Professional Documents
Culture Documents
R. Leigh Baker
9 March 2009
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Reliving the Revolution
Abstract
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was the premier Black Nationalist group
in the 1960s. Emerging in 1966, the Party’s goals were community activism and
protection against police brutality, while making strides for equality in the black
community. Two Men, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale, created this
organization after witnessing injustices in their local communities. Their ideas and
philosophies touched a nation of neighborhoods and communities of disenchanted
and despondent Blacks. Their self-defense tactics along with their outreach
programs provided Blacks from all lifestyles with a sense of unification. This
unification, along with the methods used to achieve this goal, attracted the
attention of the Federal Government, which used covert tactics in its intent to
destroy the Black Party. This infiltration, along with party divisions led to the
demise of this great organization. The Party legacy is debatable to some, and
obvious to others. Never the less, the revolution of the Black Panther Party is
apparent in the foundations of similar groups, and resonates in the voices of a new,
inspired generation.
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Reliving the Revolution
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was one of the most prominent Black
militant Blacks who were committed to an armed struggle and socialist revolution.
A massive state repression campaign used infiltration and deadly force to exploit
political differences and add to the internal chaos inside the organization, which
contributed to its demise. With its origins in 1966 thru the height of the party in
the early 1970s the Black Panther Party, not only stirred up a nation, but left a
legacy still apparent today; long after the party’s demise in the early 1980s.
Robert George Seale, better known as Bobby Seale, and Huey Percy
October of 1966. The original inspiration was the Lowndes County Freedom
strategies of building independent black power. Many leaders of the SNCC, like
Stokely Carmichael, felt that most blacks in the region viewed working with whites
as dangerous, and nonviolent activism was a suicide mission. The LCFO chose a
snarling black panther as the organization’s symbol, which represented the black
leaders of the organization. Soon, with media recognition, the LCFO came to be
hurt and arrested blacks on trumped and offensive charges by local authorities.
These reasons inspired Newton and Seale, who was a former solider that Newton
met in college, to form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. This new
organization came about after the two read a pamphlet entitled, How the People of
Lowndes County Armed Themselves (). After this, the pair adopted the Black
Panther as the symbol for their organization and officially. The Black Panther
police” in their neighborhoods, ready to defend any black who would be abused by
the police. This tactic was often effective in that the number of police abuse
incidents against blacks lowered considerably as the police feared that there would
The original vision of the Black Panther Party was to serve the needs of the
oppressed people in their communities, and defend them against their oppressors.
“The Black Panther Party fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police,
and presented a new paradigm of Black political and social activism” (). The
Party’s survival programs, such as free health clinics, food giveaways, and free
breakfast programs for children, were successful and well received in Black
Neighborhoods. When the Party was born, they knew that these goals would raise
the consciousness of the people and motivate them to move more firmly for their
total liberation.
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The focal point of this vision was the “10 point program”. The first 9 points
stated what the party “wanted” for black Americans, and what the party “believed”
about why and how these conditions should be met. The “beliefs” associated with
the “wants” were large elaborations on these themes, and justification of the
blacks. The 10th point in the program was a general overview, stating the demands
for “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace” (). It also called
This policy was in essence the 10 commandments of the Black Panther Party, and
With the creation of its Newsletter, The Black Panther, the doctrines, and
goals of the party, along with the violent tactics used for self-defense, were widely
especially those with militant ideas. This interest created a large following within
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the black community, and in under three years, the organization established more
The newspaper also encouraged the “Rhetoric of the Gun”- the promotion of
arming themselves in opposition of the white establishment (). The use of this
promotion was effective because the influence over poor blacks gave them the
advantage of unity and strength. This was achievable because most of the members
were from the ghetto and shared similar backgrounds. The leaders of the BPP knew
The BPP also felt strongly about accomplishing group goals and unity of members:
members were reminded that the values and goals of the party were the only hope of
making life better in the black community and that it was their duty to see that their goals
were accomplished ().
“power to the people”, “Die for the people”, “Revolution in our Lifetime”;
speeches, and cartoons. These methods were crucial to gain and hold the attention
of the regular members of the party. The Black Panther also used the images of the
police and labeled them as “pigs” in order to keep a high level of resentment
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Reliving the Revolution
towards the “establishment”. The radical and revolutionary tactics of the BPP gave
them status in the black communities. Many of these ideas, especially violence as
(Author: The Wretched of the Earth), who believed that whites had destroyed the
blacks native culture by imposing their own, and that the only solution would be
total separation from white oppression and the encouraged the use of violence ().
The last of their beliefs come from the Marxist and Lenin revolutions. From these
they learned that in order to start a social revolution, they would have to increase
No amount of unity, strength, ideas, or propaganda would save the BPP from
its demise. The BPP had become a target of the FBI Counterinsurgency
Intelligence Program called COINTELPRO (). This program was founded by FBI
chief J. Edgar Hoover in 1968, with the orders to “exploit all avenues of creating
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The FBI used varying tactics to accomplish this disruption. Some of these
methods included the newly created “Harassment Laws”, and the arrest the Black
murder often with little or no evidence. Other methods used were those of
within the party. The FBI began sending anonymous letters to contributors to
various programs such as the free breakfast for children program, attacking the
party’s newspaper, disrupting the party’s speaking engagements, and using false
There was also tension in the party about the sexist treatment of women.
