Black Panther Party

Introduction

The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization, active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. Almost a purely American phenomenon, with only one international, and short-lived, chapter operating in Algeria.

Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966, in what Seale described as "a rage reaction" to the assassination of Malcolm X in February 1965, but they both rejected any religious basis for the Party. Newton preferred to think of his movement as "revolutionary humanism."

The Party's political goals, including better housing, jobs, and education for African Americans, were documented in their Ten-Point Program. The group believed that violence, or at least the threat of violence, was needed to bring about social change.

The Black Panther Party

presented by: the Beatniks

10 Point Program

Eldridge Cleaver

Womanism

Alex Rackley

Publicized on May 15, 1967, immediately after Sacramento, in their Blank Panther Newspaper, and included:

• We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
• We want full employment for our people.
• We want an end to the robbery by the white men of our Black Community.
• We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
• We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.
• We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
• We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
• We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
• We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
• We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

Alex Rackley (19 years old, New York Chapter Member)

• New Haven Chapter tortures and murders Alex Rackley
• Party Leaders suspect that he is an informant
• Warren Kimbro, George Sams Jr, Lonnie McLucas
• Sams gave the order to shoot but claimed the order came down from Seale
• Kimbro and Sams were convicted of the murder, but the trials of Seale and Huggins ended with a hung jury, and the prosecution chose not to seek another trial.
• Kimbro and Sams: Convicted / Seale and Huggins: Hung Jury

• Born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, on August 31, 1935.
• Spent most of his youth in reform school and prisons in a California.
• Began writing while incarcerated.
• When he was freed on parole he joined the Black Panthers.
• Joined the Panthers in 1967.
• 1968 a collection of his writings while in prison was put together in a book called Soul On Ice, it became a bestseller.
• On April 6th, 1968 was involved in a shootout with Police and fellow Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed.
• Released on bail and fled to Cuba.
• Visited, North Korea, Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and China.
• Set up a sect of the Black Panther Party in Alegeria before he was kicked out in 1971.
• Later moved to France.
• He had a religious experience before he returned to the United States in 1975.
• He proclaimed himself a born again christian and decried socialist systems.
• He passed away in Pomona, California on May 1st, 1998.

• Evolution in perception
• 1968: Women should stand behind and empower their men
• 1969: Official stance was that women were equal to their male counterparts
• Adopted a womanist ideology stating that racism is more oppressive tham sexism.
• Womanism: mix of black nationalism and the vindication of women
• Race and community before gender issues
• Not feminism
• Men and women play very different and equal roles in society – People must work together for the success of the whole
• Offered options like birth control and daycare so women could participate further.

Early Years

Intermediate Years

Later Years

• Early spring
• Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul On Ice is published.
• April
• Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. Riots break out nationwide.
• A team of Black Panthers led by Eldridge Cleaver ambushes Oakland Police Officers. Panther Bobby Hutton is killed.

• The organization starts the Blank Panther Newspaper on April 25, 1967, which unified their members, spread the word, and drove recruitment
• The Mulford Act in May 1967 was discussed in the CA State Assembly, which would prohibit the carrying of loaded firearms
• Two BPP members put together an armed group of demonstrators in Sacramento at the state house to protest the bill
• The BPP members went into the chambers with guns loaded and fully armed
• The members who attended were arrested for “disrupting a legislative session”
• This action gave the BPP prominence and strengthened their following

• Black Panther Party (BPP) started in Oakland, CA, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale to defend all minorities
• One of the first organizations in US history to “militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation”
• The BPP strongly believed in the values of Malcolm X
• He represented, “both a militant revolutionary, with the dignity and self-respect to stand up and fight to win equality for all oppressed minorities; while also being an outstanding role model, someone who sought to bring about positive social services; something the Black Panthers would take to new heights.”
• The combined Maoism and Marxism to create a united front that addressed the capitalist economic system
• “This embraced the need for all workers to forcefully take over the means of production”

• Party Expanded throughout the US
• Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Newark, New Orleans, New York City, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toledo, and Washington D.C.
• Membership near 10k
• Newspaper had a circulation of roughly 250k copies
• The paper and the aforementioned ten point Program expressed the BPP’s economic and political grievances.
• The party began to reject black nationalism and became more a “revolutionary internationalist movement”
• Public support seen in the Olympics
• Two medalists gave the black power salute during the national anthem and were banned from the Olympic games for life.
• Celebrity involvement such as support from Jane Fonda which continued into the early 1970s.
• Attracted an assortment of left-wing revolutionaries and celebrities of the late 1960s

• BPP cleans house. They start to get rid of members thinking that they are spies from the police
• January
• 2 killed in LA shoot out with US Org
• Rival Black Organization to the BPP established in 1965
• March
• Second round of member clean-out
• April
• 21 panthers sent to jail for bombing conspiracy
• May
• 2 Panthers killed in dispute with US Org
• Alex Rackley
• July
• 2 policeman shot / 1 panther killed in Chicago
• FINALLY, BPP ideology shifts. Turns toward self-discipline and anti-racism
• August 1969
• Seale is indicted and imprisoned for Alex Rackley murder

1968

1967

1966

1969

1965

Early Years

Later Years

Intermediate Years

• August 1967 The FBI directs its program COINTELPRO to neutralize so called Black Nationalist hate groups.
• October 28, 1967 Huey Newton allegedly kills Police Officer John Frey. At this time there was fewer than 100 members in the Blank Panthers.

