Black Panther Party
Founded October 1966
The Black Panther Party (originally Black Panther Party For Self-Defense) was originally founded in the 1960s in Oakland, California by revolutionary thinkers Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The organization’s primary objective was to provide support for vulnerable members of the Black community. As the name (self-defense) implies, the party was formed in order to patrol and protect Black neighborhoods and their residents from police brutality and white supremacist violence.
However, a few years after its founding, the organization decided to drop ‘self-defense’ from its official title in order to highlight its community building programs, like “Free Lunches For Children.” This was among the Panthers most successful programs as the majority of community members including grocery store and convenience store owners were motivated to donate and contribute to the Panthers effort to uplift the Black community. The free lunches program was directly responsible for the improvement of scholastic achievement in K-12 students. In addition to the meal program, the Panthers also established free health clinics in different states and
Despite the Panthers providing a positive model for Black youth, offering healthcare where it would otherwise be unavailable, and feeding hungry kids, the Panthers became a target of the FBI and federal government. The support offered to marginalized people by the Black Panthers was a threat to the status quo and thus, the government and FBI sought to discredit them and terminate their existence.
““We don’t hate nobody because of color. We hate oppression.””
Under the direction of the federal government, the FBI formed a secret program meant to silence (by any means) leaders of the organization and ultimately break the will for Black Panther members to continue community outreach. The FBI program was named CoIntelPro (Counter Intelligence Program) and this government cabal orchestrated the assassination of Panther leaders like Fred Hampton and others. CoIntelPro was successful in sewing doubt and infiltrating the Panthers causing significant internal strife and fear, leading to its eventual dissolution in the early 1980s.
We owe it to the Black Panther Party to remember what they stood for. There is no better record of their dreams and goals than the party’s platform (Black Panther 10-Point Program mentioned above):
1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
2. We want full employment for our people.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the Capitalists of our Black Community.
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
5. 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.
6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
9. 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.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
