The Black Panther Party

In October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded “The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense”. The Panthers practiced aggressive self-defense of minority communities against the United States government and fought to establish socialism through mass organizing and community based programs. The party was one of the first organizations in US history to violently struggle for ethnic minority and working class freedom. The party’s agenda was the establishment of real economic, social, and political equality across gender and race lines.

On April 25th, 1967, the first issue of "The Black Panther", the party's official newsletter, goes into distribution. In the following month, the party marches on the California state capital fully armed, in protest of the state's attempt to outlaw carrying loaded weapons in public. Bobby Seale reads a statement of protest; while the police respond by immediately arresting him and all 30 armed Panthers. This kindles the fires to the burning resistance movement in the United States; soon initiating minority workers to take up arms and form new Panther chapters outside the state.

In October of 1967, the police arrest the Defense Minister of the Panthers, Huey Newton, for killing an Oakland cop. Panther Eldridge Cleaver begins the movement to "Free Huey", a struggle the Panthers would devote a great deal of their attention to in the coming years, while the party spreads its roots further into the political spectrum by forming coalitions with various revolutionary parties. Stokely Carmichael, a nationally known proponent of Black Power, is recruited into the party through this struggle and soon becomes the party's Prime Minister in February, 1968. Carmichael is adamantly against allowing whites into the black liberation movement, explaining “whites cannot relate to the black experience and have an intimidating effect on blacks”. This position stirs opposition within the Panthers.

The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, begins a program called COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program) to break up the spreading unity of revolutionary groups that had begun solidifying through the work and example of the Panthers including, the Peace and Freedom Party, the SNCC, the American Indian Movement, and Young Puerto Rican Brothers. To destroy the party, the FBI begins with a program of surgical assassinations, killing leading members of the party who they know cannot be otherwise subverted. Following these mass killings would be a series of arrests, followed by a program of psychological warfare, designed to split the party both politically and morally through the use of spying and chemical warfare.

On April 6, 1968, in West Oakland, Bobby Hutton, 17 years old, is shot dead by Oakland police. In a 90 minute gun battle, an unarmed Bobby Hutton is shot ten times dead after his house is set on fire and he is forced to run out into a fire of bullets. Just two days earlier, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated. Two months later on the day of Bobby's death, Robert Kennedy, widely recognized in the minority community as one of the only politicians in the US sympathetic to the civil rights movement, is also assassinated.

The practices of Malcolm X were deeply rooted in the foundation of the Black Panther Party. He had represented both a militant revolutionary, with the dignity and self-respect to stand up and fight to win equality for all oppressed minorities; while also being an outstanding role model, someone who sought to bring about positive social services. The Panthers followed Malcolm's belief of international working class unity across the spectrum of color and gender, and thus united with various minority and white revolutionary groups.

One of the social services started by the Panthers was the Panther’s Free Breakfast Program. In January, 1969, the first Panther's Free Breakfast for School Children Program is initiated at St. Augustine's Church in Oakland. By the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school.

In Chicago, the Panthers had five different breakfast programs on the West Side, created a free medical center, and initiated a door to door program of health services which test for sickle cell anemia and encouraged blood drives for the Cook County Hospital. The Chicago party also begins reaching out to local gangs to clean up their acts, get them away from crime. On December 4th, at 4:00 AM, thanks to information from an FBI informant, Chicago police raid the Panthers' Chicago apartment, murdering Fred Hampton (The leader of the Chicago group) while he sleeps in bed. He is shot twice in the head, once in the arm and shoulder, while three other people sleeping in the same bed escape unharmed. Mark Clark, sleeping in the living room chair, is also murdered while asleep. Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was executed, Mark was 17 years old. According to the findings of the federal grand jury, Ninety bullets were fired inside the apartment. 1 came from Mark Clark, who slept with a shotgun in his hand. All surviving Panther members were arrested for “attempted murder of the police and aggravated assault”. Not a single cop spent a moment in jail for the executions.

In the summer of 1969, the alliance between the Panthers and SNCC begins ripping apart. One of the main points of dispute is the inclusion of whites in the struggle for minority liberation. In September, Huey Newton is convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison. By the end of the year, the party has swelled from 400 members to over 5,000 members in 45 chapters and branches, with a newspaper circulation of 100,000 copies.

On Huey Newton's release from prison, he devotes more effort to further develop the Panther's socialist survival programs in black communities; programs that provided free breakfasts for children, established free medical clinics, helped the homeless find housing, and gave away free clothing and food.

In March, 1970, the FBI begins to create problems in the Black Panthers, in part by forging letters to members. Eldridge Cleaver is one of their main targets, they gradually convince him with a steady stream of misinformation that the Black Panther Party leadership is trying to remove him from power. He received stacks of forged FBI letters from supposed party members, criticizing Huey Netwon's leadership, and asking for Cleaver to take control.

Seeing the party being ripped apart by factions and internal hatred, Huey, like many members, became disheartened. He no longer wanted to lead the party and became heavily dependent on cocaine, heroin, and other drugs. On August 22, 1989, Huey Newton is shot dead on the streets of Oakland in a drug dispute.

By the beginning of the 1980's, attacks on the party and internal degradation and divisions, caused the party to fall apart. The leadership of the party had been absolutely smashed. Many remaining Panthers were hunted down and killed in the following years, imprisoned on trumped charges, or forced to flee the United States.


Below is the “Black Child’s Pledge” published in “The Black Panther” newsletter in 1968. I believe this highlights the Panther’s outlook perfectly.

Black Child's Pledge by Shirley Williams

I pledge allegiance to my Black People.

I pledge to develop my mind and body to the greatest extent possible.

I will learn all that I can in order to give my best to my People in their struggle for liberation.

I will keep myself physically fit, building a strong body free from drugs and other substances which weaken me and make me less capable of protecting myself, my family and my Black brothers and sisters.

I will unselfishly share my knowledge and understanding with them in order to bring about change more quickly.

I will discipline myself to direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting them in idle hatred.

I will train myself never to hurt or allow others to harm my Black brothers and sisters for I recognize that we need every Black Man, Woman, and Child to be physically, mentally and psychologically strong.

These principles I pledge to practice daily and to teach them to others in order to unite my People.