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The Global Black Panther
Introduction
The Black Panther Party (BPP) was the radical group during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Under the leadership of Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party made their presence known wherever they went. With their militant and radical styles, the BPP was a group of people that most Americans were intimidated by. One of the main goals for the BPP was to stop police brutality from plaguing within the black community, and just like Civil Rights Movement leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King’s they wanted to have equal rights just like every other U.S citizens. Even their looks made them stand out from the rest of the black protest groups. Members of the BPP were known for having
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afros, dark shades, long leather trench coats, and last but not least the famous black beret. The militant ways of the Black Panther Party was part of their agenda.
They mainly did these things to protect the people of the black community. Blacks during this time never really had a voice. The BPP stepped up and became that voice for many blacks who were afraid to speak out against wrong doings. Members of the BPP started breakfast programs for children, health care, voter registration, and many other programs. While doing these things they received help and support from people inside the United States who were outside of the black community. The BPP looked for something more outside of the United States so they went to get support from countries such as Algeria, England, New Zealand, North Korea, and many other communist countries around the world. This paper will explain why the Black Panther Party went to look for international help also what the BPP agenda was when it came to these different countries. The Black Panthers not only looked to these different countries for support financially but they also went to raise awareness for oppressed people around the world. The decided that if they stick together it would cause a major impact on the world as a whole, and lives would begin the …show more content…
change. Historical Background The Black Panther Party was created on October 15, 1966 by Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California. The original name for this group was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The BPP adopted their famous Black Panther symbol from an independent political party a few years prior. This group was created by blacks who lived in Lowndes County, Alabama. Within the black community there was a lot of police brutality and nothing was being done about it. The Black Panther Party bared arms and took matters into their own hands. Even for a routine traffic stop the BPP would come with their guns ready to shoot and kill cops just in case they got out of hand and caused hard to the black victims. Even though the militant style of the Black Panther Party was what everyone seemed to know about them, they also had a positive side. Especially when it came to women and children in the poorer and black communities. The Black Panther Party became very strong just a few years after it was founded.
People all over the United States began to support the BPP, and they also began to create their own BPP parties. The Chicago Black Panther Party was created, New Jersey Black Panther Party, also the Winston Salem Black Panther Party. These are just a few of the many BPP chapters that were created in the US. This nationwide expansion of the BPP sparked the attention of the FBI. Under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI made the BPP their number one target. In the year 1968 Hoover stated, “the Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to internal security of the country”. He was not the only one in America who felt this way about the Black Panther Party. The FBI and other people who were against them began to target the BPP with violence and fake conspiracies which would slowly begin to tear them
apart. On April 6, 1968 Robert Hutton became the first and youngest Black Panther to be murdered by the FBI he was only eighteen years old when he was killed. His death made the remaining members go even hard with their activism. As the BPP advance so did the FBI. Shortly after this the FBI created COINTELPRO which stands for counterintelligence program. This program was created to put a stop on black militant groups from joining forces. With this program in full effect on December 4, 1969 two more member of the Black Panther Party were killed. Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed by the police of Chicago, Illinois. They were set up by William O’Neal who was acting as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton, when he was really an FBI informative. After the murder of these two BPP members twenty-eight more deaths of Black Panther Party members followed. Many of the BPP fled the United States because they would have been next to either be killed or thrown in jail under a fake conspiracy. Even the founded of the party was convicted of murder but later released after a worldwide protest. After the release of Huey P Newton in 1970 he began to create what he called “survival programs” for the black community. The programs consisted of the free breakfast for children. This program fed over twenty thousand hot meals per week to children before the went to school. Other programs were free medical clinics, free pest control, free sickle cell testing, free dental programs, they also gave away free clothes and food. These survival programs were all around the United States. The Black Panthers of Winston Salem, North Carolina used these programs to benefit the people of the black community. The FBI kept surveillances on them and they could not find anything negative about them just positive looks. One of those positives that they talked about in the FBI was the “survival programs”. The BPP used this positive outlook in hopes to get the cops and FBI off their backs. It did for a little while because it had them confused on what image of the BPP did they need to follow. Then by the end of the 1970s the Black Panther Party came to an end in the United States, but the revolution lasted a lifetime. International Plans The Black Panther Party went international to spread about the racial tension that blacks faced in America. They also went international to start a worldwide revolution for the people who were facing social injustices in their own communities. The BPP already received support in their homeland from whites and blacks such as the White Panther Party which was started by John Sinclair in the year 1968. Some people believe that the White Panther Party was a counter protest group who was against the Black Panther Party, but they