Trans Protection Party

Black Panther Party: An Overview of America’s most Revolutionary Organizations

by JN

Introduction

The Black Panther Party was — and still is — known as America’s most organized revolutionary political organization. Originally known as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the organization was founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, California, October 1966. It’s main foundation was built off of the back of a combination of Marxist-Leninist ideals and the rise of the late 1960’s Black Power movement (or “Black nationalism”) — a second civil rights movement that centered around dissolving white-supremacy and the individual and community embracing of Black American culture. With their rapid growth, the Black Panther Party expanded into multiple chapters in San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Lost Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia, as well as prison chapters, and international chapters in Algeria and the United Kingdom. The exact size of the party at its peak is hard to determine, but it is estimated that around 5,000 members were active in the United States in 1969. The party was dissolved in 1982, and while there are still and the modern Black Panther Party, none of them are comparable to the party’s existence over those 16 years. 

Methods and Ideology

Their infamy as a political organization comes from their most controversial core practice of open carry patrol and security. This “cop watching” regime of the party often made their stances outside of community organizations, government buildings, and in protest as a means to challenge political norms and the Oakland police departments on going excessive force and misconduct.

They defined themselves as Marxist-Leninists, operating under the idea of “scientific socialism.” Though it is noted by the party’s Minister of Information Eldridge Cleavere that “[The Black Panther Party] do not move with a closed mind to new ideas or information. At the same time, we know that we must rely upon our own brains in solving ideological problems as they relate to us.” (Cleaver, 1) With the knowledge that the Marxism and Leninism can operate differently for a class of minorities in a system that was not considered in the making of those ideologies. 

The key tenant of Marxism the Panthers followed was Marx and Engels point: “Violent revolution by the proletariat against the bourgeois state apparatus of class oppression and repression. Revolutionary violence against the counter-revolutionary class violence perpetrated through the special repressive force of the armed tentacles of the state.” (Cleaver, 3)

In order to make sure all of the members were consistent in their ideals, moral codes, and objectives for the party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale created the Ten-Point Program. Every member of the party had to agree to the programs listed ideologies:

  1. “We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black and oppressed communities.”
  2. “We want full employment of our people.”
  3. We want an end to the robbery by the capitalist of our Black and oppressed communities.”
  4. “We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.” 
  5. “We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches our true history and our role in the present-day society.”
  6. “We want completely free healthcare for all Black and oppressed people.”
  7. “We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the United States.”
  8. “We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.”
  9. “We want freedom for all Black and oppressed people now held in U.S. Federal, state, country, city, and military prisons and jails. We want tribunals by a jury of peers, for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.”
  10. “We want land bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace, and people’s community control of modern technology.” (Newton, Seale)

This ten point program varies from source to source, likely adding the addition of “all oppressed peoples” later on in the party’s existence as their organization began intersectional work with parties such as Los Siete de la Raza (“The Seven of the Hispanic Community), the Brown Berets (another revolutionary Marxist org for Latin American liberation that modeled themselves after the panthers), women’s liberation movements, gay liberation movements, decarceration, and labor unions. 

Community Programs

“Community Survival Programs” was one of the party’s least credited yet most influential impacts on the Black community. The social programs the party implemented in their existence inspired and influenced nationwide aid programs—such as free school lunch, medical aid in schools, modern sickle cell anemia research, preventative birth/pregnancy care, etc (BPPALN). A handful of their working programs were: Free Food Program (in 1972 over 10,000 bags of groceries were handed out to Oakland’s community), Children’s Free Breakfast Program, Free Clothing Program, Black Student Alliance, Disabled Persons Services/Transportation and Attendant, Drug/Alcohol Abuse Awareness Program, Free Ambulance Program, Free Dental/food/employment/health clinics, Community Forum, Seniors Against a Fearful Environment, STD Preventative Screening, Counseling, Youth Training/Firearm Training and Development, and more (BPPLAN). In total the Panther’s created 65 different working functional programs that acted as a means of creating a communist community in a capitalistic state. 

Figureheads

There were many notable people involved in the party, many of its members largely uncredited due to their anonymity within the parties movements (such as the mothers who taught educational programs and worked in the food pantry programs). It is known that the household names of the movement would often direct credit to the unnamed members, as they were the individuals who unionized together to make the party work. 

However, there were still Luminaries in the party, its creators Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton being the most notable. 

