetrators of the system.” (p. 139.) From the beginning, the behaviors of the doers are aimed to be changed. However, because of the rising strength of the violence against the Negro had built the foundation for a self- defense movement to achieve liberation for all Black people, which is called “The Black Panther Party.” For all the Black people, the party wanted freedom, full employment, an end to the robbery of white people, decent housing, education, being held in prison and jails and being tried in a court by a jury of their peer group.