We
Want Freedom. We Want Power to Determine
The Destiny of Our Black Community.
The Black Panther Party (BPP), a black extremist group
founded in Oakland, California, is known for advocating the use of violence and
guerilla tactics to overthrow the US government. The group was founded in 1966
by Huey Newton and Bobby Seal. The panthers practiced militant self-defense for
minorities against the government (Marxists). The Black Panther Party was the
first group to actively and militantly fight for ethnic and working class
emancipation—a party whose agenda was the establishment of a real economic, political and social system
among all genders and races.
All
power to the people.
Much of the party’s practices and theories came from
Malcom X (Marxists). Malcom had represented a militant revolutionary as well as
a role model for the party. The party saw him as someone who sought to bring
about positive social services, something the BPP would take to new levels. In
the same month the party’s official news organ went into distribution, the
party marched on the California state capitol, fully armed, in protest of the
state’s attempt to outlaw carrying loaded weapons. This early act of political
repression sparked the fires to the resistance movements in the US. This soon
initiated new Panther chapters of the party to arise outside of the state. In October 1967, Huey Newton, one of the
party’s founders, was arrested and charged with kidnapping and 1st
degree murder of an Oakland police officer. This only made Newton a
revolutionary icon in the eyes of the party. The Party’s outrage caused 3 years
of rallies and protests to “Free Huey” and finally he was released on August 5th,
1970 (PBS). “That was true power of the
people—the freed me. I was just sittin’ up in my 5x7 cell, up in my 5x7 hell,
up there on the 10th floor of the Alameda County jail.” –Huey
Newton.
Although the party was relieved to have their leader
back after 3 years in prison, it came with a new problem. The party focused on
their communist-like state. The people freed Huey because they expected him to
free all of them. The true power of the people lies in freeing yourself, but
they can’t free themselves because people always have to create a leader and
that leader has to be everything the people want and everything the people
can’t be.
But the leader will fail.
The leader is just a human and will fail. And when the
leader fails, the whole concept of leadership fails and then it becomes a
matter of contempt (PBS).
Even though the party members were willing to
sacrifice everything, including their lives, to fight for equality in all
matter, the party came with its’ own set of rules…
A set of 26 rules, 8 points of attention, 3 main rules of discipline and a pledge
for kids to abide by. A commitment more than 2,000 members were
willing to follow until the party dissolved in 1982.
Works Cited:
4.
Overall, this piece was very informative and interesting to read. Surprisingly, I have never heard of the Black Panther Party or any of their movements. You seemed very researched and knowledgeable on the topic. Since this is such an interesting piece of history though, I would have liked to see a little bit more. You already touched on who they were, what they wanted, and their leader Huey Newton. I would suggest adding some information on the extent of their violence as a group, not just Newton. Also, in the end of the piece, I felt that as a reader, I needed more information on what their set of rules were, what their disciplinary actions were, and how the party ended up dissolving.
ReplyDeleteThe quote that you use to set up your piece is very powerful and draws in the reader. The only thing that I would suggest is maybe setting a time frame for what else was going on during the 60’s and comparing the BPP to other civil rights movements. One final thing, I felt that at the end of your paper, you started to move from history and facts to something more general. To me, I think it might be more beneficial to continue talking about the downfall of BPP or other main people in the party rather than focusing on how Newton failed. I would avoid straying away from the structure that you used for the rest of your paper. Overall, I really enjoyed this topic and how you presented it to the audience.