The Black Panthers vs. The Black Panthers

The sixties was a time in American society where the youth from the post-war baby boom era became teenagers and the young adults. The movement from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in the revolutionary ways of thinking and change in the cultural of the American way of life. With an extreme admiration of no longer being an image of their predeceasing generation, young Americans wanted and demanded change. These changes affected education, values, laws, entertainment, and the way of life for several citizens around the country. As society, it is extremely important to understand that although the valiant efforts and impact that African American’s had, particularly in the 1950’s and 1960’s, in helping restructure American culture, many of the racist views of the past still play apart in American society. The 1950’s is often described as the calm before the storm of the 1960’s. During this time period, society was very much conformed to the views of conservative living. The desire for security during this era, reinforced by McCarthyism at home and the Korean War, created was known as the cold war culture. During the post WWII period in America, the face of the nation changed greatly under President Truman and Eisenhower. Because of extreme paranoia caused by Communism following WWII, conformity in the United States became an ideal way to distinguish American culture from the rest of the world. Conformity became evident through the medium of culture, society, and politics throughout the era of the 1950’s. The country was in such fear of Communism, that President Truman led the government in a revolt against any who claimed to be a Communist in the American government. Again, due to fear of being ostracized, Eisenhower, the proceeding president, was reluctant to confront McCarythism. The Red Scare of the 1950’s was thriving and the presidents waged war against foreign Communist powers in order not be accused of being sympathetic towards the opposition. They conformed to public opinion and shaped politics in America into Cold War. The public conformed towards the “American Dream.” Everyone wanted a home in the suburbs, a car, and a television set. Women were expected to get married, and take care of the children while their husbands went to work and provided financially for his family. Americans who did not conform to the “idealistic” way of thinking, put themselves in danger of being blacklisted as Communists. Cars and refrigerators were sold at affordable prices as well. Suburbia became the center of social conformity and the good life. Although during this time period America was seen as the utopia of planet earth, there were several social issues that continued to trouble many American families. As the later part of the 1950’s approached, there was a continued increase of children, specifically teenagers, who begin to question their parents about many political and social issues. Soon after, there was a great increase of people who began smoking marijuana, engaging in sexual activity with numerous people. As a result, there were many movements that would take place in the 1960’s (the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, the Woman’s Liberation Movement, etc.). Along with teenagers defying the norms of society, there was also a great amount of woman who started going to college, working, and separating themselves from traditional “stay at home house-wives.” During a class discussion, it was mentioned that many woman during the 1950’s became tired of staying at home every single day, raising children, while, their husbands went to work and had some type of social life. As well as teenagers rebelling and woman who were tired of the traditional “house-wife” roles, African Americans were believed by many to have suffered the most during this time period. In an era of “good life,” several advertisements only featured men and woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Several items that were produced and sold in stores were extremely offensive and derogatory towards African Americans. It was perceived that they (African Americans) were always in a pleasant mood. This was a great misconception due to the fact that blacks portrayed themselves as people who were always in a good mood because if they showed any type of aggression or rebellion against the government, they could be hung or sentenced to some other type of capital punishment. A major reason African Americans lived in fear was due to the Jim Crow laws. In an in depth conversation with Alice D. Murphy, a supporter of the Civil Rights, Black Power Movement and my grandmother, it was expressed that not only did African Americans in the south live in fear because of the Jim Crow laws, but blacks in the northern states did as well. “Many of us (African Americans) couldn’t even walk to the store without being harassed. When I think back about how scared we (African Americans) was (were), and how hard we (African Americans) worked to get where we are today, it pains my soul to see many of us (our) chillin’ (children) take advantage of life.” She also expressed in great depth her dedicated involvement with the Black Power Movement and the Black Panther Party. “I remember when I