WHAT WAS THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY?


The Black Panther Party was a progressive political organization that stood in the vanguard of the most powerful movement for social change in America since the Revolution of 1776 and the Civil War: that dynamic episode generally referred to as The Sixties. It is the sole black organization in the entire history of black struggle against slavery and oppression in the United States that was armed and promoted a revolutionary agenda, and it represents the last great thrust by the mass of black people for equality, justice and freedom.

The Party's ideals and activities were so radical, it was at one time assailed by FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States." And, despite the demise of the Party, its history and lessons remain so challenging and controversial that established texts and media would erase all reference to the Party from American history.

The Black Panther Party was the manifestation of the vision of Huey P. Newton, the seventh son of a Louisiana family transplanted to Oakland, California. In October of 1966, in the wake of the assassination of black leader Malcolm X and on the heels of the massive black, urban uprising in Watts, California and at the height of the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Newton gathered a few of his longtime friends, including Bobby Seale and David Hilliard, and developed a skeletal outline for this organization. It was named, originally, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The black panther was used as the symbol because it was a powerful image, one that had been used effectively by the short*lived voting rights group the Lowndes County (Alabama) Freedom Organization. The term "self defense" was employed to distinguish the Party's philosophy from the dominant non*violent theme of the civil rights movement, and in homage to the civil rights group the Louisiana based Deacons for Defense. These two, symbolic references were, however, where all similarity between the Black Panther Party and other black organizations of the time, the civil rights groups and black power groups, ended.

Immediately, the leadership of the embryonic Party outlined a Ten Point Platform and Program (see the end of this article for full text). This Platform & Program articulated the fundamental wants and needs, and called for a redress of the long*standing grievances, of the black masses in America, still alienated from society and oppressed despite the abolition of slavery at the end of the Civil War. Moreover, this Platform & Program was a manifesto that demanded the express needs be met and oppression of blacks be ended immediately, a demand for the right to self defense, by a revolutionary ideology and by the commitment of the membership of the Black Panther Party to promote its agenda for fundamental change in America.

i will never for get the day they entered the state building in Sacramento, California armed. If caught them by surprise and it was legal, Huey Newton was a brilliant young man, but drugs got to him.

Huey was from Houma, La. The Panthers got much respect from the Oakland, Calif. Police department for a long while.

The Headquarters as on Telegraph Ave. in a bar called the Lamppost.

i dont think drugs got to him. the uncle toms and the goverment got to him and he got the death penalty for nonthing. he was a great just like malcolm x or dr martin luther king

huey was killed in a drug house....he was a wanted man no doubt...he shot a young prostitute on the streets of Oakland and fled to Cuba during the heights of the Panthers.

ELDRIGE CLEAVER FLED TO CUBA HUEY DIED IN JAIL.
THE FBI PLAYED a trick on the panthers and because eldride was telling that ended up in there fall.

troll alert!!!!!

ok troll alert i need help with what im tryna da for us. am i wrong?

what makes you think Huey died in prison and Eldrige went to
Cuba?

i read a book that i got from the library and it was called the black panther party writtin by gerranamo prat and thats what i read. im not saying im write but thats what i read. bring me to the light

huey died on the street. He not Eldridge fled to Cuba in I think it was '74.

wow brother where did you get that from? i read the book and eldrige cleaver was the one to snitch.

this is what you said:ELDRIGE CLEAVER FLED TO CUBA HUEY DIED IN JAIL.
THE FBI PLAYED a trick on the panthers and because eldride was telling that ended up in there fall.

you are correct that the police did play a trick on the panthers. they backed off them and allowed them to get into drugs wide open for two years and when they rolled up on them they had all the evidence necessary to convict them all.

i understand what you are saying. but i dont think the panthers or huey would go aganst what he stood for and aganst. you could be right im just tellin you what i read. and im tryna make a change.