Sunday, March 25, 2018
The Black Panthers
During the peak of the civil rights movement during the 1960's the political organization "The Black Panthers" was born. The group was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966, it's main focus was to challenge any police brutality against the African-American community. The party originally started in Oakland California, members were known to wear black berets and black leather jackets. During the peak of the organization, there were roughly 2,000 members. Members of the organization were trained to patrol the neighborhoods in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and even on the east coast. These men would walk around the neighborhood armed to ensure the safety of others. The Black Panthers were known to be violent and were involved in many firefights with law enforcement all over the country for many years. In 1967, founder Huey Newton was accused of killing and Oakland Police officer. After all the countless shootouts with law enforcement and FBI involvement, the group started to decline in numbers, and by the 1980's the group only had 27 active members, eventually diminishing the organization as a whole.
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I think it's interesting how the black panther party slowly died down towards the end of 60's. The government saw the potential of this political party and decided to take it on themselves to intervene and destroy the party. But I also feel like they're seen as a violent political party for wanting to be protected by people their community that they trusted vs the police force that works in favor of the U.S. government. Aside from arming themselves they also started programs like WIC which provides food for mothers and children. They provided food for children before school so they could go to school to focus in their education and not their next meal. They tried doing a lot of good for their communities, but it would all be torn down by people who didn't want black people to succeed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what she said above and that Black Panthers had on many of the Black communities they protected from the police. Building on what was said above is that they had on impact on not just wanting to distribute food to those that needed, but a lot of African Americans would get things from the Black Panthers that government wouldn't give to them. The Party offered tuberculosis testing, legal aid, transportation assistance, ambulance service, and the manufacture and distribution of free shoes something that many had not gotten from the government. The government would respond by doing some of these things for people as a response to the actions of the Black Panthers.
ReplyDeleteThe Black Panthers were also involved with the FBI. Their black nationalism made them a target by the FBI, who formed a program called COINTELPRO. The FBI declared the Black Panthers a communist organization and an enemy of the United States government. The FBI then worked to dismantle the Black Panthers by dismantling programs they were involved with. In 1968, Chicago police killed shot and killed two Black Panther members who were asleep in their apartment. Firefights between the police and the Black Panthers also occurred, and the number of members involved with the Black Panthers lessened until they officially disappeared in 1982.
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