Black Panther Party Logo                  Huey P Newton, Member of BPP

The Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was an African-American organization established to promote civil rights and self-defense. It was active in the United States from the mid-1960s into the 1970s.

Bobby Seale one of the leaders of the BBP, was born in Dallas, Texas in 1936. He became active in the civil rights movement after listening to a speech by Malcolm X at a public meeting. He joined Huey Newton in 1966 to form the BBP. Huey Newton was born in Monroe in 1942; his father was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Newton met Seale at the Merritt College in Oakland, California.

The Panthers were a violent organization taking advantage of the Californian law which made it legal to carry a firearm but only if it was on show and not pointed at anyone. The Panthers also were a sociable organization; The Black Panthers also ran medical clinics and provided free food to school children.

The leaders of the Black Panthers were influenced by the ideas expressed by Malcolm X in the final months of his life. The Panthers therefore argued for international working class unity and supported joint action with white revolutionary groups. The Black Panthers eventually developed into a collective revolutionary group.

The party platform consisted of ten points ("We want..."):

1. Freedom and Self-determination

2. Full employment for all Black people

3 Restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people

4. Decent housing.

5. Education to give Black people knowledge of self and expose the true history of American society

6. Exemption from military service for all Black men who should not be forced to defend a racist government.

7. An immediate end to police brutality

8. Release from prison for all Black people because they have not received a fair and impartial trial

9. All Black people who are brought to trial to be tried by a jury of their peers from the Black community.

10. Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. As a major political objective, a United Nations supervised plebiscite for Black Americans to determine their will as to their national destiny.

From the fall of 1967 through the end of 1969, nine police officers were killed, and 56 were wounded in confrontations with the BPP. In 1969, 348 Panthers were arrested for a number of crimes.

On April 25th, 1967, the first issue of The Black Panther, the party's official news organ, goes into distribution. In the following month, the party marches on the California state capital fully armed, in protest of the state's attempt to outlaw carrying loaded weapons in public. Bobby Seale read a statement of protest; while the police responded by immediately arresting him and all 30 armed Panthers.

On 6th April, 1968 eight BPP members, including Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Hutton and David Hilliard, were travelling in two cars when they were ambushed by the Oakland police. Cleaver and Hutton ran for cover and found themselves in a basement surrounded by police. The building was fired upon for over an hour. When a tear-gas canister was thrown into the basement the two men decided to surrender. Cleaver was wounded in the leg and so Hutton said he would go first. When he left the building with his hands in the air he was shot twelve times by the police and was killed instantly.

The Party eventually fell apart due to rising legal costs and internal disputes. Its final leader was Elaine Brown, a longtime Panther and the first and last woman to lead it where she addressed issues of sexism within the party and attempted to stave off its disintegration.

http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Black%20Panther%20Pty.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApantherB.htm