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In Living for the City, Donna Murch details the origins and the rise to prominence the Black Panther Party experienced during the 1960s and into the 1970s. The Civil Rights Movement and eventually the Black Panther Movement of Oakland, California emerged from the growing population of migrating Southern African Americans who carried with them the traditional strength and resolve of the church community and family values. Though the area was driven heavily by the massive movement of industrialization during World War II, the end of the war left a period of economic collapse and social chaos in its wake. The Black Panther Party was formed in this wake; driven by continuing violence against the African American youth by the local police forces, Although initially a Party seeking to inspire the independence of the African American community from the control of the government, this image was changed during the course of the movement in the wake of opposition and issues regarding the Party’s image. In the later years of the Party focus was placed on helping the community of Oakland, California in order to gain political ground both on the local and later national level; this was done by educating the community as well as by offering assistance to the African American population, regardless of membership. In the end the Party was successful in making some political ground but its later approach during the occupation of Merritt College and the public image of the Party’s inner circle brought about its decline and eventual dissolve in In the examination of the roots of the Party she emphasizes the importance that the Southern migrants had on the future movement; though they did not play as large a role in the Party as the youth did, the ideals and social structures of the old generation greatly inspired the Party and its rise to prominence. Murch uses this to approach why the Party was successful in maintaining itself on the local level but often failed on the national level. One can not argue that the Black Panther Party wasn’t a socially driven movement but Murch argues that the movement itself was driven by the social structures of the Bay Area African American community. Murch approaches the success of the Black Panther Party at an angle that examines how the Party’s positions and it’s course was driven by the public it was centered within. Murch details that the African American community of Oakland was deeply rooted in family values as well as social organizations, such as churches. 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
In Erik Gellman’s book Death Blow to Jim Crow: The National Negro Congress and the Rise of Militant Civil Rights, he sets out with the argument that the National Negro Congress co-aligned with others organizations in order to not only start a militant black-led movement for equal rights, but also eventually as the author states they “launch the first successful industrial labor movement in the US and remake urban politics and culture in America”. The author drew attention to the wide collection of intellectuals from the black community, labor organizers, civil rights activists, and members of the communist party, to separate them from similar organization that might have been active at the time. These activists, he argues “remade the American labor movement into one that wielded powerful demands against industrialists, white supremacists, and the state as never before, positioning civil rights as an urgent necessity.” In Gellman’s study of the National Negro Congress, he is able to discuss how they were able to start a number of grassroots protest movements to disable Jim Crow, while unsuccessful in dealing a “death blow to Jim Crow”, they were able to affect the American labor movement.
Martin Luther King Jr. played a huge role for the black power movement, and many other younger black activists’ leader such as handsome Stokely Carmichael, Malcom X, and Rosa Park. Martin and Rosa and many others being a symbol of the non-violent struggle against segregation were he launched voting rights campaign and peaceful protesting. Rosa Park is one of the most important female that contribute a little but a huge factor of the Black Power Movement. One day riding the bus coming from work, a white bus driver told her and other African American to move to the back to give up their seats. Rosa being fed up with it she refuse, causing here to be put in jail, causing a huge movement for a bus boycott and Freedom Riders. Unlike Malcolm X and who epitomized the “Black Power” philosophy and had grown frustrated with the non-violent, integrated struggle for civil rights and worried that blacks would lose control of their own movement. Malcom X joined the Nation of Islam and the Black Panther. Black Panther played a short but important part in the civil rights movement. Being from California, the Black Panther party had four desires: equality in education, housing, employment and civil rights. In other words they were willing to use violence to get what they wanted. Bobby Seale, one of the leader had vision Black Panther party. Seale
and Robert Kennedy—both of whom fought for the rights of black people. The filmmakers could not get much of the riots after King’s death, so the chapter of 1968 was fairly thin, but this shifts into the Black Panther arc. Thankfully, the filmmakers were close with the party, so there is plenty of material here. The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary, pro-black movement started in Oakland, California and was co-founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. They focused on educating black people while informing them of their rights and arming them in order to protect themselves.
