Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary, Black nationalist organization in the United States that formed in the late 1960s and grew to national prominence before falling apart due to a combination of internal problems and suppression by state actors, especially the Federal Bureau of Investigation (which included assassination, arrests and stirring-up of factional rivalries via infiltration). It is best known for its Free Breakfast for Children program, its use of the term "Pigs" to describe police officers and for once carrying guns on the floor of the California Assembly.

Community work

The Party began a variety of pioneering community programs, initially in the Oakland area, including a sickle-cell disease testing program, free clinics, and food distributions. By far the most famous and successful of their programs, however, was their Free Breakfast for Children Program, initially run out of a San Francisco church, which fed thousands of children throughout the party's history.

Related Topics:
Sickle-cell disease - Free Breakfast for Children - San Francisco

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Although this was their most successful community program, the Black Panthers also offered a number of other free services. These include free clothing, free classes on politics and economics, free medical clinics, free lessons on self-defense and first aid, free transportation to upstate prisons for family members of inmates, a free emergency response ambulance program, free drug and alcohol abuse rehabilitation, and free testing for sickle-cell disease. The Panthers tested more than 500,000 African-Americans for this disease before it was recognized by medical establishments as one that affected the black community almost exclusively.

Related Topics:
First aid - Sickle-cell disease

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The Party also strove to end drug use in the African American community, disrupting the operations of drug dealers, distributing anti-drug propaganda, and setting up community drug rehabilitation programs.

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