Education was always a top priority among the BPP leadership and organization. For decades the true history of African Americans and the role they played in the making of the U.S. was not taught in schools and colleges. The BPP demanded that true history and standard education be made available to all African Americans to enable them to participate as equals in society. The BPP was fully aware that education and the position of any African American in society was inter related. The BPP in its various educational program stressed the need to attain educational standards and towards this end trained its leadership to be good educationists.
The BPP left a legacy of good leaders, teachers, business people, and other professional people within the African American population all over the U.S. The Vietnam war played an important role in the philosophy of the BPP. Many young African women and men were called to serve the Armed Forces and did not want to go to war. The prevailing thought of the day was that the African men and women were contributing to the racist White community by fighting and killing people of color. The BPP did not want any of its members and the general African American population to participate in any war that encouraged racism.
On the other hand the BPP made it very clear to the local police and other law enforcement agencies that they would defend the mutual interests of all African Americans and the BPP by any means necessary. This meant if worse came to worse they would defend themselves by using force. This element of force to defend themselves was displayed again and again all over the country. For example on December 8, 1969 the Los Angles Police Department¹s newly initiated Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (SWAT) led an assault on the Los Angeles Panther Office Central Avenue. The BPP, some 15 persons held their ground for more than 4 hours surrounded by over 300 police force. The BP Panthers suffered minor wounds and all charges were dropped against the BPP. Similar raids by the LE in Chicago and other parts of the country, rallied all members of the African American community.
Again and again the self defense training provided by the leaders of the BPP proved to hold their ground against the best LE all over the country. The second amendment guarantees all Americans to bear arms. The BPP pointed out to the Constitution as their right to bear arms, so that they could defend themselves. The BPP called upon the police to end police brutality in all black communities. As we have discussed before the BPP always maintained good standard training in self defense and as such members of the BPP could and did always hold their ground.
Thousands of black men and women were held in jails all over the country. Most of these men and women came before juries that were all White and were sent to long jail terms. The BPP demanded that juries be composed of African Americans and that those imprisoned be released because they did not receive a fair and impartial trial.