In the late 1960’s, the Black Panther Party emerged from within the Black Power Movement to combat the social decay of the Black communities. They rejected King’s strategy of non-violent resistance and adopted Malcolm X’s ideology that oppressed Blacks should resist the oppressive White American power structure by any means necessary.

The Black Panther Party was an organization that arose in the tumultuous times of the Black Power movement and gained rapid momentum in the late 1960’s. According to David Burner, the Black Panther Party “was a disaster. It muddled the civil rights. It seriously diminished the support, or at least acquiescence, of the white community that black progress required.” What Burner considered to be a disaster was only a disaster in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. But the Black Panthers were not striving to follow the path of the Civil Rights Movement. Whereas Burner believes “Integration of the schools promised an improvement in the education of black children,” the Black Panthers did not desire the Euro-centric education that ran rampant in these integrated schools for their children (nor did they want their communities to be run by White bankers, White slumlords, and White police officers).

According to Huey Newton, “on the campus we were being miseducated; we had no courses dealing with our real needs and problems, courses that taught us how to survive.” The Black Panthers thus decided they would have to attain community control and improve the communities based upon an Afro-centric approach. It was apparent that the situation of Blacks was not improving in the hands of the U.S. government therefore the only solution was separatism.

The Black Panther Party was created by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 in Oakland, California and would last until 1982 although the last years were radically different than the initial years. Newton and Seale had initially attempted to find a militant organization on their campus at Merritt College. They joined the Soul Students Advisory (SSAC) and Organization of Afro-American Unity but were quickly disillusioned with the members because most opposed the idea of armed self-defense. Newton and Seale subsequently decided to form an organization based in the Black ghetto whereas they would protect the people from the brutality of the police and resort to violent confrontation only when it was absolutely necessary. They complied with the laws and kept their guns visible at all times while patrolling the police which unfortunately gave them the appearance of the aggressors. The Federal Bureau of Investigation would later effectively use this careless brandishing of weapons against them. Newton and Seale came up with the following ten-point platform as the only plausible solution available to improve the plight of the Black communities:

“1) freedom or power to determine the destiny of the
black community; 2) full employment of black people;
3) an end of robbery by white men of the black community;
4) decent housing; 5) education that exposes the true
nature of the American society; 6) the exemption of all
black men from military service; 7) an end of police
brutality to black people and murders of black people
by police officers; 8) the freedom of all black men held
in federal, state, county, and city prisons and jails; 9)
that black people have the privilege of being tried in courts
by juries of their peers (people from their black communities)
as defined by the Constitution of the United States; and 10)
the possession of land, bread, housing, education, justice,
and peace.”

Although their ten-point platform was broad, the media reported solely on their use of violence essentially criminalizing them in the eyes of the public.

This newly formed organization would be called the Black Panther Party because the panther is a vicious animal but will only attack when provoked. After the ten-point platform was written (Newton claims it took twenty minutes to create the platform), Newton and Seale entered the Black communities and asked the people what they were willing to do to gain their freedom. The people supported armed self-defense as a response to the police harassment but were skeptical that it would actually work. Newton and Seale thus set out to prove that armed self-defense would eradicate the communities of the rampant police brutality that the people were forced to endure. At first, the Black communities were skeptical about the BPP and they were won over only when they saw that armed self-defense actually worked.

Newton and Seale developed armed patrols to watch over the conduct of police officers insuring they did not violate anybody’s constitutional rights. The Panthers openly brandished their guns in one hand while holding a law book in the other. This infuriated the police because they were completely helpless to do anything. In order to conceptualize the police officers as the enemies, the BPP attempted to come up with a derogatory term for them. The most popular suggestion was "dogs" but this term did not catch on. Huey Newton then suggested calling them "pigs" and this term caught on quickly. The police officers attempted to counter act this ingenious form of psychological warfare by wearing pins that read "proud to be a pig" but despite their attempts, the term has stuck to this day. The result of this service was that the incidents of police brutality decreased dramatically while the repression of the BPP increased dramatically. The BPP countered the attacks by removing the membership records from their offices so that the police would not know whom to target specifically.

