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Leader Bobby Seale
Link text Bobby Seale was an African-American civil rights advocate who broke away from the nonviolent and peaceful protests to take up black militant empowerment. He was greatly influenced by a Malcom X speech he went to, encouraging him to take a more radical route. -
Leader Huey Newton
Link text Huey Newton founded the Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale in 1966. His name went big across the nation because of his unorthodox style of militaristic advocating for the black rights movement. -
Founding of the Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was founded in Oakland, CA. They started as a small party with only 6 initial members. They held beliefs of socialism and black nationalism to support the Black Power movement. One thing they did was go out and patrol the city to protect black citizens from police brutality. Another goal was to unify the black community and help gain better social and economic status. http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/black-panther-party-founded -
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Black Panther Party active lifespan
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Creation of the Ten Point Program
The ten-point program was created in 1966, but released in a newspaper in 1967. It was created to represent goals and the foundation on which the party is based upon. It’s the backbone of the philosophies laid by the party. In summary of the ten point program, they want simply to be treated as whites. They want to have the same rights and freedoms as whites do. https://zinnedproject.org/materials/black-panthers-ten-point-program/ -
Huey Newton's 1968 Manslaughter Trial
Huey Newton was convicted of first degree murder, assault and kidnapping in October 1967. This made him a revolutionary icon after a movement started around him called “free Huey”. http://law.jrank.org/pages/3173/Huey-P-Newton-Trial-1968-Grand-Jury-Becomes-Issue.html -
Free Breakfast for Children Program
This program started consisting of 11 children that they fed. By the end of this week that number rose to 135. It started in one church and was intended to be a small program, but the popularity grew rapidly so they opened another one in a church nearby. This program was meant to help feed underprivileged black children to help them get food in their stomach to learn better. In New Orleans alone, they served an estimated 300 children per week. http://www.aaihs.org/the-black-panther-party/ -
J. Edgar Hoover launched FBI investigation
Edgar took interest in the BPP when they started gaining prominence in the late 60s. This was part of the illegal FBI program called COINTELPRO which disbanded political parties just because they are seen as a threat. Edgar said it was not the guns and anti-police mentality that was dangerous, it was the breakfast program. He claimed that the incentive of free breakfast allowed them to infiltrate more areas and spread their "harmful" party
http://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/people/people_hoover.html -
Black Panther Part Successes
The Black Panther Party did a lot more initiating and giving the Black power movement a "boost" than it did creating actual laws. For example, Over 10,000 African Americans were helped with education and health initiatives They influenced many producers to have the Black Panthers as the “good guys”. For example, the movie “Shaft” had the African American members of the BPP tackling the Mafia, portraying them as the heroes http://achievementsofblackpower.weebly.com/achievements.html -
How BPP is still relevant today
There are a surprising amount of similarities between the time of the Black Power movement and today’s Black Lives Matter movement. Both groups are faced with unjust police brutality and discrimination. In addition to that, the idea of self-defense stands tall today as there are open-carry laws in California that allows people of color to carry weapons (with a permit) in order to defend themselves and others.
http://progressive.org/dispatches/black-panthers-matter-today/