• BPP start their first “police patrols” in 1966
• Utilized legal open-carry laws to police the police when trying to protect BPP members
• Cite laws and regulations to police when they were confronted to prove they had done nothing wrong
• Constitutional rights
• BPP police patrol in Oakland was the largest and most well known – escorted Betty Shabazz, Malcom X’s widow.
• This set the stage for what these patrols would be initially used for
• The issue of open carry laws in California is what gave the BPP their reputation as a paramilitary organization.
• This law allowed them to openly carry loaded shotguns and rifles in public
• Their reputation of being aggressive was aided by the chant, "The Revolution has come, it's time to pick up the gun. Off the pigs!”
• Richmond, CA, a young African American boy named Denzil Dowell was shot dead by local police
• The Dowell family contacted the BPP for assistance in the matter
• The BPP held rallies in the community to teach residents their rights, including those relating to self-defense
• The police left the BPP alone because no laws were being broken and the BPP was heavily armed
• This points to how early BPP were peaceful, educational, and gave some merit to being armed in order to keep the “civilian peace”

• December 1969
• COINTELPRO Activity Increases
• Fred Hampton (21 year old) and Mark Clark
• Killed by law enforcement in Chicago
• Chicago police raided their home
• 1 shot fired by panthers and at least 80 shots fired by police.
• Hampton shot twice in the head, point blank and unconscious.
• Coroner report shows that he was drugged to the point of unconsciousness by FBI infiltrator/informant William O’Neal
• Charges against the police were eventually dismissed.
• 1979 Hamptons family was given $1.85m from the city of Chicago for wrongful death.
• End of 1969
• David Hilliard BPP head wants violent revolution
• Membership starts dwindling

• August
• Three Panthers killed in gun battle at LA gas station
• September
• Newton is convicted of manslaughter
• Cleaver runs away to Cuba/Algeria to avoid prison time for rape conviction
• October
• One Panther killed in gunfight with police in LA
• November
• BPP establishes relationships with Peace Freedom Party and SNCC
• Left Wing organization opposed to the Vietnam war rooted in the wealthier part of town in LA. The organization “is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality”
• Financial gains
• Embezzled by the BPP leadership
• Members were encouraged to carry guns and defend themselves and others against violence.
• Lots of college students and “street-wise people” joined the BPP

COINTELPRO

Huey Newton

Conclusion

"Black Panther Party." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

"Black Panther Party." Black Panther Party. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

www.biography.com/people/eldridge-cleaver

www.biography.com/people/huey-p-newton

www.fbi.gov/cointel-pro

"The Black Panthers". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.

http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/chapter_history/bpp_pieces_of_history.html

http://vault.fbi.gov/Black%20Panther%20Party%20

Bloom, Joshua, and Waldo E. Martin. Black Against Empire : The History And Politics Of The Black Panther Party. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

• COINTELPRO- stands for Counterintelligence Program
• Started by the FBI in 1956.
• Disrupt the activities of the Communist Party of the United States.
• During the 60’s the program was expanded to include the Ku Klux Klan, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Black Panthers.
• Operations ended in 1971.
• Program was criticized for abridging the 1st Amendment.

• Born 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana and died in 1989, he was shot by another member of a militant group.
• African-American activist
• Formed the Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale.
• Charged with killing an Oakland Police Officer at a traffic stop.
• He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
• Sentenced to 2-15 years.
• Free Huey Protests began and the case was dismissed after 2 retrials
• Hung juries.
• He fled to Cuba in 1971 to avoid prosecution, but returned home later on.
• Completed his PH.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz

The Black Panther Party undeniably impacted not only the decade of the 1960s, but continues to have political influence today.

Critics of the Party argue that the Party's focus on aggression and violence as a means to an end has contributed significantly to an increase in violence in the black community.

Interviewed after he left the Black Panther Party, former Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver lamented that the legacy of the Panthers was at least partly one of disrespect for the law and indiscriminate violence.

Numerous former Panthers have held elected office in the United States, some into the 21st century; these include Charles Barron (New York City Council), Nelson Malloy (Winston-Salem City Council), and Bobby Rush (US House of Representatives).

Works Cited