The Black Panthers

Devin DeschenesBrandon Plourd

W3

What is it?

• Progressive political party

• American Revolution in 1776.

• the first armed black organization in the struggle against slavery and oppression

• revolutionary agenda

Some members of the San Francisco Black Panther Party

Controversy

• “The biggest threat to U.S. Internal Security.”

• Thought to be so dangerous that all the party’s text and media would have been erased from history if deemed possible.

J. Edgar Hoover

Huey Newton

• Founder Huey Newton• Forced to move to Oakland,

California• Height of civil rights

movement• Assassination of Malcolm X,• Watts, California.

Huey Newton in 1968

Huey Newton cont.

• Friends Bobby Seale, and David Hilliard.

• Black Panther is a powerful image

• Voting rights group in Alabama.

Original six Black Panthers (November, 1966) Top left to right: Elbert "Big Man" Howard; Huey P. Newton (Defense Minister), Sherman Forte, Bobby Seale (Chairman). Bottom: Reggie Forte and Little Bobby Hutton (Treasurer).

The 10 Point Platform

• The first action of the group was to immediately establish a Ten Point Platform and Program. The platform outlined the basic wants of the Party including freedom, employment, an end to robbery by capitalists of black and oppressed communities, decent housing, decent education, free health car for black and oppressed people, an immediate end to police brutality of oppressed peoples and peoples of color, an end to all wars of aggression, the freedom of all black and oppressed people currently held in prison or jail and trials for all persons charged with so called crimes.

Oppression

• Combated:• Ku Klux Klan• presidents • congress • Black Codes

Oppression

• Revolution was proposed

• He used the Vietnam War to his advantage by bringing white enemies closer to the blacks in a unanimous struggle against a common enemy, which was the U.S. government.

Anti-Vietnam War Protesting in Washington D.C.

The Mulford Act

• Bobby Seale• California legislature • The Mulford Act (gun

control bill• The party wanted to

make sure that law would allow blacks to have a constitutional right to bear arms.

Some members of The Black Panthers demonstrating their right to bear arms in public.

Mulford Act cont.

• Protest of the Mulford Act was detrimental to Party efforts

• Scared the whites out of Oakland

• It also went against established party values

Black Panthers protesting at the California Legislation.

John Frey Incident

• Oakland cop, John Frey, who was killed in a gun battle

• Arrest and murder charges against Huey Newton

• Free Huey Movement (brought together blacks and whites to protest oppression and segragation)

Results of John Frey Incident

• Formation of new protest groups

• Brown Berets • Red Guard • Patriot Party • The elderly had even started

the Gray Panthers to protest human and civil rights abuses of the elderly.

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale

Expansion

• Soon after the Oakland incident, the party expanded, including young blacks in 48 states and in England, France, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, China, Uruguay, Mozambique, Israel and many other countries.

The Survival Program

• New systems were implemented amongst the groups to provide services to black and poor people who needed help. The Party created over 35 programs to help communities around the country, these programs would be known as Survival Programs.

The Free Breakfast for Children Program

• The Free Breakfast for Children Program fed ten’s of thousand’s of poor and hungry children for free everyday under the Panthers administration.

• The government having seen the positive impact of this, had decided to create their own program which provided free lunch to poor children attending public schools.

FBI Assassinations

• Soon after the creation of the breakfast program, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover ordered assassins to take out the Panther Party.

• In 1969 John Higgins and Alprentice Carter were assassinated by the FBI, and police and FBI assaults were launched on each and every office and facility of the Back Panther Party under the cooperation of black nationalist Ron Karenga.

• Fred Hampton, the Chicago Party leader and member Mark Clark had also been assassinated by the state police.

Charges on Chairman Bobby Seale• Many more killings took

place and along with them, Party chairman Bobby Seale was arrested on conspiracy charges including conspiring to kill President Nixon in connection with an anti-war speech, and charges of assault of police officers in a police gun battle.

Bobby Seale delivering a speech

Huey Released

• Huey’s convictions of first degree murder and then manslaughter were dropped and a new trial was ordered resulting in his release from jail in 1970. Huey would then run into problems with party leader Eldridge Cleaver who had proposed a social program with a terrorist agenda. The expulsion of Cleaver resulted in the death of “party loyalist Sam Napier.”

Huey Newton's press conference after his release from Alameda County Courthouse jail.

Black Panthers in the Government• The party continued to operate

even after all the brutal assaults it took from the FBI and state policemen. The party had persevered through so much after the assassination of the party field marshal George Jackson and had decided that in 1973, Bobby Seale should run for mayor and Elaine Brown for city councilwoman of Oakland.

• The elections were lost however and internal affairs of the party had gone haywire. The expulsion of almost all party leaders had resulted in the appointment of Elaine Brown as chairman of the party.

Elaine Brown’s Achivements• Under Browns discretion many

things had been done to significantly help the Oakland community. The party had funded and built 300 new homes for the poor, entered into a partnership with local developers and built up the dilapidated downtown city center to provide 10,000 new jobs for the poor, and established a primary school which had gained significant respect from the California legislature.

• The party’s efforts had not only changed the community, it had established Lionel Wilson as the first black mayor of Oakland. Elaine Brown

Downfall of The Black Panthers• In 1977 it seemed that

things were going well for the party, especially since former party leader Huey Newton had returned.

• It seemed that the party could finally execute its primary goal of making “Oakland a base for revolution in America.” However, internal stress and conflict caused by the FBI had resulted in the parties slow decline and demise by the end of the decade.

Present Day Panthers• In 1993 the Dr. Huey P.

Newton Foundation was founded by David Hilliard and Fredrika Newton to honor Huey and to contribute to the community of Oakland.

• The foundation is focused on teaching practical lessons of community service, and had been one of the first to initiate a sickle cell testing program in the U.S.

More Accomplishments• Current school lunch

programs, nutrition programs, meals on wheels, and many other government supported social programs such as these are all things which were sparked from the party’s free breakfast program, things which make evident the long-lasting positive effects of the parties efforts to help blacks and whites all over the country.

Prominent Party Members

• Stokely Carmichael• Fred Hampton• Frederika Newton• Eldridge Cleaver• David Hilliard Stokely Carmichael

Fred Hampton

Frederika Newton

Eldridge Cleaver

David Hilliard