Is violence the answer? the black panther party

1716 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Black panthers and the civil rights movement

Is Violence the Answer?: The Black Panther Party
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.
The period ranging from approximately 1950s-1970s witnessed a rabid call for social change: in particular, the demand for civil equality. In 1966, frustrated by the lack of progress in the fight for equal rights for blacks, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Outraged by instances of police brutality and violence toward civil rights workers and even innocent citizens, the Party adopted a policy of self-defense and militancy recognizing that “All history has shown that this government will bring its police and military powers to bear on any group which truly seeks to free Afrikan people” (Acoli 2). This new strategy of “fighting back” differed dramatically from the non-violent rebellion that leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated. These non-violent leaders had adopted a strategy of building a respectful coexistence with the rest of society, which they hoped would eventually lead to social change. However, change was not transpirin...

... middle of paper ...

... for working to eradicate the Party. The reliance on open hostility therefore, undermined the Party’s mission and left it susceptible to charges of being too revolutionary. Fighting against the government, rather than collaborating with it as it the ultimate executor of social change gave the Black Panther Party little change to significantly remedy the inequalities so embedded in American culture.

Works Cited

Acoli, Sundiata. “A Brief History of the Black Panther Party. Its Place in the Black
Liberation Movement.” World History Archives. Ed. Haines Brown. 1995.
Hartford Wed Publishing. 24 Oct. 2002
Coombs, Norman. “The Black Revolt.” The Black Experience in America. 7 June
1993: Information Services Division. Electronic Archives. Leavey Library.
University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA. 5 Nov 2002.

Murphy, Dean E. “Black Panthers, Gone Gray, Fight Rival Group.” New York
Times. 7 Oct. 2002.
Panther. The Black Panther Party. 23 Oct. 2002.
Shields, Katarina. In the Tiger’s Mouth. Philadelphia: New Society, 1994.

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Black Power Movement And Kwame Tule

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Black Power Mixtape Analysis

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Movements of the New Left by Van Gosse

    674 Words  | 2 Pages

    These movements have many similarities in the goals that they wanted to achieve, however they have some differences as well. In the document written by the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, they voiced their demands ...

    Read More

  • Black Power as Interpreted by Stokely Carmichael

    1714 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Demise of the Second Reconstruction

    2219 Words  | 5 Pages

    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....

    Read More

  • Separate and Unequal

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Until the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his life’s work was dedicated to the nonviolent actions of blacks to gain the freedoms they were promised in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 by Abraham Lincoln. He believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King, 1963). These injustices had become so burdensome to blacks that they were “plunged into an abyss of despair” (King, 1963). The nonviolent actions of the sit-ins, boycotts, and marches were so the “individual could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths…to help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism” and ultimately lead to “inevitably opening the door to negotiation” (King, 1963). Not only was King’s approach effective with the older black generation, it was also successful with white people. They did not feel threatened when approached by King. White people gained a sense of empathy towards the plight of black freedom as King’s promise of nonviolence did not threaten their livelihood. Malcolm X viewed the world similarly to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., however; his beliefs to changing the status quo were slightly different from his political counterpart. Malcolm X realized that “anger could blind human vision” (X, 1965). In realizing this, X knew that in order to achieve racial freedom blacks had to “forget hypocritical politics and propaganda” (X, 1965). While Malcolm X was more so an advocate for violent forces against white people than King, X merely used force when it became necessary for defense. According to X, “I don’t go for non-violence if it also means a delayed solution. I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to American black man’s problem” (X, 1965). However, this le...

    Read More

  • Black Panther Party Analysis

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Black Panther Party

    2267 Words  | 5 Pages

    Wasserman, Steve. "Rage and Ruin: On the Black Panthers | The Nation." The Nation. N.p., 4 June 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

    Read More

  • Terrorism on African Americans in America

    1903 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bloom, Joshua, and Waldo E. Martin. Black against empire: the history and politics of the Black Panther Party. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.

    Read More

  • NAACP

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Black Panther Party Fights for Equality

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Panther Party was born to elevate the political, social, and economic status of Blacks. The means the Party advocated in their attempt to advance equality were highly unconventional and radical for the time, such as social programs for under privileged communities and armed resistance as a means of self preservation. The Party made numerous contributions to Black’s situation as well as their esteem, but fell victim to the ‘system’ which finds it nearly impossible to allow Blacks entry into the dominant culture. Thus, the rise and fall of a group of Black radicals, as presented by Elaine Brown in A Taste of Power, can be seen to represent the overall plight of the American Black: a system which finds it impossible to give Blacks equality.

    Read More

  • Essay On Civil Rights And Counterculture

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    Peaceful protests were the most prominent form of civil rights activities during the sixties, and often proved successful, given time. “Peaceful but relentless protest was more effective than violent action” (Lindop 30), the legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. argued. One form of this protest manifested itself through James Farmer, who formed the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE for short), conceived the bril...

    Read More

  • The Black Panther Party

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King's Successful Philosophy

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nearly three centuries ago, black men and women from Africa were brought to America and put into slavery. They were treated more cruelly in the United States than in any other country that had practiced slavery. African Americans didn’t gain their freedom until after the Civil War, nearly one-hundred years later. Even though African Americans were freed and the constitution was amended to guarantee racial equality, they were still not treated the same as whites and were thought of as second class citizens. One man had the right idea on how to change America, Martin Luther King Jr. had the best philosophy for advancing civil rights, he preached nonviolence to express the need for change in America and he united both African Americans and whites together to fight for economic and social equality.

    Read More

  • Essay On Civil Rights Movement

    2889 Words  | 6 Pages

    Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...

    Read More

More about Is violence the answer? the black panther party

Open Document