The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil rights struggle, and the liberation movements. From the lunch counter sit-in of Greensboro, N.C. in 1960 and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Black Power movement at the decade's end, Anderson illustrates the brutality involved in the reaction against civil rights, the radicalization of some of the movement's youth, and the eventual triumphs that would change America forever. He also discusses women's liberation and the feminist movement, as well as the students' rights, gay rights, and environmental movements.
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....
Kelly, Robin D.G. "Communist Party of the United States." Encyclopaedia of African-American Culture and History. 1996 ed. Lawler, Mary. Marcus Garvey.
Ogbar, Jeffrey. Black Power Radical Politics and African American Identity. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2004, 124.
Organized in the 1960s at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party emerged as a revolutionist group pioneering a strategy of militancy. The Party’s aims were to eliminate the discrimination challenging African-Americans in America since the time of slavery, and to protect their communities from police brutality. Inspired by contemporary radical leaders such as Malcolm X, the party recognized that in order to restructure American society so that civil equality was obtainable by all people, a much stronger opposition was necessary. Party members felt the passive resistance adopted by their predecessors fighting for equality proved futile, and therefore the Party endorsed new tactics of self-defense and violent resistance to secure their political and social rights as American citizens. However, the promotion and employment of open violence fueled the government with legitimate reason to battle for the Party’s eradication. Regardless of its success in instituting innovative community reforms in African-American neighborhoods, during its short existence the Black Panther Party was never able to achieve its fundamental goal of eliminating racial discrimination and ensuring civil equality for all when battling against an America averse to change.
Most critics agree that the Brotherhood is a euphemism for the Communist Party which was active in the US from the beginning of the 1920s. In an article entitled "Communist Party of the United States" in the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, Robin D. G. Kelly reports that the popularity of the party among Blacks was due to its work to end racism and its support of Blac...
In 1969, at its ninth national convention, the organization of college-age activists known as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was in disarray. Having formed only nine years earlier, it became the ideological basis for the New Left -- highly critical of the government’s policies on war and most importantly, fervent supporters of racial equality. By its ninth national convention, it had grown to be 100,000 members strong, consisting of various alliances and parties, with over 300 chapters all across the continental United States. During the convention, the turmoil of its own inner-politics and conflict between parties lead to a splintering (Green, “The Weather Underground”). The expulsion of the Worker-Student Alliance and the Progressive Labor party by the Revolutionary Youth Movement was strategic -- a coup...
Politics had played a large part in the movement’s beginning, and they continued to be important to La M...
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966, in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Armed with sincerity, the words of revolutionaries such as Mao Tse-Tung and Malcolm X, law books, and rifles, the Black Panther Party fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police, and presented a Ten Point Platform and Program of Black political and social activism. Its "survival programs"-such as food giveaways, free health clinics and free breakfast programs for children-were popular fixtures in Black neighborhoods in the early 1970s, but for the white power structure and the vast majority of the white public, the Panthers represented only anti-government militancy; a view which engendered the wrath of the police and FBI and led to the murder of several Party members by law enforcement.
The Panthers had many accomplishments while they were around, these were some of them. The Panthers gave to the need many times. They did stuff like opened food shelters, health clinics, elementary schools, patrolled urban ghettos to stop police brutality, created offices to teach young black kids, and they said that they were going to start stressing services. The Panthers had many great people join them, but one man had made a huge accomplishment that will never be forgotten. In November of 68’ the Chicago chapter of The B.P.P. was founded by Fred Hampton, he was a strong leader. The accomplishment he had made was that...
Rippling in the wind, the banner strikes fear into its foes. Slightly squinting, John reads the poster. “Join the revolution, Join the Black Panthers Now!” Since he always wants to rebel against the Jim Crow laws, now is his chance. Old cars are parked neatly outside the diner as John is walking past. Teenagers are bolting to the bowling alley with their friends. Finally, John spots the base of The Black Panthers. Lacquered Black doors are standing in his path. Grasping the cold handle, his heart beat faster. Not knowing what would happen to him, he had to remind himself why he was here. Swallowing his fear, he begins to open the black doors. The doors creak as he walks in. A young man as tall as a mountain, slouched on the counter.