Black Panther Research Paper

Rodriguez 1 Daniel Rodriguez Mr. Metro H US History 29 April 2009 Black Panthers

The Black Panthers were a group of African-Americans established to promote Black Power and self-defense through acts of communal protest. Founded in Oakland, California, by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton on October 15, 1966, the organization originally set forth a principle calling for the protection of African American neighborhoods from police brutality, in the interest of African-American justice. Due to the police brutality against the many actions of the Black Panther Party during the late 60s and early 70s, the Black Panthers struggled to continue their meetings and protests; they did not succeed in achieving their goals, however without them the United Sates might not have ever reached a definite resolution in the fight for civil liberties. Police brutality played a major role in keeping the Panthers from reaching their success. Local police departments began to increase their violent attacks against the Panthers. “August 1967, FBI started to hang around the party members” (Van Peebles 75). Clearly at this point the police was already keeping an eye on the party only one year upon their initiation. On March 4th 1968, the FBI plunged into a group of Panthers (Van Peebles 75). The Black Panthers were forced to continue with their actions even with police repression. J. Edgar Hoover, the head director of the FBI issued a memo outlining the staff’s goals: “1. Prevent coalition of militant black nationalists groups. In unity there is strength...black

Rodriguez 2 nationalists groups might be the first step toward a real Mau Mau. 2. Prevent the rise of a Messiah who would unify and electrify the Black Nationalists movement” (Van Peebles 75). Hoover is stating that the ultimate goal of the FBI was to just keep African Americans separated and unable unify. “…to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalists hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters” (Wolf, ”COINTELPRO”). The FBI doesn’t even want the groups to form. Both Seale and Newton were both imprisoned many times throughout the Black Panther Party’s ten year lifetime. On March of 1968, Arthur Morris, Bunchy Carter’s brother, along with being the very first member of the Black Panther Party was shot and killed by some United States government agents for no apparent reason other than being a Black Panther Party member. In that same month, Anthony Coltrale, another Panther member was assassinated by a Los Angeles Police Department officer in Watts. On December 4th 1969, Chicago police assassinated two very important Panther members, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. Both the FBI and local police departments cooperated in extreme and even illegal actions, like raids on the homes of Panther leaders that sometimes did result in deaths. The police of Birmingham, Alabama went as far as to openly work with Ku Klux Klan members to try and maintain the Black Panthers under control. “Out of the 661 members of the Oakland Police Department only 16 were African American. This lead members of the Black Panthers to believe that the police department had some serious issues when it came to African Americans (MIA).” Although the slight integration of the police, they were integrating for all the wrong reasons. African Americans were being used in the Police Forces to spy on the Black Panthers and gain knowledge of future Black Panther actions.

Rodriguez 3 Of course, members of the Party rapidly caught on to the Police’s ideals. As a result of this, by the end of 1972 at least four African Americans were killed. H. Rap Brown, who is currently serving life in prison, was a prominent Black Panther Party member. He murdered a Georgian’s Sheriff Deputy and wounded another officer, both sheriff and officer being of African American decent. Police harassment and internal problems took a massive toll on the Black Panthers and it indeed restrained them from achieving their goals. At this point the Black Panther Party was at a critical stage having lost four important members within three years of the party’s lifetime. The party desperately needed a meeting place; somewhere they could gather and communicate amongst each other about their plans of action. Father Earl A. Neil, the Panther’s cleric guided the Black Panther Party through it’s Free Breakfast for Children Program at St. Augustine church. Neil believed that the Black Panther Party had “the most incisive analysis and response to the scene in America” (Van Peebles 99). Neil offered Newton his church as a meeting place for the Panthers. Due to the offering of his church, Father Neil became targeted by policemen and other federal agents. Multiple armed Police units moved in on the church, surrounding it on April 3, 1968. This was extremely unfortunate for the Black Panther Party because they were in the middle of a meeting with other members. The Police, accompanied with a white catholic priest and a black clergyman entered the church. However, David Hilliard, who at the time was the highest ranked Black Panther Party member present, refused to allow the Police to enter the sanctuary, therefore waving a red flag of suspicion towards the Black Panther Party, David Hilliard in particular. Even though being in the Black Panthers was extremely dangerous, that was not a factor maintaining people from joining the party. The Black Panthers was an organization that ranked among the most militant in the counterculture in fighting for the black power movement and a

Rodriguez 4 socialist program. “The party aimed to gain complete control of the institutions in the community.” (Van Peebles 75) The Black Panthers were aiming to achieve the total control of all the institutions in the community. By late 1968 the Black Panthers were armed with members who were eager to apply various points of their 10-Point Program. The Black Panthers hoped their programs would have a threefold effect. “Meet the immediate needs of the citizens the pledged to serve; inspire the African American community to take up guns to defend the programs; and demonstrate that the party did so much with so little while the government did so little with so much” (Van Peebles 99). The first program, which was to meet the immediate needs of the citizens pledged to serve, means that the people who are willing to serve the Panthers were given their needs first. The second program was used to inspire African Americans to pick up guns to defend the programs sent out a message to the African Americans to try and defend the programs so that they can last. The final program was just a demonstration of how the white government had everything they needed and more, but only did so little with it, while the Black Panther Party had so little, but did so much with that little that they had. These programs also untied the party from criticism of no valid actions. After the turbulent 1960s, the Panthers lost much of their popular support, and their power waned. Some members turned to more conformist methods of political action, while others longed for the combative days. Bobby Seale resigned his place in the Black Panther Party. In 1990 Newton was killed in Oakland while buying crack cocaine. In 1992 former panther Bobby Rush won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the first Illinois Congressional District. The Black Panthers never achieved their goals.

Rodriguez 5 Works Cited Van Peebles, Mario, Ula Y. Taylor, and J Tarika Lewis. Panther. New York: New Market Press,1995. “Black Panthers.” American History. 2009. ABC-CLIO. Hamilton High School, Los Angeles, California. 26 Apr. 2009 . “Bobby Seale.” American History. 2009. ABC-CLIO. Hamilton High School, Los Angeles, California. 26 Apr. 2009 . “Huey Newton.” American History. 2009. ABC-CLIO. Hamilton High School, Los Angeles, California. 26 Apr. 2009 . Wikipedia. 26 Apr. 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 23 March 2009 . Spartacus Educational. School Net. 23 Mar. 2009 . Stockdale, Nancy L. “endangered civil liberties.” American History. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 14 Apr. 2009 . “Black Power Movement.” American History. 2009. ABC-CLIO.14 Apr. 2009 .

COINTELPRO -- Black Nationalist Hate Groups. 2004. Wolf, Paul. 26 Apr. 2009 . MIA: History: USA: The Black Panther Party. 2002. Basgen, Brian. 29 Apr. 2009 < http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/>.