Sundiata Acoli
A Brief History of the Black Panther Party and Its Place In the Black Liberation Movement
Written on: Apr 2 1985
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in October, 1966, in
Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. The name was shortened to
the Black Panther Party (BPP) and it began spreading eastward through the Black
urban ghetto-colonies across country.
In the summer of '68, David Brothers established a BPP branch in Brooklyn, New
York, and a few months later Lumumba Shakur set up a branch in Harlem, New York.
i joined the Harlem BPP in the fall of '68 and served as its Finance Officer
until arrested on April 2, 1969 in the Panther 21 Conspiracy case which was the
opening shot in the government's nationwide attack on the BPP. Moving westward,
Police Departments in each city made military raids on BPP offices or homes in
Philadelphia, Chicago, Newark, Omaha, Denver, New Haven, San Diego, Los Angeles,
and other cities, murdering some Panthers and arresting others.
After i and most other Panther 21 members were held in jail and on trial for two
years, We were all acquitted of all charges and released. Most of us returned to
the community and to the BPP but by then COINTELPRO had taken its toll. The BPP
was rife with dissension, both internal and external. The internal strife,
division, intrigue, and paranoia had become so ingrained that eventually most
members drifted or were driven, away. Some continued the struggle on other
fronts and some basically cooled out altogether. The BPP limped on for several
more years, then died what seemed a natural death.
History will be the ultimate judge of the BPP's place in the Black Liberation
Movement (BLM). But in these troubled times Afrikan people in the U.S. need to
investigate both the positive and negative aspects of the BPP's history in order
to learn from those hard lessons already paid for in blood. In particular We
need to learn the reasons for the BPP's rapid rise to prominence, the reason for
its ability to move so many Afrikans and other nationalities, and the reason for
its demise during its brief sojourn across the American scene. It's not possible
in this short paper, on short notice, to provide much of what is necessary, so
this paper will confine itself to pointing out some of the broader aspects of
the BPP's positive and negative contributions to the BLM.
The Positive Aspects of the BPP's Contributions
Self-Defense: This is one of the fundamental areas in which the BPP
contributed to the BLM. It's also one of the fundamental things that set the
BPP apart from most previous Black organizations and which attracted members
(particularly the youth), mass support, and a mass following. The concept is
not only sound, it's also common sense. But it must be implemented correctly,
otherwise it can prove more detrimental than beneficial. The self-defense
policies of the BPP need to be analyzed in this light by present day Afrikan
organizations. All history has shown that this government will bring its
police and military powers to bear on any group which truly seeks to free
Afikan people. Any Black "freedom" organization which ignores self-defense
does so at its own peril.
Revolutionary Nationalist Ideology: The BPP was a nationalist organization.
Its main goal was the national liberation of Afrikan people in the U.S., and
it restricted its membership to Blacks only. It was also revolutionary. The
BPP theories and practices were based on socialist principles. It was
anti-capitalist and struggled for a socialist revolution of U.S. society.
On the national level, the BPP widely disseminated socialist base programs to
the Afrikan masses. Internationally, it provided Afrikans in the U.S. with a
broader understanding of our relationship to the Afrikan continent, the
emerging independent Afrikan nations, Third World nations, Socialist nations,
and all the Liberation Movements associated with these nations. Overall the
ideology provided Afrikans here with a more concrete way of looking at and
analyzing the world. Heretofore much of Black analysis of the world, and the
society in which We live, was based on making ourselves acceptable to White
society, proving to Whites that We were human, proving to Whites that We were
ready for equality, proving We were equal to Whites, disproving racist ideas
held by Whites, struggling for integration or equal status with Whites,
theories of "loving the enemy", "hating the enemy", "they're all devils",
spookism, and other fuzzy images of how the real world worked.
Mass Organizing Techniques: Another fundamental thing that attracted members
and mass support to the BPP was its policy of "serving the people". This was a
policy of going to the masses, living among them, sharing their burdens, and
organizing the masses to implement their own solutions to the day to day
problems that were of great concern to them.
By organizing and implementing the desires of the masses, the BPP organized
community programs ranging from free breakfast for children, to free health
clinics, to rent strikes resulting in tenant ownership of their buildings, to
Liberation School for grade-schoolers, to free clothing drives, to campaigns
for community control of schools, community control of police, and campaigns
to stop drugs, crime, and police murder and brutality in the various Black
colonies across America. For these reasons, and others, the influence of the
BPP spread far beyond its actual membership. Not only did the BPP programs
teach self-reliance, but years later the government established similar
programs such as free school lunch, expanded medicare and day care facilities,
and liberalized court procedures for tenant takeovers of poorly maintained
housing, partly if not primarily in order to snuff out the memory of previous
similar BPP programs and the principle of self-reliance.
Practice of Women's Equality: Another positive contribution of the BPP was its
advocation and practice of equality for women throughout all levels of the
organization and in society itself. This occurred at a time when most Black
Nationalist organizations were demanding that the woman's role be in the home
and/or one step behind the Black man, and at a time when the whole country was
going through a great debate on the woman's liberation issue.
Propaganda Techniques: The BPP made significant contributions to the art of
propaganda. It was very adept at spreading its message and ideas through its
newspaper The Black Panther, mass rallies, speaking tours, slogans, posters,
leaflets, cartoons, buttons, symbols (i.e., the clenched fist), graffiti,
political trials, and even funerals. The BPP also spread its ideas through
very skillful use of the establishment's t.v., radio, and print media.
One singular indication, although there are others, of the effectiveness of
BPP propaganda techniques is that even today, over a decade later, a large
part of the programs shown on t.v. are still "police stories" and many of the
roles available to Black actors are limited to police roles. A lot of this has
to do with the overall process of still trying to rehabilitate the image of
the police from its devastating exposure during the Panther era, and to
prevent the true role of the police in this society from being exposed again.
The Negative Aspects of the BPP Contributions
1) Leadership Corrupted: COINTELPRO eventually intimidated and corrupted all
three of the BPP's top leaders: Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge
Cleaver. Each, in their own way, caved in to the pressures and began acting in
a manner that was deliberately designed to destroy the BPP, and to disillusion
not only Party members but Afrikan people in America for years to come.
COINTELPRO's hopes were that Afrikans in America would be so disillusioned
that never again would they trust or follow any Afrikan leader or organization
which advocated real solutions to Black oppression.
Combined Above and Underground: This was the most serious structural flaw in
the BPP. Party members who functioned openly in the BPP offices, or organized
openly in the community, by day might very well have been the same people who
carried out armed operations at night. This provided the police with a
convenient excuse to make raids on any and all BPP offices, or members homes,
under the pretext that they were looking for suspects, fugitives, weapons, and
or explosives. It also sucked the BPP into taking the un-winnable position of
making stationary defenses of BPP offices. There should have been a clear
separation between the above ground Party and the underground armed apparatus.
Also small military forces should never adopt, as a general tactic, the
position of making stationary defenses of offices, homes, buildings, etc.
Rhetoric Outstripped Capabilities: Although the BPP was adept at the art of
propaganda and made very good use of its own and the establishment's media,
still too many Panthers fell into the habit ...
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