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Panther Knowlegde

The Black Panthers Party was founded in October 1966, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, they were African Americans who fought for their rights. They were station in Berkeley, and in Oakland, California . Their original goal was to protect residents in Black communities against police brutality, their message was Self-defense. The black panther was used as the symbol because it was a powerful image. The Panthers vision had a very big influenece on people. Many people supported them strongly; others disagreed with their actions. Some people thought that they hated the police. They setup a system refered to as the Ten-point system. The plan was simple it called for black power, full employment,decent housing,black education"teaches our true history",black exemption from military service an end to police brutality, freedom for all black prisoners, trials with "peer group" as jurors, and a UN plebiscite, "throughout the black colony" for determining the "will of the black peoples as to their national destiny". The media protrayed the Black Panthers as black militants at war with the whole white power structure which gave americans a false view of them.

Panther Power

Newton and Seale met atMerritt Junior College in 1965. They were influenced by the teachings of Malcolm X, and the work of the late Martinique psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, author of The Wretched of the Earth (1965). As students at Merrit College, in Oakland, they had organized a Soul Students' Advisory Council, which was the first group to demand that what became known as African-American studies be included in the college curriculum. Seale and Newton had a run in the with council when they proposed to bring and perform drills with armed squad of black youths onto Merrit campus, in commemoration of Malcolm X's birthday, the year after his assassination. So they went off an formed their own party known as the Black Panther Party. Seale as chairman and Newton as Minister of Defense. During the highlights of the party campaign seale was arrested for armed invasion of the state assembly chamber in Sacremento. Newton was jailed for murdering Officer John Frey of Oakland. The organization went national once huey went to prison for manslaughter after a violent confrontation with Oakland police with left Officer John Frey dead in a 1968 shootout. Once nationwide the Panthers kicked off the "Free Huey" campaign later the charges were dropped. Newton later made the statement that "every time you go execute a white racist Gestapo cop, you are defending yourself." Eldridge Cleaver, author of Soul on Ice (1968), joined the party in February 1967. Cleaver more aggresively responded: "A black pig, a white pig, a yellow pig, a pink pig- a dead pig is the best pig of all. We encourage people to kill them."

Panther Support

The Party expanded from a small Oakland; based organization to a national organization, as black youth in 48 states formed chapters of the Party. In addition, Black Panther coalition and support groups began to spring up internationally, in Japan, China, France, England, Germany, Sweden, in Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uruguay and including, Israel. On the streets of these cities the panthers began to develop social programs to provide needed services to black and poor people, promoting a model for an alternative, more humane social scheme. The programs numbered more than 35 and was referred to as Survival Program, and were operated by Party members under the slogan "survival pending revolution." or SPR. It was attacked as an aggressive subversive force to the American way of life.The first such program was the Free Breakfast for Children Program. The program fed 200,000 children daily and became a huge success which started in a Catholic church, in the Fillmore district of San Francisco then spreaded to every major city in America where there was a Party chapter. The panthers started various programs such as printing newspapers, free clinics and grocery giveaways. Many other programs included manufacturing and distribution of free shoes, school and education programs, senior transport and service programs, free bussing to prisons and prisoner support an legal aid programs, among others. The magnitude and powerful impact of this programs was such that the federal government was shamed into adopting a similar program for public schools across the country, while the, FBI assailed the free breakfast program as nothing more than a propaganda tool used by the Party to carry out its "communist" agenda. More insidiously, the FBI denounced the Party itself as a group of communist outlaws bent on overthrowing the U.S. government. Law Enforcement had carried out every kind of assault imaginable on the Party's social programs and destruction of Party property. From police raids which smashed breakfast programs eggs on the floors of churches they invaded to crushing Party free clinic supplies. They also destroyed batches of the Party's local newspapers and print shops. Before their demise the Black Panthers were able to make a huge impact on America, both physically and inspirationally. They brought attention to the problems of the African-American community in America, and the issue of police brutality. The panthers proved that grassroots movements can make a difference, even when the US government resisted against such practices.

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