1966: Black Panther Party

DHS US History II

The Black Panther Party was created in 1966, in Oakland, California. It was established in California but it spread throughout the US including many different cities in the following years, a few of them being: Boston, Chicago, and New York. The founders of this party were Huey P. Newton and Bobby Steale, and they made it clear of their goals and the needs of this party. They did this by creating a ten point program, which consisted of many different things that involve equal rights for all. “We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community. We want full employment for our people. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people. We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.” This list was the goals made by the the Black Panthers. They followed through with some of these goals very forcefully. For example for their goal to end the brutality and murder of black people by the police, they would follow white police officers around with guns in order to make sure they were not harming any black person. This is one of the reasons why the Black Panthers were so unique. The government could not ignore them like some other civil rights movements at the time. The FBI got involved to follow some of the leaders of the Black Panthers to make sure that nothing got too out of hand. There were many different parts of this party that made them unique their dress code, the contribution of women, and the sense of community that they established all showed how this party was one of a kind. The Black Panthers made it evident that “they would do whatever it takes” in order to achieve these goals. They made this very prominent with their dress code. Their dress code consisted of a leather jacket with a blue shirt underneath but in their hands they would have loaded shotguns. They held the weapons not always as a threat but to show that they too are citizens of the United States and they too have the right to bare arms. Although the Black Panthers had their goals set since the beginning not everything stayed the same in the party. The main thing that changed after a year of the party being founded was women and their role. In the beginning this was an all males organization with no women in it. This started to change when more and more women wanted to get involved they opened the group to them. The Black Panthers did not stop there not only did the open the group up to women but they made it so women were then important players in this game. Women were public speakers for the party, they would go to the rallies and protests as well. Because of the big role that women played more and more women joined the group. After several thousands of women joining the party, they took another turn. The Party used to stand for only black men should be treated equal to a white man, they then changed it to both black men and women should be treated equal to white men and women. The last thing that made the Black Panther Party one of a kind was the sense of community that they had. Everyone that was apart of the party was also part of the community. This community that they established constantly would help out families who were in poverty. Two of the things that they created was a preschool for children for families that could not afford to pay for their child to go to preschool. And the other one being daily breakfasts. The Black Panthers would have a common area where they would set up breakfast lines to serve people food.