The Black Panther Party is the organization that best symbolizes Black Power. Formed in 1966 in Oakland, California by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Brought up from the hopelessness and anger of the ghetto life. The Black Panthers main reason for establishment was to have self-defense. They proclaimed themselves the protectors of ghetto blacks against police brutality. The Black Panthers initially patrolled the black ghetto areas with guns and law books to protect blacks from police harassment. At the same time, they provided free breakfast, opened schools, and medical clinics for their neighborhoods. Conflicts between Black Panthers and police in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to shoot outs in California, New York, and Chicago. One of these shoot outs resulted in Newton's going to prison for the murder of a patrolman.( 1 ) The Panthers, were overwhelmed by the thousands of young blacks, coast to coast wanting to join. However, inflammatory rhetoric not only made the Panthers attractive to angry young blacks, but it also made the organization a target for FBI surveillance and police persecution. Across the nation, police raids on Black Panther headquarters were frequent and bloody, and the ranks of the party were decimated by police bullets or imprisonment. By the mid-1970s, the Panthers leadership had been decimated by prison sentences (Huey Newton in Oakland), police killings (Fred Hampton in Chicago), exile (Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria)and the revolution of opinion toward pan-Africanism (Stanlev Carmicheal in Guinea) ( 2 )
Having lost members and fallen out of favor with many American black leaders, who objected to the party's method. The Panthers turned from violence to concentrate on conventional politics and on providing social services in black neighbor hoods. The party was effectively disbanded by the early 1980s. Black Panther beliefs and reasons for their actions and existence is what makes the Panthers such a unique organization from other Black Power Par-ties. Huey Newton said it best "We stand for the transformation of the decadent, reactionary, racist system, that exists at these time...We don't like the system."
Because of their insistence to arm themselves and have frequent clashes with police, Newton explained that the Panthers assumed a defense "against violence to ultimately resolve and beget violence." Huev let it to be known that the Panthers didn't believe in the American political process because "electoral politics is bankrupt and cannot solve the problems of poverty, racism, and oppression"( 3 ) The Black Panther Party Platform and Program answers what they want and what they believed: