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Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The party's founding members also included Elbert “Big Man” Howard, Sherman Forte, Reggie Forte, and Bobby Hutton. One of its early members and one of its eventual leaders was Eldridge Cleaver. Some of the party's most prominent members and leaders, at one time or the other, included Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Kathleen Cleaver, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, David Hilliard, Elaine Brown, Audrea Jones, H. Rap Brown, and Mumia Abu-Jamal.
The organization, whose named was shortened to the Black Panther Party (BPP), was formed to confront rampant acts of police brutality against blacks and to empower the black community to combat the social, political, and economic ills facing the community in Oakland and throughout the United States. One of its first missions was to be a watchdog against acts of police brutality. Thus armed members of the Black Panthers would follow police officers with cameras to make sure that the officers were not beating and abusing African Americans.
In 1967, fully armed members of the BPP, led by Bobby Seale, marched on the California state house in Sacramento to protest the state's attempt to outlaw carrying loaded weapons in public. During the same year, the party's newspaper, The Black Panther, was founded. By 1968, the party had begun expanding to other U.S cities, and BPP branches were formed in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Brooklyn, Denver, Newark, Baltimore, and New York. By the end of 1968, the BPP had grown to 5,000 members in 45 chapters and branches. Meanwhile, The Black Panther newspaper had grown to a circulation of 250,000.
The 10-Point Program and Community Service Programs
The BPP established its agenda for black selfdetermination through its program calling for political and economic justice for African Americans. The 10-Point Program included demands for the following:
- freedom and the power to control institutions within the black community
- full employment for African Americans
- an end to capitalist exploitation of the African American community
- decent housing
- black community control of education
- free health care for blacks and all poor people
- an end to police brutality against African Americans and all poor people
- an end to all wars of aggression
- freedom for all African Americans being held in state, federal, and military prisons, as well as free trials for all black people charged with crimes
- land, bread, justice, peace, and control of modern technology for the black community
In 1969, the Black Panther Party initiated its first Free Breakfast Program at St. Augustine's Church. By the end of that year, Black Panther chapters throughout the United States had set up breakfast programs that fed over 10,000 children. The BPP also organized community programs and services such as free health clinics, as well as campaigns for community control of schools and police. In addition, the Panthers led rent strikes and organized what were called “liberation schools” for school-age children. The BPP found housing for people without homes and donated food and clothing to people in need. In cities like Chicago, the Black Panthers, under the leadership of Fred Hampton, ran five different breakfast programs, created a free medical center, and conducted blood drives and door-to-door tests for sickle cell anemia. The Chicago branch also reached out to local street gangs and orchestrated truces between warring factions. Eventually, the federal government implemented free lunch programs and expanded Medicare and daycare programs.
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