In 1966, two Black college students, frustrated with the lack of actual progress in the civil rights movement, joined together in founding an organization that would make a fundamental change in their community and Black communities throughout the United States. However, this is not to say they were without controversy. Keep reading to learn about the troubled history of the Black Panther Party and its founders, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
The Black Panther Party History: Founded in 1966
In 1961, the founders of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, met at Merritt College in Oakland, California. Together, they protested Merritt College's celebration of Pioneer Day for failing to acknowledge Black settlers. They also founded the Negro History Fact Group, a club at their school that advocated for introducing Black history classes. Their crowning achievement, however, was their creation of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in October of 1966.
Fig. 1 - Huey P. Newton
Initially, the Black Panther Party's main focus was protecting Black citizens from police brutality. Newton and Seale organized armed neighborhood watch groups to patrol Black neighborhoods, and members became known for their paramilitary outfits consisting of black berets and leather jackets. However, the goals of the Black Panther Party did not end with these patrol groups, so in 1967, the organization dropped the 'for Self-Defense' from its name.
Fig. 3 - Bobby Seale
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were already in place when Newton and Seale founded the Black Panther Party.
- Unfortunately, enforcement remained a significant issue, and many Black Americans were frustrated with the lack of actual progress.
- This frustration culminated in riots in urban centers across the country and demands for a more militant approach.
- The more militant approach appealed to the founders of the Black Panther Party.
The Black Panther Party: Rise in Popularity
In May of 1967, members of the Black Panther Party marched to the California state legislature in Sacramento armed with guns to protest proposed gun control legislation. The Mulford Act would challenge the legality of their armed patrols, and members saw the act as a direct attack. While the Mulford Act was ultimately passed, the Black Panther Party's march caught national and international attention. Soon, 48 states had their chapter, as did countries as far away as Japan and Mozambique.
The Black Panther Party: Controversies
While the Black Panther Party had a significant, positive impact on Black communities through survival programs, many Americans feared their militancy. It did not help that members–and leaders–of the Black Panther Party had frequent confrontations with police officers. For example, in 1968, a jury sentenced Huey P. Newton to two to fifteen years for killing an Oakland police officer, John Frey. While the courts later overturned his conviction, the negative publicity could not be undone.
It is essential to understand that members of the Black Panther Party were frequent targets of police violence, and often these members only acted in self-defense.
Fig. 3 - Black Panther Party demonstration
The Black Panther Party and the FBI
The Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." - FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover 1
In response to perceived domestic threats, the FBI established COINTELPRO in 1967. It was an illegal counterintelligence program aimed at disrupting the activities of specific political organizations in America. One of the primary targets was the growing number of Black nationalist groups, which the FBI deemed hate groups. Focusing on the Black Panther Party, the FBI worked to exploit existing tensions within the organization and between the Black Panther Party and other black nationalist organizations. They also tried to undermine the positive impact of the Black Panther Party's survival programs.
The FBI, however, did much more than cause rifts in the Black Power movement or undermine programs. In 1969, the FBI helped organize a raid on the house of Illinois Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Chicago. Taken by surprise, both Fred Hampton and his associate, Mark Clark, died in the attack, which was essentially an assassination.
The Black Panther Party: Decline in Popularity
By the mid-1970s, the Black Panther Party had lost much of its following and power. As we'll look at in the next section, many leaders of the Black Panther Party found themselves in legal trouble, which shook the foundations of the organization. Internal division and strife with other black nationalist groups played a significant role.
The Black Panther Party Ideology
The Black Panther Party was a militant Black nationalist group aligned with the Black Power movement. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale looked to the ideology of Malcolm X and his emphasis on Black pride and self-help in their creation of patrols and survival programs (more on these later). Rarer for Black nationalist groups of the time, the Black Panther Party drew from Marxism and Leninism, believing that capitalism and economic exploitation led to oppression. The Black Panther Party was also unique among other Black nationalist groups for their willingness to work with white society, particularly other leftist groups.
Fig. 4 - Malcolm X
The Black Panther Party Goals: The Ten-Point Program
But what were the goals of the Black Panther Party? Lucky for us, Newton and Seale wrote the Ten-Point Program, which listed all of their dreams:
We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black community.
We want full employment for our people.