Member Elaina Brown joined after the assassination of MLK in 1968 and took charge of the party’s Free Breakfast for Children program in LA, and the first Free Busing to Prisons Program and Free Legal aid program. Over the years she climbed upward in the party, eventually taking charge of the entire party (from 1972-1977) after Huey Newton moved to Cuba (avoiding criminal charges).

Fred Hampton (born 1948-1969) was one of the party’s most outspoken and targeted members. Leader of Chicago’s chapter, he implemented the “Power to the People” philosophy that later lead to the founding of the Rainbow Coalition (a multiracial alliance group that allied gangs and organizations to end infighting and fight against the bourgeoisie/government for social change). He was the first target for the FBI, and his murder was the beginning of the end of the party. 

Eldridge Cleaver was the first Minister of Information of the party, and the first to relay Bobby Seale and Huey Newton’s message to the world in a comprehensive manner. He ran for Third party (Peace and Freedom Party) in the 1968 presidential election. After a violent interaction between the police and the party itself, Huey wanted to refocus the group on community efforts while Cleaver wished to become more “revolutionary.” This disagreement lead him to denouncing the party in 1975. (Archives.gov)

Angela Davis, although not on any of the leadership committee’s of the party, was heavily involved in their community survival programs, more specifically their decarceration efforts. She was put on FBI’s most wanted list and charged with taking part in the escape efforts of the Soledad brothers during their trial. She was heavily involved in the Communist Party as well, and advocated for LGBTQ+ intersectionality/rights movements, later coming out as a lesbian in a 1997 interview with Out Magazine (Nmaahc.Edu).

A common misconception is that Malcom X was involved in the Black Panther Party. He was not, as the party was founded in 1966 after his assassination by the government. The party itself though was inspired by his “By Any Means Necessary” approach. MLK saw the beginning of the party’s creation, and agreed with the overall message but disagreed with its violence. Part of MLK’s assassination was in part that his morals started shifting to that of “By Any Means Necessary” and his influence would be too great for the government to handle.

The End of the Party

The FBI caught wind of the Black Panther Party in 1969 and began to track all of the party’s militant activities, income, expenses, and notable peoples. The “Charlotte files” are all publicly available for anyone to view and track everything the FBI had on the party’s activities from 1969 to 1976 (FBI.gov⇲). President Edgar Hoover initiated an undercover surveillance of the group to try and dismantle any “subversive” people or groups in Black/civil rights organizations. Under his leadership, the government is responsible for the deaths of Malcom X, MLK Jr., Elijah Muhammad, Fred Hampton, etc. and all of the imprisonments of those incarcerated in the Black Panther Party. The FBI got the memo to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” any radical attempt to fight for Black civil rights and Black power. They were labeled as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country”,  “Black Extremists” or “Black National Hate Groups” by the government, which lead to the inception of COINTELPRO. (It has been recently identified that COINTELPRO said the same things internally about the modern Black Lives Matter movement and conducted attempts to disrupt the movement and discredit the organization).

COINTELPRO– which stands for Counter Intellegence Program– was a government program launched to snuff out communism in the United States (specifically though they focused on radical groups, socialists, anti-war activist, and minority organizations).

The dissolution of the party began with the undercover FBI agent (who lead Hampton to believe he was a member of the BPP) drugging his drink at a meeting in 1969. The FBI raided his apartment in the morning, killing his security guard, Hampton, and his fiancé who was nine months pregnant. All of the other alive BPP members in his household were arrested and charged with attempted murder, armed violence, and weapons charges. (Later the charges were dropped after the Chicago police department fired 99 shots while the Panthers only shot once).

This lead to internal conflict among members. As Huey tried to refocus the groups efforts onto community programs, others wanted more radical uprisings. This lead to violence and death among members. The party declined until its officially declared dissolution by the government in 1982. (Archives.gov)

Many of its members went on the involve themselves in other civil rights efforts, many members died in conflicts within other civil rights groups, and many of the Party’s programs were stolen by the U.S. government unaccredited.

Citations

“Angela Davis.” Nmaahc.Edu, National Museum of African American History & Culture, nmaahc.si.edu⇲. Accessed 28 Dec. 2024. 

“The Black Panther Party.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov⇲. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024. 

“BPPALN.Org Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network.” Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network, Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network, bppaln.org⇲. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024. 

Cleaver, Eldridge. “On The Ideology of the Black Panther Party.” Oakland, California, Oct. 1969. 

Newton, Huey P., and Bobby Seale. “October 1966 Black Panther Party Platform and Program: What we Want What we Believe.” California, Oakland, Oct. 1966. collectiveliberation.org⇲