University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Departmental Papers (ASC) Annenberg School for Communication 1-1-2000 Black Panther Party: 1966-1982 Michael X. Delli Carpini University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers Part of the Social Influence and oliticalP Communication Commons Recommended Citation (OVERRIDE) Delli Carpini, M. X. (2000). Black panther party: 1966-1982. In I. Ness & J. Ciment (Eds.), The encyclopedia of third parties in America (pp. 190-197). Armonke, NY: Sharpe Reference. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/1 NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Michael X. Delli Carpini was affiliated with Columbia University. Currently January 2008, he is a faculty member of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/1 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Black Panther Party: 1966-1982 Abstract The Black Panther party was founded in Oakland, California, in 1966. From its beginnings as a local, community organization with a handful of members, it expanded into a national and international party. By 1980, however, the Black Panther party was once again mainly an Oakland-based organization, with no more than fifty active members. In 1982, the party came to an official end. Despite itselativ r ely short history, its modest membership, and its general eschewing of electoral politics, the Black Panther party was arguably the best known and most controversial of the black militant political organizations of the 1960s, with a legacy that continues to this day. Disciplines Social Influence and oliticalP Communication Comments NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Michael X. Delli Carpini was affiliated with Columbia University. Currently January 2008, he is a faculty member of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. This book chapter is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/1 *******~*********************** BLACK PANTHER PARTY 1966-1982 he Black Panther party was founded in movement, and-with the formation of the Na­ Oakland, California, in 1966. From its tional Organization of Women-the beginnings T beginnings as a local. community orga- of the second wave of the women's movement. nization with a handful of members, it ex­ The Democratic party,beneficiaries ofa landslide panded into a national and international party. victory just two years earlier, was beginning to By 1980, however, the Black Panther party was unravel underthe strainofthepolitics ofrace and once again mainly an Oakland-based organi­ growing internal di~agreement over u.S. in­ zation, with no more than fifty active members. volvement in Vietnam. In 1982, the party came to an official end. De­ It was in this context that the Black Panther spite its relatively short history, its modest party was born. Its co-founders, Huey P. New­ membership, and its general eschewing of elec­ ton and Bobby Seale, met while both were at­ toral politics, the Black Panther party was ar­ tending Merritt College in Oakland, California. guably the best known and most controversial Newton, born in 1942, and Seale, born in 1936, of the black militant political organizations of were both active in campus politics, helping to the 1960s, with a legacy that continues to this form the Soul Students Advisory Council. The day. council quickly became split between those who wanted to confine their activities to campus cul­ tural emichment programs, and those, led by Newton, who wanted to organize the larger FOUNDING OF THE Oakland community as part of the greater PARTY struggle for black liberation. The split led Newton and Seale to resign The year 1966 was a pivotal year for the. civil from the Soul Students Advisory Council, vow­ rights movement in the United States. The non­ ing to form a new, more radical organization. violent, integrationist strategy of the National On October 15, 1966, Newton dictated a ten­ Association for the Advan~ement of Colored p'oint plan that would become the Black Pan­ People (NAACJ;), the Southern Christian Lead­ thers' platform to Seale. The name of the party ership Conference (SCLC), and the Student Non­ was derived from the Freedom Organization Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was of Lowndes County, Alabama, which was beingchallenged bymoremilitant, nationalistor­ founded in 1966 by Stokely Carmichael and ganizations such as the .Nation of Islam (whose used an image of a black panther as its cam­ charismatic spokesperson, Malcolm X, had been paign symbol. By January 1967, the Black Pan­ assassinated the year before). In addition, the ther Party for Self-defense (as it was known un­ summer of 1966 was marked byforty-three "race til later in 1967 when "for Self-defense" was riots," a jump from fifteen just two years earlier. dropped from the title) had its first office in an Nineteen sixty-six was also marl<ed by an in­ Oakland storefront and was beginning to attract creasingly visible and confrontational anti-war members. Money for the organization was 190 Black Panther Party, 