With the reigniting of the Black Panther moment as a result of the Black panther movie I can’t help but think about the history of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in Oakland, CA the same city where Ryan Coogler, young black director of the Black Panther movie, was from. The Black Panther is an iconic symbol in the Black communtiy, one that represents self-determination and social responsibility. Like the Black Panther superhero, the party was dedicated to the well being his community.
After the assassination of Malcom X and the murder of Matthew Johnson, an unarmed teen, by police in San Fransico, Real life heroes, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, founded the party in response to police brutality against Blacks organizing armed petrols of citizens throughout Oakland and other cities across the country. They met while students at Merritt College in 1961 while organizing the Negro Fact Group which called on the school to offer Black History classes. In addition to providing militant support of their vulnerable community the Panthers also instituted a variety of communtiy programs ranging from free food programs like the Community Pantry and Breakfast for Children program; healthcare like the free ambulance and dental program; as well as classes from Drama to GED classes. They were pioneers offering dozens of classes, programs and services that were free for the benefit of their community, many of which have been replicated by many institutions across the country today with no credit to its originators.
Because of their militant force within the Black community the Panthers were heavily targeted by state forces as terrorist groups, a label that the government was hesitant to put on the KKK. In 1967 founder, Huey Newton, was framed for the murder of police officer John Frey, charged with 1st degree murder, convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The case raised the Party to worldwide prominence and elevated Newton to a revolutionary icon. After three years of rallies and protests across the continent under the banner of “Free Huey”, he was finally released. After Newton’s release the state did not stop trying to destabilize the group. Their socialist agenda to liberate the Black community made them a target of COINTELPRO, a secret FBI counterintelligence group and by 1969 the party was declared a communist threat and enemy of the U.S. government. In 1968 J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s director at the time referred to the Black Panthers as, “One of the greatest threats to the nation’s internal security”. They aimed to undermine the group’s leaders and programs by exploiting rivalries between nationalist groups. Later that year the Chicago police gunned down the Black Panther’s apartment in a early morning raid in the middle of the night murdering Fred Hampton (21) and Mark Clark (22). Hampton was a dynamic leader, speaker and community organizer, a devastating loss for the party and his murder while laying next to the pregnant mother of his children, was tragic. The raid shot over 100 hundred bullets that caused two deaths and multiple fatal woulds to party members.
By 1970 the party had over 30 chapters in major cities across the country. Their Ten-Point Program which called for freedom of the Black community and for the U.S. government to take responsibility for the actions against African Americans, has points which have still been widely used in Black empowerment organizations across the county. Their social programs have inspired institutions without credit for decades after the official dissolve of the part in 1982. The Black Panther Party revolutionized the way that Blacks went about political change, shifting from asking for change to being the leaders in creating change, a shift we should never back away from pushing forward.