first got involved with the Panthers. It was a life altering experience. I remember Brother Rodney Jenkinson was the president of our chapter. We met every Tuesday and Thursday down on Hempstead Avenue in Long Island, New York. We changed the time we met so those people (Caucasians and local police authorities) could not bother us. Everybody thought that we were a bunch of crazy black folk gettin’ together to start trouble. That was not the case. All we wanted to do was help our own people out (African Americans) and try and make it easier than we had it. On the other hand, one thing we was (were) not going to do was sit back and be non-violent like that Martin Luther King boy was always talking about. We was (were) going to fight guns with guns, sticks with sticks, fist with fist, and fire with fire. We was (were) so tired of being pushed around and we had to do something. We worked so hard to get to where we at (are) today. The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was an African-American revolutionary leftist (liberal) organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. The Black Panther Party achieved national and international notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and in U.S. politics of the 1960s and 70s. During the late 1960's and early '70's posters of the Black Panther Party's co-founder, Huey P. Newton were plastered on walls of college dorm rooms across the country. Wearing a black beret and a leather jacket, sitting on a wicker chair, a spear in one hand and a rifle in the other, the poster depicted Huey Newton as a symbol of his generation's anger and courage in the face of racism and imperialism. His intellectual capacity and community leadership abilities helped to found the Black Panther Party (BPP). Newton played an instrumental role in refocusing civil rights activists to the problems of urban Black communities. He also tapped the rage and frustration of urban Blacks in order to address social injustice. However, the FBI's significant fear of the Party's aggressive actions would not only drive the party apart but also create false information regarding the Panther's programs and accomplishments. In recent years, historians have devoted much attention of the early 1960's, to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and have ignored the Black Panthers. The Panthers and Huey P. Newton's leadership of the Party are as significant to the Black freedom struggle as more widely known leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. A typical American history high school textbook not only neglects to mention Huey Newton, but also disregards the existence of the Black Panthers altogether. Therefore, we must open this missed chapter in American history and discover the legacy and story of Huey P. Newton. Police harassment and physical abuse of Black people became part of everyday life for many Blacks across the country. Although the Civil Rights movement was mainly a Southern phenomenon, the non-violent ideology and integrationist focus of the movement became according to historians Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. C. Kiene as sources of increasing frustration and disillusionment for many Blacks in Northern and Western American cities. As the Civil Rights Movement approached the end of the 1960's Northern Blacks became angered by the television coverage of police beatings, incarcerations of Southern non-violent Blacks, employment discrimination along with the police brutalities in Black neighborhoods. Newton and other urban Black people believed nonviolence was ineffective in the South and in the North. This view serves as the catalyst for the development of the increasing popular, radical approach of Black power. At Merrit College, Huey met Bobby Seale who would soon become Huey's co-founder of the BPP. The initial friendship between Huey and Bobby proved quite productive, as they both shared the frustrations of social injustices towards the Oakland Black community. Together, they initiated a drive to organize the African American students on campus by creating the Soul Students Advisory Council (SSAC). The death of Malcolm X was yet another event which led Black youth to question the traditional leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and its philosophy of nonviolence. It is out of this change of the movement’s focus where Huey arrives at the idea for Black youth to openly display weapons. This action would be soon to serve as a founding principal within the Panthers. Eventually serving as a founding principal of the Panthers, Huey's suggestion for a demonstration of armed protest was inspired by Malcolm X's philosophy for self-defense. Fed up with the increasing police brutality towards African Americans, Huey and Bobby decided to form an organization to monitor police behavior in black neighborhoods and protect the rights of African Americans. This organization was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). The Panthers stormed into American history in 1966 when Huey P. Newton wrote the platform for the party. The platform made an aggressive call for power to determine the destiny of the black community. The immediate emphasis was on the need for organizing black defense group to end police