Black Panther Party

"Black panthers" redirects here. For other uses, see Black panther (disambiguation).
For similarly named organisations, see Black panther (disambiguation) § Political organisations.

Black Panther Party
AbbreviationBPP
LeaderHuey P. Newton
Founded1966; 58 years ago (1966)
Dissolved1982; 42 years ago (1982)
HeadquartersOakland, California
NewspaperThe Black Panther
Membershipc. 5,000 (1969)[1]
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
Colors  Black
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The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California.[8][9][10] The party was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982, with chapters in many major American cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia.[11] They were also active in many prisons and had international chapters in the United Kingdom and Algeria.[12][13] Upon its inception, the party's core practice was its open carry patrols ("copwatching") designed to challenge the excessive force and misconduct of the Oakland Police Department. From 1969 onward, the party created social programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, education programs, and community health clinics.[14][15][16][17] The Black Panther Party advocated for class struggle, claiming to represent the proletarian vanguard.[18]

In 1969, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), described the party as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country."[19][20][21] The FBI sabotaged the party with an illegal and covert counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) of surveillance, infiltration, perjury, and police harassment, all designed to undermine and criminalize the party. The FBI was involved in the 1969 assassinations of Fred Hampton[22][23] and Mark Clark, who were killed in a raid by the Chicago Police Department.[24][25][26][27] Black Panther Party members were involved in many fatal firefights with police. Huey Newton allegedly killed officer John Frey in 1967, and Eldridge Cleaver (Minister of Information) led an ambush in 1968 of Oakland police officers, in which two officers were wounded and Panther treasurer Bobby Hutton was killed. The party suffered many internal conflicts, resulting in the murder of Alex Rackley.

Government persecution initially contributed to the party's growth among African Americans and the political left, who both valued the party as a powerful force against de facto segregation and the US military draft during the Vietnam War. Party membership peaked in 1970 and gradually declined over the next decade, due to vilification by the mainstream press and infighting largely fomented by COINTELPRO.[28] Support further declined over reports of the party's alleged criminal activities, such as drug dealing and extortion.[29]

The party's history is controversial. Scholars have characterized the Black Panther Party as the most influential black power organization of the late 1960s, and "the strongest link between the domestic Black Liberation Struggle and global opponents of American imperialism".[30] Other scholars have described the party as more criminal than political, characterized by "defiant posturing over substance".[31]

  1. ^ Delli Carpini, Michael X. (2000). "Black Panther Party: 1966–1982". Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved June 11, 2019. While the exact size of the party is difficult to determine,the best estimates are that at its peak in 1969, the Black Panthers had as many as 5,000 members and between thirty-four and forty local chapters in the United States.
  2. ^ "Black Panthers". Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2020. The Black Panthers were part of the larger Black Power movement, which emphasized black pride, community control and unification for civil rights.
  3. ^ Cleaver, Eldridge (1967). On The Ideology of the Black Panther Party (Part 1) (PDF). Black Panther Party Ministry of Information. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 16, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  4. ^ Austin 2006, p. 170
  5. ^ ""Concrete Analysis of Concrete Conditions": A Study of the Relationship between the Black Panther Party and Maoism Relationship between the Black Panther Party and Maoism". p. 29. Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  6. ^ "Intercommunalism (1974)". June 11, 2018. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  7. ^ "Intercommunalism: The Late Theorizations of Huey P. Newton". June 11, 2018. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  8. ^ Joseph 2006, p. 219
  9. ^ Van Deburg, William L. (1992). New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965–1975. University of Chicago Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-0226847146.
  10. ^ "October 15, 1966: The Black Panther Party Is Founded". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  11. ^ "Mapping the Black Panther Party in Key Cities". Mapping American Social Movements. Archived from the original on January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2017.
  12. ^ Brown, Mark (December 27, 2013). "Britain's black power movement is at risk of being forgotten, say historians". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  13. ^ Meghelli, Samir (2009), "From Harlem to Algiers: Transnational Solidarities Between the African American Freedom Movement and Algeria, 1962–1978", in Marable, Manning (ed.), Black Routes to Islam, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 99–119
  14. ^ Pearson 1994, p. 152
  15. ^ Bloom & Martin 2013, chapter 7
  16. ^ Nelson, Alondra (2011). Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination. University of Minnesota Press.
  17. ^ Austin 2006; Bloom & Martin 2013; Murch 2010; Joseph 2006
  18. ^ Haas 2009, p. 41.
  19. ^ "Hoover and the F.B.I." Luna Ray Films, LLC. PBS. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  20. ^ "Hoover Calls Panthers Top Threat to Security". The Washington Post. WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. July 16, 1969. ProQuest 147638465.
  21. ^ "Panthers 'threaten' U.S., Hoover says". Afro-American. Afro – American Company of Baltimore City. July 26, 1969. ProQuest 532216174.
  22. ^ Stubblefield, Anna (2018). Ethics Along the Color Line. Cornell University Press. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-1501717703.
  23. ^ Williams, Jakobi (2013). From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago. University of North Carolina Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0807838167. JSTOR 10.5149/9781469608167_williams.
  24. ^ Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate. Archived February 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  25. ^ O'Reilly, Kenneth (1989). Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960–1972. Free Press. ISBN 978-0029236819.
  26. ^ Churchill and Vander Wall (2002). The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States. South End Press.
  27. ^ Haas, Jeffrey (2010). The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. Chicago Review Press.
  28. ^ Bloom & Martin 2013, conclusion
  29. ^ Philip Foner, The Black Panthers Speak, Da Capo Press, 2002.
  30. ^ Bloom & Martin 2013, p. 3
  31. ^ Pearson 1994, p. 340