The role of women in the party was very complex. Leadership positions were male
dominated and more often than not, those inpower exhibited a patriarchal, sexist
attitude, especially in the formative years of the party. Most notable was the
Eldrige Cleaver’s “Pussy Power” slogan(). Women in the BPP tended to have their
opinions discredited, and were not viewed as members but as sexual objects. As
the BPP began to commit to women’s rights and gender equality, the attitudes
towards women in the party began to change, and they subsequently dropped the
Pantherette distinction. However, the change in sexist attitudes had come too late
for some, and they left to join other Black Nationalist organizations.
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Other FBI tactics made it so thatit was easier to establish police raids of
Black Panther chapters across the U.S. Many times the police relied on members
Hampton and Mark Clark, where an FBI informant provided information to the
Chicago Special Forces that which helped to stage an operation, in which the two
In another case, Geronimo Pratt, leader of the Los Angeles Chapter, was
captured and imprisoned in 1971. At his trial, an FBI informant testified which
resulted in a conviction. In addition, the FBI began to use violence to increase their
more than 28 Black Panther members were murdered, and those that had received
strategic rifts within the party became intense. At the center of these internal
disagreements were Huey Newton, who increasingly felt that the party should
Eldridge Cleaver, who believed that the party should advocate a violent revolution
and increase ties with other international revolutionary movements (). The result of
this disagreement split other national black leaders, as well as state and local
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During this split, Cleaver went to exile in Algeria. This left Newton in
control over the national BPP. He began to shift the party to meet his ideologies,
and moved away from the more militant stance of Cleaver. He reintroduced
community programs and launched health care reforms, which caused Cleaver, and
other national, local,and grass roots leaders to object. The split led to a series of
In 1971, during a local San Francisco news broadcast, Cleaver and Newton
agreed to have a phone forum to address their differences. Instead, the two
engaged in an intense argument, which led to the two expelling the other from the
In 1972, Newton convinced the party leadership to close the state and local
chapters of the party and concentrate all of the members and resources on the
elections of Bobby Seale for Mayor of Oakland, and other party members for city
council seats. Many of the chapters agreed with this plan, but other members felt
differently and they opted to close their chapters instead of relocating to Oakland.
Although this move proved to be a rebirth for the Oakland Chapter with its interest,
it proved tobe fatal for the National organization. After Seale and other members
lost their election bids, the party became a single chapter in Oakland, and thus
leadership.
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In addition to losing its national base, the party under Newton, who was now
“security cadre”, whose original intent was to provide protection for BPP election
candidates, now forced payment from Oakland’s criminal groups as a right for
For this reason, Bobby Seale eventually resigned which forced other
prominent leaders to do the same. Newton became prone to violence, and after
being accused in the murder of a prostitute, he fled to Cuba in 1974. Party member
Elaine Brown, one of the few women who did not leave amid the sexist
environment, took control of what was left of the party. From 1974-1977, Brown
was able to revive the party (which now held 200 members) into a local
Upon Newton’s return from exile however, he once again took control of the
party following the dismissal of his murder charges. Again, under his control, the
publication of The Black Panther was in 1980, and with the closing of the Oakland
Too many, the Black Panther Party is indeed alive and well. When a drug
dealer killed Huey P. Newton in 1989, four thousand people attended his funeral.
When Bobby Seale rose to speak, he raised both fist and shouted “Power to the
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people”, all in attendance stood on their feet, giving thunderous applause.
Following this, several former members began publishing The Commemorator and
The Black Panther: Community Service, in efforts to keep the party’s legacy
The party itself continues to serve as a symbolic reference for militant black
politics. Some activist, such as Pratt and Dhoruba Bin Wahad remain incarcerated,
but others such as Stokely Carmichael (now Kwame Toure), and Bob Brown
became active in other militant parties. Still other former panthers have made
The greatest legacy of the Black Panther Party may be its status as a cultural
icon. It still resonates as a symbol of black freedom, and black power. You can still
still resonates as a sign of black pride. Black Panther philosophies have crossed
into the lyrics of hip hop and rap artists, such as Dead Prez, Mos Def, Common,
Talib Kweli, and, most notably, the late rapper, Tupac Shakur, who is the child of
Former BPP members Afeni and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the nephew of Assata Shakur,
and Godchild of Geronimo Pratt. The legacy of the Black Panther Party echoes
deeply in Shakur’s work, and thru the music of the other mentioned artist, you can
hear the spirit of the Panthers, as they speak out against police brutality and
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References
Brown, E. (1992). A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story. New York: Pantheon Books.
Calloway, C. (1977). Group Cohesiveness in the Black Panther Party. Journal of Black Studies ,
8 (1), 55-74.
Carpini, M. X. (2006). Black Panther Party 1966-1982. In I. Ness, & J. Ciment (Eds.), The
Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America (Vol. 2, pp. 190-197). Armonk, NY: M.E.
Sharpe.
Courtright, J. A. (1974). Rhetoric of the Gun: An Analysis of the Rhetorical Modifications of the
Lackey, M. (2002). Frantz Fanon on the Theory of Colonization. Journal of Colonialism and
Layman, R. (1994). American Decades 1960-1969. Farmington Hills: Gale Cengage Learning.
Patterson, C. (1995). The Civil Rights Movement. New York, NY, United States of America:
Seale, B. a. (1990). Birth of the Black Panthers 1966-1967 "We wanted control". In H. a.
Hampton, Voices of Freedom: An oral history of the civil rights movement from the
1950's through the 1980's (pp. 349-372). New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Seale, B. (1991). Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton.
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The Black Panther Party. (1966, October). The Ten Point Plan. Retrieved February 17, 2009,
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