Black Panthers :: essays research papers

sable Panther Party for self-importance Defense     The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October 1966, in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Armed with sincerity, the words of revolutionaries such as Mao Tse-Tung and Malcolm X, rectitude books, and rifles, the Black Panther Party fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police, and presented a Ten Point Platform and weapons platform of Black political and social activism. Its "survival programs"-such as food giveaways, bleak health clinics and free breakfast programs for children-were popular fixtures in Black neighborhoods in the early 1970s, but for the black-and-blue power structure and the vast volume of the white public, the Panthers represented only anti-government militancy a view which engendered the ire of the police and FBI and led to the murder of several Party members by law enforcement. In time, the Black Panthers dropped the "Self-Def ense" label from their name. The organization became more of a Marxist-Communist group that favored violent revolution, if necessary, to bring about changes in society. During the mid-1960s, the Black Panthers called for neighborhood control of such services as education and the police. The Panthers back up the use of guns--both for self-defense and to retaliate against people believed to be oppressing the poor. Hostility mingled with the Panthers and the police led to several shoot-outs. During the late 1960s, the Black Panthers began to work with white radical and revolutionary groups that shared their goals. This policy brought the Panthers into disagreement with some African American groups that regarded the struggle of blacks as chiefly racial. According to the Panthers, the basic caper was economic exploitation of both blacks and whites by profit-seeking capitalists. The Panthers called for a fairer distribution of jobs and opposite economic resources.    & nbsp In October of 1967, Huey Newton was shot, arrested and charged with the murder of a white Oakland cop, after a gun battle on the streets of West Oakland that resulted in the death of police officer John Frey. Newton was charges with First stage murder. Young whites, angry and disillusioned with America over the Vietnam War, raised their voices with young, urban blacks, to cry in unison "Free Huey" Newton was convicted of manslaughter but the verdict was later overturned.     Fred Hampton was a high school student and a shining leader when he joined the Black Panther Party at the age of 19. His status as a leader grew very quickly.