Black Panthers

THE BLACK PANTHER Party for Self-Defense, later simply the Black Panther Party (BPP), was a radical left organization founded in Oakland, California, in 1966, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, students at Merritt Junior College. The two student activists were influenced by the Black Power movement and the views of Malcolm X of the Black Muslims.

After the assassination of Malcolm X and the Watts, California, riots of 1965, Newton, Seale, and David Hilliard met together to sketch the outlines of their organization. They took the black panther from the Lowndes County, Alabama, Freedom Organization because the animal represented power. They added selfdefense to contrast themselves with the nonviolence of the mainstream civil rights movement.

The BPP platform called for social, economic, and political equality in a remade American society. The platform also called for freedom, self-determination, full employment, restitution for slavery, housing, education, exemption from military service, an end to po-lice brutality, release of wrongly convicted black prisoners, trial of blacks by blacks, and a United Nations-supervised plebiscite that would allow African Americans to determine their own destiny. The Panthers opposed racism and classism and the Vietnam War.

The Panthers and other Black Power advocates were disenchanted with the nonviolence of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the mainstream civil rights movement, The Black Panthers indulged in violent rhetoric and violent actions, primarily against the police. But they also provided neighborhood services. Panther patrols reduced the incidence of police abuse of residents. They also distributed food, provided health care, and established educational facilities in the poor communities. The Panthers became a national organization.

The violence and the reputation it produced overshadowed the positive community efforts. The Panther uniform—black berets, leather jackets, and firearms—increased the image of militancy. Eldridge Cleaver, Panther minister of information, ran for president of the United States in 1968. His party was the Peace and Freedom Party and his running mate was Jerry Rubin of the Youth International Party (Yippie). Later, Cleaver led the organization.

Because the Black Panthers espoused the right of black self-defense against racist authorities, they were constantly in conflict with local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Panthers’ armed patrols and their willingness to join with white revolutionary activists led the FBI to establish a covert intelligence team (COINTELPRO) to keep the groups from uniting and increasing their influence. The FBI infiltrated local offices, used informants, and raided local offices, leading to shootouts in California, New York City, and Chicago. Panthers were killed, including Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, state leader in Illinois. After an Oakland, California, shootout left a policeman dead, [Page 50]Newton changed the direction of the party after his release, emphasizing the building of community programs and de-emphasizing violent confrontation. He established a free breakfast program for children. The Panthers also established free clinics and gave away clothing and food. The group organized rent strikes and campaigned against crime and drug abuse. Seale won about 40 percent of the vote when he ran for mayor of Oakland in 1973. The party was in decline by then, victim of internal conflict as well as external attack. Most of the founders were gone one way or another.

Huey P. Newton, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, whose community service mission was overshadowed by violent advocacy.

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