After the success of the armed patrols was demonstrated, the membership of the BPP skyrocketed. The most progressive aspect of the armed patrols was that “the Black Panthers were…always required to keep their activities within legal bounds.” Although the BPP openly promoted a socialist revolution that would eventually culminate in the overthrow of the U.S. government, they were realistic in their methods. Newton and Seale were college educated and had read varying accounts of socialist revolutions. They culminated their thoughts and came to the conclusion that the only way they would ever be successful was if they gained the support of the Black masses. The BPP was thus a revolutionary organization that was constantly concerned with gaining support for a forthcoming revolution in America. They however understood that to gain this support it was essential that they show the masses that change was possible facilitating violent methods rather than non-violent methods.

The BPP by 1968, made it a requirement that all members must acquire adequate munitions to defend themselves and their families. The BPP held weapons-training classes and openly engaged in drills at public parks (although most of their training took place in the Mohave desert). The BPP also trained their members in guerrilla warfare and recognized the strong influence of such revolutionaries as Che Guevara, Mao Tse-Tung, Fidel Castro, and Ho Chi Minh. The BPP was in actuality a Socialist organization (leaning towards a Marxist-Leninist orientation) that supported a violent revolution to overthrow the U.S. that they predicted would come in the future. Huey Newton developed the theory of Intercommunalism whereas he stated that because of U.S. imperialism, nations no longer exist. Therefore the only solution to combat capitalism was for all people of the world to unite as one force in a global revolution against the U.S. and disregard nationalism. The BPP agreed however that for this revolution to succeed, “it was necessary for Black, white, Hispanic, Native American, and Oriental people to come together to fight.” This is an important fact because it illustrates that the BPP was not a racist organization but in fact believed in the unity of all races to fight against capitalism.

Because of the BPP’s Socialist orientation, the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China were all forced to take a decisive stance. Fidel Castro openly proclaimed his full support of a Black insurrection in the U.S. and took provocative steps to show that he was not bluffing (Castro welcomed escaped BPP political prisoners such as Assata Shakur into Cuba and his support continues to this day). China responded by inviting Huey Newton to the country in order so that he could see how their nation was developing. The Soviet Union however was not ready to make such a commitment in the midst of the tense Cold War and remained silent on the subject. The Guevarists (Socialists who subscribed to Che Guevara’s foco theory which stated that the revolution should spread throughout Latin American eventually reaching the U.S.) were especially hopeful that this revolution would begin with the Black radicals and bring with it the liberation of Latin America.

The interesting aspect of the BPP’s internationalist stance was that “international revolutionary organizations took the promise of America black nationalists and revolutionary groups seriously and often initiated contact with…the BPP for support.” In fact, in 1971 during the Vietnam War, the Vietcong sent an urgent comminique requesting a mobilization of a BPP peace force to assist them in defending against the U.S. invasion of Laos. BPP Communications Secretary Kathleen Cleaver was audacious enough to warn West German officials that a People’s Army was forming which would eventually overrun West Germany and the U.S. The BPP even attempted to make an alliance with the Front du Liberation de Quebec (QLF), a revolutionary group in Canada (the F.B.I. however working with an anti-terrorist squad of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police prevented the alliance from materializing).

Aside from their aggressive militaristic orientation, the BPP also managed to implement many efficient social programs that successfully improved the conditions of many Black communities. The main reason people offered such strong support to the BPP was precisely because of their “serve the people” programs. These programs included such services as free breakfast for school children, free health care, free clothing, sickle cell anemia research, free housing, free shoes, free pest control, free plumbing and maintenance, and a free ambulance program.

According to Huey Newton, these Survival Programs “were designed to help the people survive until their consciousness is raised, which is only the first step in the revolution to produce a new America.” It is true that the Party promoted violence to be used against oppressors who facilitated violent means themselves. But this was not the main focus of the Party however and the BPP remained devoted to improving the conditions of the Black communities and that is exactly what it accomplished. Because of the media’s emphasis on the violent nature of the BPP, “quite a few [members] joined thinking the Party was going to issue them a gun and direct them to go and shoot pigs.” If of course the media would have publicized the Survival Programs, the BPP probably would have received national support for their work.

