The Black Panthers, Hero's of the Black Community

The Black Panther party for Self-Defense was an African American organization that was founded to promote civil rights and self-defense. It was active within the United States between the late 1960’s into the 1970’s. It was founded in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in October of 1966. The Black Panther Party was originally founded to further the African American civil rights movement and to fill the void in leadership amongst the African American community. The party’s original purpose was to patrol the black ghettoes to protect members of the community from police brutality. The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all blacks, the exemption of blacks from the draft and from all sanctions of white America, the release of all blacks from jail, and the payment of compensation to blacks for centuries of exploitation by white Americans. In the late 1960’s the Panther’s membership exceeded 2,000 and the organization operated chapters in several major cities.

Conflicts between Black Panthers and police in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s led to shoot-outs in California, New York, and Chicago, one of which resulted in Newton's going to prison for the murder of a patrolman. While some members of the party were guilty of criminal acts, the group was subjected to police harassment that sometimes took the form of violent attacks, prompting congressional investigations of police activities in dealing with the Panthers. By the mid-1970’s, having lost many members and having fallen out of favor with many American black leaders, who objected to the party's methods, the Panthers turned from violence to concentrate on conventional politics and on providing social services in black neighborhoods. The party had a powerful influence on the political consciousness of American society, particularly for young urban blacks. Its decline, presided over by Huey Newton, may be attributed to external pressures, such as counterintelligence, arrests, and FBI investigations, and to internal conflicts revolving around leadership, ideological disagreements, violence, and corruption.

The research for my project was very easy. The Woodruff Library had a lot of books on the Black Panther Party. I used all the books that I could find. Most of them had the same information. Others were told from different points of view. It wasn’t as easy finding literary journals. The Library database wasn’t really helpful because it was hard to find a journal pertaining to the topic. My rationale for selecting my information was basically just availability. It was fairly easy to find information on the Black Panthers Party on the internet but no literary journals.

“Black Power” was slogans of the Black Panther Party back in the 1960’s. Black Power was used as the antithesis of white power and the strength to make the white man deal with blacks as people rather than as problems#. The Black Panthers fought to create a new image for African Americans in the United States. The Black Panthers spread the belief of Black Nationalism within the black community. The Panthers created a Ten-Point Program which they made objectives to change in the black community. The Black Panthers carried out these objectives where they protected and served the black community from racial injustice. Much of the unity and strength present in the black community today was made possible by the Black Panther‘s social influence. The Black Panther Party made dramatic changes in the African American community.

The Black Panthers strongly believed in Black Nationalism. Black Nationalism is a political and social movement that originated in the 1850’s. Black Nationalism was made most popular by Marcus Garvey in the 1920’s among African Americans in the United States. Black Nationalism is defined as, “The belief that black people share a common destiny, and have had a common experience: slavery, oppression, colonialism, and exploitation.” Racial unity is the most basic form of Black Nationalism. It is simply a feeling that black people, because of their common descent, color, and condition should act in unison. Nationalists seek to control their own destiny, to resist the destructive constricting tentacles of Anglo American cultural hegemony. Nationalists have a clearly defined consciousness that blacks differ from all other Americans. Community mindedness, feelings of spiritual affinity, a sense of common destiny and responsibility, and a stress on brotherhood and spiritual devotion have generally marked Black Nationalists thought#. The Black Panthers spread the belief of Black Nationalism throughout African American communities. Unity began to become more predominant and together African Americans became a stronger force. The Black Panther’s effectively created an era of Black Nationalism in the United