brutality. Huey and Bobby created a uniform for the Panthers demonstrating the seriousness and discipline of the Party's platform. The Black Panthers' first action was to follow Oakland Police cars, either on foot or in cars, while dressed in black pants, black leather jackets, starched blue shirts and black berets, carrying loaded shot guns. The Oakland Black community's response to the new Panther Party was intense. The BPP's uniform and operations served as a testament that Blacks could stand up to the police. Huey's deliberate recruitment of young blacks that engaged in robbery and other crimes into the party, testifies to his commitment to uniting and empowering all Blacks in a movement in which they could play an important role in the quest for social change. Based on Huey P. Newton's sharp social analysis he formed an inclusive Party that united African Americans in a collective effort demonstrating a power that they didn't know existed within them. In addition, Huey's ability to support his rhetorical statements with examples let him stand out among the other leaders of the Black Power Movement. Huey insisted that BPP address the immediate needs of urban African Americans, helping them maintain their current situations until they had the chance to rise above their financial and social hardships. Beginning in Oakland in 1969, survival programs including breakfast programs for schoolchildren, clothing and food giveaways, escort services for the elderly and health care services, which offered sickle-cell anemia testing and research were created by the BPP to help enhance African American communities. Due to its success, survival programs spread to all of the Panther chapters across the country. In addition, Huey created the Black Panther Community News Service, a weekly community newspaper that several branches distributed to inform member of Party activism, events and philosophies. By 1970 the newspapers distributed more than 125,000 copies. They sold for 25 cents per issue; and provided the major source of revenue for the Panthers. Panther chapters also had been involved in local community struggles for decent housing, welfare rights, citizens' police review panel, Black history classes, and traffic lights on dangerous intersections in Black neighborhoods. The Black Panther Party's creation of survival programs allowed Blacks to unite and take responsibility for their community. The community service activities of the Black Panther Party contributed to the public safety and welfare of Black urban individuals arguing that the Panthers’s breakfast program was the originator for free public school breakfasts and lunches. While Huey primarily focused on improving Black People's self-esteem and quality of life, he also advocated the commitment for the respect and dignity of all individuals of all races, genders and sexual orientations. The media and white people assumed that since the Black Panther Party was a Black Nationalist Organization, they hated white people. Unlike other organizations within the Black Liberation Movement, the Black Panthers had several biracial alliances. The first alliance created in 1967 with the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP). Huey approved the BPPs working with the Peace and Freedom Party to collect signatures for getting PFP candidates on the California ballot. Moreover, the Black Panthers were early advocates of homosexual rights during the very early stages of the gay rights movement. Placing of gay rights on the 1970 agenda of the BPP distinguishes the role the Panthers play in American history. Huey P. Newton made a historic statement encouraging members of Black community to refrain from language that would turn our friends (referring to gays) off. The Black Panthers views on homosexuals and the efforts they took on supporting them, contradicts the media’s negative image of the BPP. Alycee Lane and William B. Kelley, two prominent gays activists, praised the Panthers for becoming the first non-gay Black organization and radical group to compare the struggle of gays and Blacks and request that they work together to bring about change. The Panther’s had this country so polarized by racism that Blacks would take up guns against whites in armed rebellion. J. Edgar Hoover let it be known in the pages of the New York Times that he considered the Panthers the single greatest threat to the internal security of the country. Therefore the FBI launched a counter-intelligence program over the Black Panthers, which sought to disrupt and neutralize the number of what he called “Black Nationalist Hate Groups.” The FBI sent agent William O'Neal to act as a spy and become a BPP member of the Chicago chapter. Eventually O'Neal became a BPP bodyguard to charismatic chairman of Chicago branch, Fred Hampton. O'Neal's murder of Hampton earned him a $300.00 bonus from the FBI. Black Panther historians have conducted little research investigating the specific reasons for the destruction of the Black Panthers and Huey P. Newton in American history. However, it is likely that the FBI's opinion and brutal destruction of the Party along with the negative coverage by the media of the BPP, has instilled Americans with a negative attitude towards the Black Panther Party causing them