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Black panthers and the civil rights movement
Civil Rights Movement And Black Power Movement
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The Black Panther party for Self-Defense was an African American organization that was founded to promote civil rights and self-defense. It was active within the United States between the late 1960's into the 1970's. It was founded in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in October of 1966. The Black Panther Party was originally founded to further the African American civil rights movement and to fill the void in leadership amongst the African American community. The party's original purpose was to patrol the black ghettoes to protect members of the community from police brutality. The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all blacks, the exemption of blacks from the draft and from all sanctions of white America, the release of all blacks from jail, and the payment of compensation to blacks for centuries of exploitation by white Americans. In the late 1960's the Panther's membership exceeded 2,000 and the organization operated chapters in several major cities.
Conflicts between Black Panthers and police in the late 1960's and early 1970's led to shoot-outs in California, New York, and Chicago, one of which resulted in Newton's going to prison for the murder of a patrolman. While some members of the party were guilty of criminal acts, the group was subjected to police harassment that sometimes took the form of violent attacks, prompting congressional investigations of police activities in dealing with the Panthers. By the mid-1970's, having lost many members and having fallen out of favor with many American black leaders, who objected to the party's methods, the Panthers turned from violence to concentrate on conventional politics and on providing soc...
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...ation. Charles Jones. Boston: Boston Beacon Press, 2002.
Major,Reginald. A Panther is a Black Cat: An Account of the Early Years of The Black Panther Party - Its Origins, Its Goals, and Its Struggle for Survival . New York: Black Classic Press , 2007
Journals
Brown, Scot-Ngozi. "The US Organization, Maulana Karenga, and Conflict with the Black Panther Party A Critique of Sectarian Influences on Historical Discourse." Journal of Black Studies 28, no. 2 (1997): 157
Harris, Jessica C.. "Revolutionary Black Nationalism." The Journal of Negro History 85, no. 3 (2000): 162-174
Madayag, Katrin . "BLACK PANTHERS' SEALE: WE WEREN'T ABOUT VIOLENCE ; FORMER LEADER SAYS PARTY FOUGHT RACISM." The Capital Times (2007):
Peter, Monaghan A.. "New Views of the Black Panthers Paint Shades of Gray." Chronicles of Higher Education 53, no. 26 (2006): A12-A117
Wasserman, Steve. "Rage and Ruin: On the Black Panthers | The Nation." The Nation. N.p., 4 June 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Introduction In Panther Baby, Jamal Joseph, an autobiography, tells about his life and his experiences as a member, later becomes a leader of Black Panther Party in New York City and a prison in Leavenworth, Kansas during between 1960’s and 1980’s. He writes this book, Panther Baby, of his personal story in which he shares his experiences in the Black Panther Party, New York and Leavenworth, Kansas. This paper will review Joseph’s story and will have an evaluation and ethical analysis that focus on our course’s theme of ethics and social responsibility. This story narrates about Joseph’s experiences in Black Panther Party in New York City and a prison in Leavenworth. Black Panther Party is a At the beginning of the story, Joseph’s first
The concepts of Reform and Revolution are nearly polarizing by their very nature, with one seeking to modify, and the other seeking to destroy and rebuild. If an organized Black movement was to find itself in an opportunistic position -whatever that may be- with which to attempt a radical movement (in either case; reform or revolution, the resulting movement would need to be large and radical if it would hope to accomplish its goals before the opportunity for change ceases to present itself) it would only serve to befall their efforts if they found themselves in a splintered state of conflicting ideologies. But, in either case, be it reform or revolution, a reconfiguring of the thought processes behind how one looks at the nature of American politics is undoubtedly necessary in order to look into the potential for future Black liberation.
