Rough Draft

The Rise and fall of the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party for Self defense was founded in 1966 in Oakland California by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. They both shared a common goal to promote civil rights and self defense among the black community. Newton and Seale were former members of the Revolutionary Action Movement, A group that was viewed as an extremely violent black militant group which conspired to blow up the statue of liberty, the liberty bell, and the Washington monument. The pair left the group in 1965 in search something that had a more meaningful purpose, shortly after leaving the Revolutionary Action Movement Newton and Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self defense. With the death of Malcolm X in 1965 The Black Panther Party for Self defense saw a need for leadership among the black community and the civil rights movement.
The Black Panther Party Patrolled inner cities with shotguns and law books in hopes to discourage police brutality, this radical approach to civil rights made the Panthers very unpopular among mainstream America. That never stopped them from pursuing their goals of proper housing for blacks, employment of blacks, exemption of blacks from the military, and to stop police brutality and murder of blacks. The Panthers grew very fast among inner cities all across America. They never hesitated to shoot police officers and anyone else thought to be harming the black community. That violent approach made them targets of FBI investigations in order to bring the group down. Although viewed in a negative light by most of America because of their violent ways, the Panthers strived for equality for blacks and other oppressed groups of people in America.
The panthers raised money in order to open schools, medical centers, to start a free lunch program for students, and to teach self defense lessons in the ghettoes across America. They believe African Americans were deprived of proper education, and healthcare and this was their way of countering the oppression. The Panthers realized that poverty among the black community was directly linked to the lack of education among blacks, so they opened schools in inner cities that taught blacks reading, writing, and the real history of blacks and their contributions to American society. The BPP also developed a program that helped high school drop outs get their GED. At these schools they offered free meals to all students in the area. The BPP also knew the importance of having good healthcare and they knew most blacks could not afford good healthcare at the time, so they opened free medical clinics for poverty stricken people. At the Panthers clinics people could get their prescription medicine for free and basic care from a licensed physician. This was a major help to the working class of African Americans who normally couldn’t afford this type of healthcare. The Panthers also taught self defense and martial arts in the black communities. They knew that it would not only help blacks in defending themselves from police brutality and other racist attackers, but that it would also teach blacks self discipline. The BPP taught blacks physical hand to hand combat and also how to carry and discharge firearms. They believed the non violent approach attempted by Martin Luther King Jr. was not good enough, and in order for blacks to be liberated they must be feared and respected by White Americans.
The extreme tactics of the Black Panther Party quickly gained the attention of both white and black Americans. A lot of angry young black Americans desired to join the party and help fight for liberation, but the Panthers were disliked by law enforcement and politics all across America. Edgar Hoover called the Panthers the biggest threat to American society, and he assigned groups of FBI agents to dismember the group. Black Panther Party Headquarters were raided in Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans. In all of the raids law enforcement never gave the Panthers a chance to surrender peacefully, but instead they surrounded the headquarters and opened fire for up to four hours and then shot tear gas inside the buildings and arrested the survivors. The Panthers that survived the police raids were given long jail sentences or life in prison. This quickly weakened the entire party. In 1968 the co-founder of the Black Panther Party Huey P. Newton was put on trail for the murder of an Oakland police officer. After Newton received life in prison, membership to the party started to decline rapidly. The Chicago branch leader Fred Hampton was also charged with the murder of a policeman. This caused other leaders of the party like Aldridge Cleaver and Stokley Carmichael to go into exile in countries like Algeria and New Guinea. The reminding members of the party turned from their violent ways and focused more on politics, but by the mid 1970’s the Black Panther Party had become non-existent in American society. Though few members remained the BPP didn’t have same effect on young black Americans as its original members.
In 1991 former Nation of Islam members Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and Malik Zulu Shabazz founded the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The New Party disregaurded the original Panthers belief in the unity of all colored people and focused strictly on blacks all across the world. The New Panthers are considered to be extremely racist and anti-semitic. Dr.David Hilliard an origianal Panther stated, “ they hijacked our name and now they are hijacking our history, the racism that this group espouses flies directly in the face of the Black Panthers multicultural ideology and purpose.” The new Panthers leader Malik Zulu Shabazz believes that the Panther name belongs to the people and not the few indivuals who started t he movement. Members of the original Panthers do not want to be associated with the new Panthers, because of their hatred of jews and white people everywhere. The new Panthers are spreading a message that Jewish people are the biggest exploiters of blacks worldwide. They believe that the nation of Israel is working with the U.S. to strong arm the Gaza strip from its original Palestinain inhabitants. This type of hatred has overshadowed the original message of the Panthers which was black pride and consciousness. The original Black Panther Party has made numerous attempts to sue the New Black Panther Party in order to keep them from using and defiling their name, all of those attempts have failed. Although the new Black Panther Party is not nearly as popular as its original group they still have a vast number of followers worldwide.
The original Black Panther party was around for about 15 years, but in that short amount of time they have implemented programs and ideas that are still apart of American society. For instance, the WIC(Women Infants & Children) program was created by the panthers in order to provide mothers with milk and other essential nutriants needed to raise healthy children. This program is still availible to low income famalies all across America. Other programs like free meals for poor students are offered at most public schools. The Panthers taught blacks to stand up for their rights by any means neccesary. A famous quote from Huey P. Newton sums it up best, he stated, “I would rather die on my feet, than live on my knees.”His willingness to die for what he believed in shows the passion the original Panthers had to make a change in the world.