to feel that the Party is deeply rooted in violence and crime. But before their ending, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was able to make a huge impact on America, both physically and inspirationally. Huey's ability to think critically while analyzing the needs of people acts as a ray of hope for others committed to social change. The Black Panthers brought attention to the problems of the African-American community in America, and the issue of police brutality, at the time of the large urban riots of 1968, and Martin Luther King's assassination. Their free breakfast program provided meals to 200,000 children daily. Most amazingly they proved that grassroots movements could make a difference, even when the United States government denies it. Huey P. Newton's legacy of the Black Panther Party lives on in preaching’s and teachings of this country’s civil rights activist today. On the contrary, the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP) is a U.S. based black political organization founded in Dallas, Texas in 1989 that is considered by the original Black Panther Party and its members, illegitimate. In 1987 Michael McGee, an alderman in Milwaukee, threatened to disrupt white events throughout the city unless more jobs were created for black people. He held a "State of the Inner City" press conference in 1990 at City Hall to announce the creation of the Black Panther Militia. After attending this conference Aaron Michaels, a community activist and radio producer, was inspired to establish the New Black Panther Party. Michaels rose to widespread attention for the first time when he called on blacks to use shotguns and rifles in Philadelphia to protest against the chairman of a school board who had been taped calling black students "little niggers." In 1998, the attorney Khalid Abdul Muhammad brought the organization into the national spotlight when he led the group to intervene in response to the 1998 murder of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas. He also made the NBPP well-known for their vehement school board disruptions and public appearances. Over time, many groups subscribing to varying degrees of radicalism have called for the "right to self-determination" for black people, particularly US blacks. Critics of the NBPP say that the group's politics represent a dangerous departure from the original intent of Black Nationalism; specifically, that they are anti-white, and also anti-Semitic. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the NBPP as a "black racist" hate group. Even the mildest critics of the organization have said that the NBPP's provocative brand of black supremacy undermines other civil rights efforts.

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[ 1 ]. The Movement and the Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson. This is a time when many children started to rebel by experimenting with drugs and listening to Rock and Roll music.
[ 2 ]. The Movement and the Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson. This book expresses in great detail the 1950’s and the conservative views of the country. Many consider this time period the calm before the storm because this in the time in American history when many children began to rebel against society.
[ 3 ]. Class notes (Dr. Cox, Fall 2009)
[ 4 ]. The Movement and the Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, most American families conformed to society. Citizens believed that any rebellion against the government who constitute in extreme retaliation such as loss of employment, black listed from country clubs, etc.
[ 5 ]. International Politics and Civil Rights Policies in the United States 1941-160. This book discusses American society during the 1950’s and how scared and comforted society became during the cold war culture.
[ 6 ]. This is a belief of the “Good Life.”
[ 7 ]. Race, Culture, and the Intellectuals, 1940-1970 by King, expresses the impact Rock and Roll had societal norms had on teenagers rebelling against the government and American culture.
[ 8 ]. Class discussion / Notes (Dr. Cox, Fall 2009)
[ 9 ]. Eyewitness: The Negro in American History, by William Kats: This book explains in great detail how African Americans felt during the 1950’s. It explains how blacks had to keep a positive attitude even though they were been provoked on a regular basis.
[ 10 ]. Alice D. Murphy is my grandmother. She was born and raised in Nw York City. She became very involved in the Civil Rights Movement, but more so the Black Power Movement at a very young. This was so, because of the hardships she saw her father endure while she was a very young girl.
[ 11 ]. Andre Lithinbaum: The Struggle Before the Struggle
[ 12 ]. Thomas Haynes: African American History and Today’s Politics
[ 13 ]. Thomas Haynes: African American History and Today’s Politics
[ 14 ]. Huey Newton: Shadow of the Panther
[ 15 ]. Huey Newton: Shadow of the Panther
[ 16 ]. Terry H. Anderson: The Movement and the Sixties
[ 17 ]. Marylin Bardsley: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
[ 18 ]. Huey Newton: Shadow of the Panther
[ 19 ]. Intelligence Reports: Ten Years After/ The Southern Poverty Law Center
[ 20 ]. Intelligence Reports: Ten Years After/ The Southern Poverty Law Center