were far from it. John Sinclair along with the other cofounding members of the WPP went to Dr. Huey P Newton and other BPP members and asked how they could get involved. This conversation between these two groups started the WPP. Stokely Carmichael who played a major role with the civil rights movement in the 1960s strongly supported the BPP and their radical movement. Finally, Jane Fonda who is an American actress who spoke against wars such as Vietnam supported the Black Panther Party. These are just a few of the many people who supported the BPP. Having support in your homeland was always good to have but international support was even better. For the BPP to have their name known worldwide was an amazing thing especially for a group that has only been around for just a few years. The BPP can give thanks to Kathleen Cleaver who was secretary of communication and her husband Eldridge Cleaver minister of information, each were responsible for the expansion of the BPP internationally. Together these two went to countries who were dealing with social issues of their own. They both traveled to India, Israel, New Zealand, and many other countries to spread the word of the BPP. Some Americans despised the international movement of the Black Panther Party because some of the countries they went with were under communist rule. With the Cold War going on being called a Communist was one of the worst things that could happen to you. Being called a Communist could have you thrown in jail or even killed. The BPP knew about all of this and kept pushing for the international expansion. Black Panther Party International Agenda The Black Panther Party wanted to start a worldwide revolution with oppressed people around the world. By doing this the BPP hoped it would show our government system that there is power in numbers also it let our government know that the Black Panthers were global not just an American issue. When the BPP travels to places such as Sweden, Sanya, and China there was a specific agenda and that was to make America a world enemy. By explaining to people around the world the troubles that blacks faced while in America their plan was almost a huge success. On July 14, 1969, The Black Panther which was the name of their newspaper wrote an article about Connie Matthew’s visit to Scandinavia. Connie Matthew’s was a Black Panther Party representative in Demark. While there Connie spoke about the people of Vietnam. Connie stated, “the struggle of the Vietnamese people is a support for the struggle of the American Negroes.” With this statement, she basically explained how oppression was a national feeling and how the blacks in America were linked the people of Vietnam with oppression. Connie always called out the people of Sweden and asked where they were during this time of war. She stated, “You are part of imperialism, you are members of NATO and you are accomplices to the suppression of the peoples in Angola and Mozambique.” This was the plan of the BPP to get as many countries as they could to be involved with the worldwide revolution. After Connie spoke to the people of Sweden on these issues. Sweden along with other countries such as Britain, Germany and the Netherlands became supporters of the Black Panther Party. They supported them by giving them money and other things that would support them on their journey. Financial support like this was part of the reason why the BPP could keep their survival programs strong and they were able to use these to benefit more people in the poorer communities. The Black Panther Party was invited to China by the People’s Republic of China. In 1971 Dr. Huey P. Newton was invited to meet Mao who was the current Chairman of China during that time. The BPP’s visit to China made history because they could meet with government officials in China before President Nixon. China heard about the Black Panther Party and invited them to tell that part of the world what they faced in America. In 1971 Billy X Jennings who was a part of the security team for the BPP wrote about Dr. Huey P. Newton’s visit to China and what he faced when it came back to America. He talked about how when Newton returned to America he was immediately faced with a press conference right when he got off the plane. During this press conference, Newton was accompanied by Elaine Brown who was the first female minister of defense for the BPP. Many people in America was shocked because Newton met with China before the President Nixon. They also knew that President Nixon was in the mist of trying to fix the relationship between America and China. Some people in America felt that this move that Newton made stepped on the toes of the President. Not everyone knows that the chairman of China has studied that BPP and invited Newton to come meet with him.
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 ...
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....
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 heavily driven 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, the Black Panther Party’s roots consisted mostly of educational meetings of local African American college students.
The Party’s fight for redistribution of wealth and the establishment of social, political and social equality across gender and color barriers made it one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for working class liberation and ethnic minorities (Baggins, Brian). The Black Panther Party set up a ten-point program much like Malcolm X’s Nation of Islam that called for American society to realize political, economic and social equal opportunity based on the principles of socialism, all of which was summarized by the final point: "We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace" (Newton, Huey P). The Black Panther Party wanted to achieve these goals through militant force. In the words of Che Guevara, “Words are beautiful, but action is supre...
ceremonies, and used drugs such as marijuana and LSD. The Black Panthers were a major black movement in the 1960's. After killing a leader of this movement in self defence, Manson grew scared. the promise of revenge from the Black Panthers. Scared, Manson ordered his.
Through the history of African Americans in America, few political moments were more important than the formation of the Congressional Black Caucus. The thirteen black members of the House of Representatives founded the CBC in 1969. Their goal was to establish a voice for African Americans who felt forgotten and downtrodden. One early goals of the Black Caucus was to end the Apartheid in South Africa. During the early years of the organization, there was strife internally and externally. After the Reconstruction of America, African Americans were without organization amongst their representation in Congress until the establishment of the Congressional Black Caucus.