The most effective Survival Program was the Free Breakfast for School Children. The BPP implemented this service to school children who were too poor to have breakfast every morning before school. The breakfast consisted of eggs, grits, toast, and bacon. The service was held in local churches while the food was provided by local grocery stores as donations. In August 1971, the BPP boycotted Bill Boyette’s liquor store in Oakland because he refused to donate food to the free breakfast program. The boycott ended in January 1972 only when Congressman Ronald Dellums negotiated a compromise. It is obvious that at least some of the participating stores were intimidated into donating food to the organization through such actions as boycotts. An outgrowth of the free breakfast service culminated in 1972 at a community survival conference where the Black Panthers distributed more than 10,000 free bags of groceries in a three-day affair.

Another successful Survival Program was Seniors Against a Fearful Environment (SAFE). This service was first implemented to escort senior citizens to the bank to cash their pension checks. This program was especially important because a group of seniors approached the BPP themselves asking for protection from muggers notorious for stealing money from the seniors upon leaving the banks. Seale announced a demand that muggers stop these acts and called upon them to support the program and look out for the welfare of elderly citizens. Shortly thereafter, “many of the brothers who were burglarizing and participating in similar pursuits began to contribute weapons and material to community defense.” SAFE also successfully lobbied the Oakland Housing Authority to repair and clean a low-income residence for seniors.

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale realized that while they had sufficient support at the community level (with the obvious success of their Survival Programs and police patrolling), they lacked administrative skills to run what had quickly become a national organization. In 1967 they made an important move when they effectively merged with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while recruiting key figures such as Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, James Forman, and Eldridge Cleaver to the Party infrastructure. This move increased BPP popularity as the new recruits were national and international celebrities. Newton and Seale were quickly disillusioned with these new recruits however when they realized that Carmichael supported a race war while Cleaver was a cultural nationalist.

In 1967, the BPP was hit with a devastating blow: Huey Newton was shot and charged with killing a police officer. Soon after, Bobby Seale was also arrested. The BPP was thus left in the hands of reactionary racists who were not willing to follow the ideology of the party. According to Huey Newton, “under the influence of Eldridge Cleaver, it had lost sight of its initial purpose and became caught up in irrelevant causes.” Cleaver had abandoned the Survival Programs altogether and focused his time on working on a new constitution that the U.S. would be forced to adopt after a successful revolution. Instead of focusing on class struggle, Cleaver believed Blacks should adopt African culture and use it as a catalyst for a race war in America.

Cleaver was the leader of the BPP for four years during which most of the inflammatory remarks and actions took place. At one point Cleaver wrote an article in the BPP newspaper detailing the murder of police officers: “A dead pig is desirable, but a paralyzed pig is preferable to a mobile pig…in order to stop the slaughter of the people we must accelerate the slaughter of the pigs.” This of course went against everything the BPP stood for because Newton and Seale promoted violence only when it was necessary for defensive purposes. In late 1971 and early 1972, Newton and Seale were released from prison (acquitted of all charges) and regained control of the BPP. It was however too late to regain the reputation the party once had because few people knew of the internal strife and most assumed every statement and action represented the BPP as a whole. Eldridge Cleaver managed to gain control of the East Coast BPP chapters while Newton and Seale maintained control of the West Coast BPP chapters. This is evident with the rapid emergence of members with African names in the East Coast chapters.

J. Edgar Hoover declared in 1968 that the BPP was the “greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” It is only after the F.B.I. began their relentless assault that the BPP escalated the use of violent self-defense in order to defend the organization. Assata Shakur left the BPP after becoming disillusioned with the bitter divisions between the West Coast and East Coast factions. She believed Huey Newton was becoming drunk with power and reveled at his self-appointed titles such as “Supreme Commander” and “Supreme Servant.” But she had no way of knowing that “the FBI’s COINTELPRO was attempting to destroy the Black Panther Party in particular and the Black Liberation Movement in general, using divide-and-conquer tactics.”

Indeed the Counter Intelligence Program was extremely effective in fabricating accusations and threats that divided the BPP into two factions. The West Coast faction was led by Huey Newton while the East Coast faction was to be led by Eldridge Cleaver. The division was exacerbated when Huey Newton’s brother received a letter detailing a fictional plot of the New York BPP to murder him and seize national power. No one could have known however that the letter was written by an FBI agent and not “a concerned brother.”