1966-1982 191 raised by selling copies ofMao Zedong's iilittle eration theories ot trantz Fanon (the black red book" at the University of Calif~rnia's psychiatrist/author who fought in the Algerian Berkeley campus. revolution), the self-determination espoused by the black power movement, and the more gen­ eralized cultural and political radicalism of the New Left. For example, the ten-point "Platform PLATFORM AND and Program" justified its demands by repeat­ PHILOSOPHY ing, verbatim, the opening paragraphs of the U.S. Declaration of Independence in its conclu­ The Black Panthers' initial "Platform and Pro­ sion. And two of its planks (the arming of all blacks and the demand for juries of peers) made gram" consisted of ten points. The first nine direct reference to the Second and Fourteenth points each stated what the party "wanted" for Amendments to the Constitution. By calling on black Americans, and what the party "be­ the government and business community to as­ lieved" about why and how these conditions sist in improving the economic condition~ of should be met. The nine "wants" were: free­ blacks, the party also implicitly acknowledged dom, full employment, an end to capitalist ex­ the essential legitimacy of both. ploitation, decent housing, education that em­ At the same time, however, the Black Pan­ phasized black history and the current plight of thers' rhetoric was suffused with attacks on the blacks, exemption from military service, an end capitalist system and with class-based analyses, to police brutality, the freeing of all black pris­ and demonstrated an attraction to collectivist oners, and juries of peers for blacks on triaL The solutions to economic and social problems. The nine "beliefs" associated with these "wants" party also referred to black communities in the were largely elaborations on these themes, jus­ United States as colonies that had to be liber­ tifying the demands and tying them to the long­ ated in much the same way as third-world standing political and economic exploitation of nations were becoming decolonized. Though blacks. These elaborations called on govern­ the Black Panthers fell short of advocating ment and business leaders to provide remedies complete separatism, calling instead for a pleb­ but also emphasized the importance of self­ iscite that would allow blacks to decide this is­ determination and the right of blacks to protect sue for themselves, they increasingly placed their interests and secure their rights "by what­ the struggle:of black Americans within the con­ ever means necessary," should the government text of a larger, international, black liberation and business community not heed their de­ movement. mands. This self-determination included a call Finally, the Black Panther party's philosophy for all blacks to arm themselves. The tenth reflected and shaped both the radical militancy plank in the Black Panther party's platform was and the multiculturalism that was embedded in a general overview, stating their demands for much of the politics of the 1960s. The regular "land, bread, housing, education, clothing, jus­ carrying of arms by members of the party and tice, and peace." It also called for a United the call for arming all blacks-while emphasiz­ Nations-supervised plebiscite, to be held ing self-defense and designed to remain within throughout the "black colony," to determine state and national laws (weapons were not con­ "the will of the black people as to their national cealed, and guns, though loaded, did not have destiny." bullets in their chambers)-put the Black Pan­ The Black Panthers' philosophy was a some­ thers in the vanguard of what was becoming an times inconsistent, often sophisticated amal­ increasingly confrontational strategy on the part gam, based on social contract theory as found of many black nationalist and New Left orga­ in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, indi­ nizations and splinter groups. At the same vidual rights as outlined in the U.S. Constitu­ time, and despite numerous specific exam­ tion, Marxist anti-capitalism, the national lib- ples of sexism and anti-white rhetoric, the Black 192 The Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America Panther party connected the self-determinacy of So, too, did the rhetoric' of the party, which, blacks to the self-determinacy of other margin­ while emphasizing self-defense, also suggested alized groups such as the poor, women, and that armed confrontation might be inevitable in . homos.exuals. the struggle for black liberation. Finally, the militant image of the Black Panthers was accen­ tuated by the increasingly frequent shoot-outs with police, resulting in the death of as many STRATEGY, TACTICS, as twenty-eight members of the party. AND PROGRAMS Militant rhetoric, armed patrols, and dra­ matic confrontations were the most visible side of the Black Panthers and played an important Unlike most parties in the United States, the role in the party's growth, national prominence, Black Panthers were not centrally interested in and ultimate demise.