On February 12th The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded by a multiracial group of activists, who answered "The Call," in the New York City, NY. They initially called themselves the National Negro Committee. Founded in 1909 The NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has been active in its attempts to break legal ground and forge better opportunities for African Americans. At the beginning in 1909, some twenty persons met together in New York City for the purpose of utilizing the public interest in the Lincoln Centennial in behalf of African Americans. The history, function, purpose, and current activities of the organization is important.to work on behalf of the rights of colored people including Native Americans, African Americans and Jews. (Janken 2003)
Since its beginning, and with increasing emphasis since World War II, the NAACP has advocated nonviolent protests against discrimination and has disapproved of extremist black groups such as SNCC and the Black Panthers in the 1960s and 70s and CORE and the Nation of Islam in the 1980s and 90s, many of which criticized the organization as passive.... ... middle of paper ... ... DuBois, Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkens and the hundreds of thousands of nameless faces who worked tirelessly cannot and must not be forgotten (NAACP 1). The history of the NAACP is one of blood, sweat and tears.
The Black Panther Movement made a progressive contribution to the US and civil rights. In order for a person to understand what the Civil Rights movement was, they would need to understand what political movements were involved, that made a big impact on the Black Community. What was the Civil Rights movement? The Civil Rights movement lasted from the late 1960s and early 1970s. But, the Civil Rights was not born during that time. When Abraham Lincoln was President, he had signed an agreement named the Emancipation Proclamation. This Proclamation was addressed to emancipate all of the slaves that were written on paper. If they were to leave their job as a slave they would have had no where to go and no money, so they still worked for their previous slave owners to get paid and have a life of their own. Other than Abraham Lincoln, who practically saved the black race, there were many others who were involved in the civil rights. They themselves created their own movement inside the civil rights to help give the black community freedom of speech and to stop the government from what the black community thought was racist.
“The Ten Point Plan”, written by the group called the Black Panthers, was a document created to bring out equality and social justice for all blacks in America. The Black Panthers became a political party after blacks in America started to gain more power within themselves as a group through protests, by 1966 blacks were ready to take their progress into the political arena. The Black Panther Party or BPP was created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale who wanted a political party that would treat blacks fair and give them a voice within the government in order to help create equal laws. In “ A Huey P. Newton Story”, “The Ten Point Plan” is described as a basis for the BPP as it was a series of ten different grievances
Nearly all of the problems the Black Panther Party attacked are the direct descendants of the system which enslaved Blacks for hundreds of years. Although they were given freedom roughly one hundred years before the arrival of the Party, Blacks remain victims of White racism in much the same way. They are still the target of White violence, regulated to indecent housing, remain highly uneducated and hold the lowest position of the economic ladder. The continuance of these problems has had a nearly catastrophic effect on Blacks and Black families. Brown remembers that she “had heard of Black men-men who were loving fathers and caring husbands and strong protectors.. but had not known any” until she was grown (105). The problems which disproportionatly affect Blacks were combatted by the Party in ways the White system had not. The Party “organized rallies around police brutality against Blacks, made speeches and circulated leaflets about every social and political issue affecting Black and poor people, locally, nationally, and internationally, organized support among Whites, opened a free clinic, started a busing-to prisons program which provided transport and expenses to Black families” (181). The Party’s goals were to strengthen Black communities through organization and education.
The Black Panther Party made blacks more progressive in trying to be more equal and more willing to fight for justice. Their self-determination to come together and stand up for themselves, as one was a stepping-stone for blacks to fight for themselves and the good of their people, also to make sure blacks could be treated equally both socially and politically in society. The Black Panther Party was started in Oakland, California in 1966, when “Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton took up arms and declared themselves apart of a global revolution against American imperialism” (Bloom). They wanted to empower the black people to stand up for themselves and defend themselves against the police and their unjust ways. The police were the oppressor’s that kept blacks down and kept blacks from gaining any self-rights.
The fight for equality has been fought for many years throughout American History and fought by multiple ethnicities. For African Americans this fight was not only fought to gain equal civil rights but also to allow a change at achieving the American dream. While the United States was faced with the Civil Rights Movements a silent storm brewed and from this storm emerged a social movement that shook the ground of the Civil Right Movement, giving way to a new movement that brought with it new powers and new fears. The phrase “Black power” coined during the Civil Right Movement for some was a slogan of empowerment, while other looked at it as a threat and attempted to quell this Black Power Movement.
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...
Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and others, were the founders of the Black Panther Party. The emphasis of the Black Panther Party and Black Party and Black Power Movement justified the use of violence in the accomplishment of black justice. They believed that African Americans had to fight back to achieve their goal of equality. Therefore, the Black Panther Party and part of the Black Power Movement have been wrongfully associated with violence and negativity. However, the Black Power movement stimulated thousands of African Americans to speak out against the wrongful treatment of whites towards African