We want an end to the robbery by the White man of our Black community.
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 education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day 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 freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county, and city prisons and jails.
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." 2
Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale canvassed Black neighborhoods to ensure they fully addressed their needs in the Ten-Point Program.
The Black Panther Party and Survival Programs
As we discussed earlier, the Black Panther Party believed in Black self-reliance and created programs in Black communities to help those at a disadvantage. These programs included:
The Free Breakfast for Children Program was a particularly effective program the Black Panther Party set into motion. The federal government implemented a similar program and, partly due to the success of the Black Panther Party's agenda, made it permanent across the states in 1975.
The Black Panther Party Leaders
Let's look at the founders of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale.
The Black Panther Party Leaders: Huey P. Newton
Huey P. Newton was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party and took on the role of Minister of Defense after its establishment. He served in this position briefly before being convicted of shooting a police officer in 1968. Although the courts overturned the conviction in 1970, he faced more legal troubles in the following years. In 1982, it came to light that Newton had been embezzling money from a Black Panther Party school, and as a result, he disbanded the organization. In his later years, Newton battled with addiction, and in 1989, a drug dealer took his life on the streets of Oakland.
The Black Panther Party Leaders: Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale was the other founder of the Black Panther Party. And just like his counterpart, he faced legal trouble quite soon after establishing the organization. In 1969, he began a four-year prison sentence for conspiracy to incite a riot at the Democratic National Convention. And while still in prison, he narrowly escaped a murder conviction surrounding the death of an informant in the Black Panther Party. After his release from prison. Seale stepped away from the more militant aspects of the Black Panther Party, instead focusing on ways to work within the system.
Important People in the Black Panther Party
Now that we know the founders let's review some critical people in the Black Panther Party.
Important People in the Black Panther Party: Eldridge Cleaver
Fig. 5 - Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver served as the Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party. In 1968, he published Soul on Ice, a memoir and collection of essays that positioned him as a leading spokesperson in the more radical fight for civil rights. Also, in 1968, however, Eldridge Cleaver was involved in a shoot-out with police that left two officers injured. While on bail for the crime, Cleaver fled the country, first going to Cuba, then Algiers. He left the Black Panther Party in 1971 and returned to the United States in 1975 as a born-again Christian and Republican.
Important People in the Black Panther Party: Fred Hampton
As we noted earlier, Fred Hampton was the Illinois head of the Black Panther Party that the FBI and Chicago police essentially assassinated in 1969. Before his death, however, he played a significant role in the Black Panther Party. He was responsible for establishing several survival programs, including health clinics and political education classes. He also helped form a nonaggression pact between Chicago gangs.
Black Panther Party Women
There were a significant number of women in the Black Panther Party, and many held leadership positions as the organization advocated for gender equality. Of course, this is not to say women did not experience any discrimination, but many women played significant roles. For example, Kathleen Cleaver, wife of Eldridge Cleaver, took on the part of Communications Secretary in late 1967. Many women-led local chapters instituted and organized survival programs on a smaller scale.
Women of the Black Panther Party often resisted the norms of white American beauty in favor of displaying their heritage.
Black Panther Party - Key takeaways
- In 1966, Merritt College students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party, a militant Black nationalist organization.
- Newton and Seale drew inspiration from Malcolm X and Marxism and Leninism, believing capitalism led to economic exploitation and oppression. They outlined their goals in the Ten-Point Program.
- They initially focused on neighborhood watch groups to protect against police violence but soon expanded their scope to cover various community needs through survival programs.
- The Black Panther Party exploded in popularity following an armed march to the California state legislature protesting a proposed gun control legislation.
- Many Americans were frightened by their militancy, and the FBI targeted the organization via an illegal counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO.
- Repeated arrests and confrontations with the police, differences in ideologies with other Black nationalist groups, and internal strife led to the Black Panther Party declining in power.
References
- ‘J. Edgar Hoover: Black Panther Greatest Threat to U.S. Security’, United Press International (July 16, 1969).
- Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, ‘Ten-Point Program’, The Black Panther (May 15, 1967).
- Fig. 3. - Black Panther Party Demonstration (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Panther_demonstration.jpg) by CIR Online (https://www.flickr.com/photos/californiawatch/) licensed by CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
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