The F.B.I. knew there was considerable strife already present within the organization and they simply intensified this rift to further damage the BPP. To make matters worse, Huey Newton was spiraling out of control because of his development of a serious alcohol and drug addiction (many theorists have proposed that the F.B.I. induced this addiction during Newton's prison term). To support his addiction, Huey began embezzling the Party money which was being raised by the national chapters. When it was discovered that Huey Newton was living in a 650-a-month penthouse, the national chapters were outraged. He also killed a prostitute and fled to Cuba (when he returned to the U.S., he was acquitted of the charge). Several party members later claimed that Newton beat them. Huey Newton was the symbol of the party and with his demise, the party did not last very long thereafter.

In the beginning “standard cointelpro techniques included telephone interception, monitoring shipments of the Black Panther and close surveillance of meetings, rallies, headquarters and individuals.” These relatively harmless tactics eventually gave way to a vicious onslaught of unsolicited arrests and murders. The FBI decided they would have to get rid of the leadership in order to finally destroy the BPP. Such talented leaders as Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were assassinated by police officers that had the crucial assistance of infiltrators working on the inside. Hampton and Clark were assassinated as they slept thanks to the detailed floor plan the infiltrator William O’Neal (who managed to become Hampton’s bodyguard and chief of BPP security) had made for the police.

Everyone who was ever associated with the BPP became targets and the FBI quickly arrested as many people as they could while charging them with ridiculous crimes. Geronimo Pratt was arrested for murdering a white woman at a tennis court. The FBI didn’t allow the witnesses who were with Pratt at the time to testify in his defense however and he was convicted. Assata Shakur was arrested for murdering a police officer. Although the medical reports proved she was wounded before the death of the officer and could not have pulled the trigger, she too was convicted. Countless arrests of this dubious nature were made in ever increasing numbers which ravaged the BPP on a national level.

The BPP was never to recover from the internal strife and the relentless COINTELPRO attack and in the 1970’s was forced to take a more conservative approach that was not effective on the level it had once been. Between the years of 1968 and 1971, 29 member deaths were F.B.I. induced. In 1969 alone, the F.B.I. most often with the assistance of local police conducted thirty-one raids on party offices in eleven different states. Bobby Seale resigned in 1974, marking the end of the BPP as an effective organization. Just four years later, there would be only 24 members remaining compared to a high of 5,000 members.
The most intriguing aspect of the Black Panther Party is that the most productive period was the first few years of its existence. The success of the party was so rapid and unexpected that it could barely handle the thousands of new recruits that were pouring into the national offices. This fragile infrastructure would never stabilize and when the F.B.I. escalated its attacks through the counterintellegence program, it exacerbated this vulnerability to the eventual point of complete devastation. Despite its radical Socialist slant, the Party effectively assisted the Black communities through their Survival Programs. Although the legacy of the Black Panther Party will probably forever be shrouded behind negative propaganda, it cannot be denied that it successfully liberated the black communities if only for a short period.

Burner, David. Making Peace With The 60’s. New Jersey; Princeton University Press, 1996.

Churchill, Ward and Vander Wall, Jim. The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Domestic Dissent. Boston; South End Press, 1990.

Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul On Ice. New York; Delta Books, 1968.

Cleaver, Kathleen and Katsiaficas, George, ed. Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party: A New Look at the Panthers and Their Legacy. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Cockburn, Alexander. “The fate of the Black Panthers: Black Panthers infiltrated by the F.B.I.; Beat by the Devil.” The Nation (July 2nd, 1990): 6.

Harris, Jessica. “Revolutionary Black Nationalism: The Black Panther Party”. The Journal of Negro History 85 (Summer 2000): 162.

Jones, Charles, ed. The Black Panther Party: Reconsidered. Baltimore; Black Classic Press, 1998.

Newton, Huey. Revolutionary Suicide. New York; Writers and Readers, 1973.

Perkus, Cathy, ed. COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom. New York; Monad Press, 1975.

Shakur, Assata. Assata: An Autobiography. Chicago; Lawrence Hill Books, 1987.

Williams, Yohuru. “American exported Black Nationalism: The Student Coordinating
Committee, the Black Panther Party, and the Worldwide Freedom Struggle, 1967-1972.” Negro History Bulletin 3 (July-September 1997): 13.