Black Panthers
“The Black Panthers were formed in California in 1966 and they played a short but important part in the civil rights movement” says www.historylearningsite.co.uk . “T he party’s original purpose was to patrol African American neighbourhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality” says http://www.britannica.com .
In October of
1965, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther
Party for SelfDefense. The Black Panther party was a civil rights organization during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. They supported their community by protecting blacks against police brutality, providing free food and medical clinics to children, and arguing for international working classes. The Black Panthers also faced challenges such as harassment by police, threats from the government, and untrustworthy members of their own party. Black Panthers wanted freedom, full employment, decent housing, and immediate end to police brutality and murdering of black people.
The Black Panthers were formed to protect against police brutality and racism.
The Group had over 2,000 members over the course of the 1960’s. Originally, the name of the group was called Lowndes County Freedom Organization but was later changed to be called the Black Panthers in 1966. A man by the name of Fred Hampton started a community service project. He was part of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther party. This chapter helped street gangs in Chicago stop fighting each other. In 1969,
Fred Hampton talked about a nonaggression pact during a press conference called the
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“Rainbow Coalition”. The “Rainbow Coalition” was a group made up of blacks, Puerto
Ricans, and poor young people who came together to stop violence and helped street gangs hold back from fighting each other. Not only did the Black Panthers provide protection against police brutality, but also ran free clinics and provided food for children. The Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party also provided free medical clinics to children to insure their health and to treat everyday illnesses. Along with other chapters, the Chicago chapter also provided provisions of free food and education for underprivileged children. After the violence the Black Panther party focused on free breakfasts for children. In the Black Panthers there was a leader who influenced some things they fought for, and his name was Malcom X. Malcom X was a Black leader during the civil rights era and wanted his followers to stand up against white aggression.
Malcom X influenced the Black Panthers to fight for international working classes and to help them join with white revolutionary groups and eventually develop into a Marxist way of thinking. In the Marxist thought, there will always be a battle between the rich and poor. If the poor is challenged enough they will retaliate in what they believe is right.
In the process of fighting for civil rights there was much aggression and violence aimed towards the Black Panthers which resulted in them had to face problems in society.
There were many challenges that the Black Panthers had to face like harassment from the police. “
Those who supported the BP claim that the FBI used dirty tactics such as forging letters to provoke conflict between the BPP's leaders” says www.historylearningsite.co.uk .
The Black Panthers were involved in many shoot outs
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and in many cases they led to death. A member of the Black Panthers named Bobby
Hutton was shot 12 times when ambushed by police and the police claimed “They opened fire on us first“ says a video on youtube. After the fire fight ended two Black
Panther members were found dead, one of which was Mark Clark. In 1969 Black
Panther headquarters was raided by police, and got many threats from the government.
The FBI director J. Edger Hoover said that the Black Panthers were “the greatest threat to the