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.

Foundation

The party was founded by classmates Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 in the city of Oakland, California. The party was created to further the movement for black liberation, which had been growing steadily throughout the sixties thanks to the prominent civil rights movement and the work of people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. The party rejected the integrationist, nonviolent stance of King, and made it clear from the beginning that it sought no compromise with the "white power structure". The party similarly rejected nonviolence as a creed and specifically chose to organize around a platform of "self-defense" (which became part of the party's original name, "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense").

Related Topics:
Huey P. Newton - Bobby Seale - 1966 - Oakland, California - Black liberation - Civil rights movement - Malcolm X - Martin Luther King, Jr. - Integrationist - Nonviolent - Power structure - Self-defense

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As a Marxist-Leninist party, the Black Panthers focused their rhetoric on revolutionary class struggle. Although the party was characterized by varying degrees of black nationalism, Newton and Seale rejected cultural nationalists as "black racists". Contrary to popular perception, the BPP was not a separatist organization and worked closely with many white activists (for example, California's Peace and Freedom Party and the Irish Republican Army). Indicative of this was the BPP's use of the slogan "All Power to the People!" which represents a more internationalist (and Marxist) perspective than the famous slogan, "Black Power!" .

Related Topics:
Marxist-Leninist - Class struggle - Black nationalism - Separatist - California - Peace and Freedom Party - Irish Republican Army - All Power to the People! - Internationalist - Marxist - Black Power!

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