Speech on Black Panthers

The purpose of the speech I will give today is to make you folks trust government less, any government. (tell them about Canada)

I. How much do you guys know about the civil rights era? Well today I will tell you some startling news about the black panthers, one of the people that gave their life for the cause, and Cointelpro, the FBI program that killed him.

II. I am not an expert, but have am in love with the topic.

I. The Black Panther Party.

A. The Black Panther Party was originally named The Black Panther Party for Self-defense.

1. The Black Panther Party was founded by Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Richard Aoki in October 1966.

2. The name came from a voting drive that was organized. Alabama law required that there is an emblem for illiterate voters, so the mascot for Clark Collage was chosen.

3. They started out in the California bay area as a reaction to the growing crooked cops, blacks not having rights, and the war in Vietnam.

4. They did not fallow passive protest like Martian Luther king; instead they modeled themselves after the Black Nationalism preached by Malcolm X. Also they separated from non-violence and took up arms, being influenced by Robert F. Williams book Negroes with Guns.

5. After Getting out of prison for an assault charge Huey P. Newton returned to Oakland city collage in 1965. He and Bobby Seale grew dissatisfied with the inertia of the Afro-American Association. They began to feel more and more that the political and social climate at the time called for militancy.

B. The Black panthers created the ten point program and platform.

1. The program was a list of needs for the survival and advancement in the United States

2. One Survival Program was called “Breakfast for Kids.” This program was one of the most effective, it began from a church in San Francisco and spread, the program fed thousands of children throughout the party’s history

3. Other services offered were: Clothing, classes about politics and economics, medical clinics, and lessons on self defense.

4. The first draft was adopted in 1966 and went through several revisions the last being finished in 1972, near the end of the Black Panther Party.

5. The Ten Point Program was also adopted by White Panther Party, The Young Lords Party, and The Brown Berets.

C. The Black Panthers as self-defense in black communities.

1. The BPP routinely scouted black neighborhoods for cops. If one was seen they could be followed. This was done to aid black victims of police brutality and possible prejudice.

2. The BPP lost 34 people by 1970 due to their attacks.

3. This led to more enlisting of Black officers and by 1972 almost every police department was integrated.

4. This counter intelligence was created to destroy black leaders such as Fred Hampton.

II. Fred Hampton was one of the major spokespersons for the black Panthers.

A. Fred Hampton helped in the organizing young African Americans for the NAACP.

1. Fred was drawn to the black nationalism of the Black Panthers, which was based on the ten point system and Maoism.

2. He devoted himself to the Black Panthers and moved to Chicago.

B. From 1967-1968 Fred Hampton, and his associates, made significant achievements in creating a non-aggression pact between Chicago street gangs.

1. Fred convinced the various gangs that racial bickering would keep them all in poverty.

2. Hampton forged a class-conscious, multi-racial (albeit tenuous) alliance between the BPP, Students for a Democratic Society,