Black Panther

Abstract

Black Panther was established in 1960s and brought changes in black community. Their aim was to protect black people and their rights who were in a very critical situation. They have been facing violence and injustice actions by the white authorities on the basis of racism. Their goal was to fight against those who harm their society and people. They also wanted their separate identity as the citizens of the states. The movement in the end was not as successful but it left its philosophy and example in the history of United States. The paper discusses the selection of violence by Black Panthers to attempt to bring about social change in the 1960's.

Black Panther



The Black Panther Party was born in this era of social activism, founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in October of 1966. The Black Panther, which was already in use by another organization, was adopted as the fitting symbol of their beliefs. According to Newton, a cornered panther would try to escape to the left or right, but eventually would come out fighting to escape oppression, just as the new organization intended to do. The Black Panther Party sought to enforce rights under the U.S. Constitution and existing law, infamously patrolling the police to guard against police brutality. Newton, a law student, researched California law so that the Panthers would be certain to remain within its limits (Rhodes 2007). The Black Panthers chose violence to attempt to bring about social change in the 1960's.

Weary of what they considered to be minor progress by non-violent civil rights activists, Seale and Newton demanded power and equality, and voiced a determination to protect their rights with violence as necessary. The Black Panther Ten-Point Program, a statement of key grievances, illustrates the founders' objections to the current state of affairs in the United States (Mathews & Jones 1995):

We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black community.

We want full employment for our people.

We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black community.

We want decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings

We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day situation.

We want all black men to be exempt from military service.

We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.

We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.

We want all black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their black communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.

We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

In its first four years of existence, the Black Panther Party claimed growth from twelve members, producing a sporadic newspaper and with no survival programs in place, to four thousand members in thirty-three chapters, a weekly ...