This political shift materialized with the advent of the Southern Strategy, in which Democratic president Lyndon Johnson’s support of Civil Rights harmed his political power in the South, Nixon and the Republican Party picked up on these formerly blue states and promoted conservative politics in order to gain a larger voter representation. Nixon was elected in a year drenched in social and political unrest as race riots occurred in 118 U.S. cities in the aftermath of Martin Luther King’s murder, as well as overall American bitterness due to the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the extensive student-led activist opposition to the Vietnam War. The late 1960’s also saw the advent of several movements promoting Black Nationalism to unify the African-American community through the efforts of Black Power, most notably the formation of the Black Panthers in 1967 who were dedicated to overseeing the protection of African-Americans against police brutality and the support of disadvantaged street children through their Free Breakfast for Children program. During this time, black power was politically reflected through the electorate as the 1960-70’s saw a rise in Black elected officials. In 1969 there were a total of 994 black men and 131 black women in office in the country, this figure more than tripled by 1975 when there were 2969 black men and 530 black women acting in office; more than half of these elected officials were acting in Southern States....
Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2004, 124.
The Black Panther Party’s initial success came about without having to address these roots, but, as the Party expanded and wished to move ahead, the Party’s shifts in policy can be directly attributed to the wishes and needs of the community. Murch profiles the Oakland Community School and the People’s Free Food Program, which were social institutions created by the Black Panther Party to address the needs of the community; though these approaches were used to bring about more members and to garner support, these tactics worked because of their correlation to the needs of Oakland’s African American community.
Egerton, Douglas R. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
Bloom, Joshua, and Waldo E. Martin. Black against empire: the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.
The violence was recorded in incidents such as clashes between the police and the party, in which the party believed that the police were a threat to themselves and everything they stood for. The tension between the BPP and the police can be seen in the aggressive language of “The Ten Point Plan,” such as, “We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against black people…” “The Ten Point Plan,” can be seen as relevant in 2016 as mentioned in the article, “50 years later, Who are the Heirs of the Black Panthers?”, where groups such as Black Lives Matter, feel that police brutality still exits against black and other minorities, and similar to 1966, riots have occurred. The article hints on the idea that the demands made in “The Ten Point Plan” are still in progress today and groups similar to the Black Panthers have formed and been involved in political campaigns in order to get their message of equality across
The dominant culture perceived the Black Panther Party to be a threat, prevented their success whenever possible, and greatly contributed to their ultimate demise. In 1968 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover proclaimed: “The Black Panther Party is the single greatest threat to the internal security of the United States” (156). The Party’s founder, Huey Newton, came to represent “the symbol of change for Americans, (by) questioning everything scared to the American way of life” (237).
The Black Panther had a huge background of history, goals, and beliefs. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, Ca 1966, founded the Panthers. They were originally as an African American self defense force and were highly influenced by Malcolm X’s ideas. They were named after Lowndes County Freedom Organization or LCFO. The Panthers had many goals like; giving back to the ghetto, protecting blacks from police brutality, and to help blacks get freedom and jobs. They also had many beliefs like; Malcolm X was a great person, and they believed that gun use was ok if necessary, or if people were oppressing the poor.
Every member of the Black Panther Party throughout this country of racist America must abide by these rules as functional members of this party. Central Committee members, Central Staffs, and Local Staffs, including all captains subordinated to either national, state, and local leadership of the Black Panther Party will enforce these rules. Length of suspension or other disciplinary action necessary for violation of these rules will depend on national decisions by national, state or state area, and local committees and staffs where said rule or rules of the Black Panther Party were violated. Every member of the party must know these verbatim by heart. And apply them daily. Each member must report any violation of these rules to their leadership or they are counter-revolutionary and are also subjected to suspension by the Black Panther Party. The rules are:
From bold investigations of mob brutality, protests of mass murders, segregation and discrimination, to testimony before congressional committees on the vicious tactics used to bar African Americans from the ballot box, it was the talent and tenacity of NAACP members that saved lives and changed many negative aspects of American society. While much of its history is chronicled in books, articles, pamphlets and magazines, the true movement lies in the faces—black, white, yellow, red, and brown—united to awaken the conscientiousness of people, and a nation. Work Cited www.en.wikipedia.org www.naacp.org www.spartacus.schoolnet.co
Smith, David Lionel. “The Black Arts Movement and Its Critics.” American Literary History. 3.1 (Spring 1991): 94-109.