THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY

The New Black Panther Party

The New Black Panther Party

The New Black Panther Party for Self Defense (NBPP) is the largest organized anti-Semitic and racist black militant group in America. The group is led by Malik Zulu Shabazz, a Washington, DC-based attorney who has been active with the NBPP since the mid-1990s.

The New Black Panther Party has been embroiled in a battle between Republican Congressmen and the U.S. Department Of Justice battle over a ”voter intimidation” scandal for the last 18 months. During these 18 months right wing and Republican Newspaper and Electronic media have gone to exhaustive lengths to discredit and slander the New Black Panther Party and its Chairman and Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz(Haskins, 2007).

Despite the controversy the New Black Panther Party continues to grow and expand. The National Black Power Conventions impressive lineup of guests and organizations is a testimony that the New Black Panthers Leadership has support in wide circles in the Black Community, particularly amongst grassroots organizers and entertainers(Albert, 2000).

By taking on racially-charged issues under the guise of championing civil rights, the NBPP has received national media attention for its efforts, garnered some support from prominent members of the African-American community and attracted followers. The group's demonstrations, conferences, and other events often blend inflammatory bigotry with calls for violence, tarnishing its efforts to promote black pride and consciousness.

In January 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against the group in response to an alleged incident of voter intimidation involving two of its members at a Philadelphia polling station on Election Day 2008.

Following the incident and the public scrutiny it prompted, the group has undertaken efforts to unify its leadership and expand its member base. In advance of its December 2009 National Summit in Dallas, Shabazz called for pursuing the NBPP's ultimate goals of Black Nationalism and Black Power "by any means necessary," adding that, "We must unite and build up the New Black Panther Party… or die trying!" (Williams, 2004)

The NBPP's divisive positions have been condemned by members of the original Black Panthers. Co-founder Bobby Seale believes that the NBPP has "hijacked our name and are hijacking our history." David Hilliard, a former Panther and executive director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, has said that the racism that the group "espouse(s) flies directly in the face of the Black Panthers' multicultural ideology and purpose." The NBPP continues to use the Panther name and logo in spite of a permanent injunction prohibiting them from using either, which the original Panthers obtained in May 1997.

In order to simplify the goals of the Black Panther Party, their Ten Point Program was implemented in order to express their top priorities. The first is: “We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.” Stokely Carmichael stated that this could only occur with a Black Panther Party in which every aspect of the organization was run by African Americans. “Whites who come into the black community with ideas of change seem ...