Cultural & Ethnic Studies The Vanguard of the Revolution A Retrospective Analysis of the Black

327 Chapter 14 The Vanguard of the Revolution A Retrospective Analysis of the Black Panther Party University of Pennsylvania INTRODUCTION In 1969 my mother migrated from , Mississippi , to Chicago , Illinois . She lived with a friend in a apartment and asked my uncle , Marshall Bowman , if I could stay with him , his wife , and three children until she could afford an apartment . I settled into the small basement apartment on the west side of Chicago on West Wilcox Street . On an early , windy , and cold day , my aunt cooked a healthy breakfast , including grits , eggs , and toast , along with lunch for my first day in school . After listening to instructions about my first day , I put on my coat , scarf , and gloves and met my cousins outside to walk three blocks to my new school , Mary Maples Dodge Elementary School on Washington Avenue . As we walked down Avenue , we passed Monroe Street and observed some police cars and a large crowd of bystanders . I wondered what the reason was for the commotion . It was to learn later that I witnessed the aftermath of the chaotic scene on Monroe Street involving a significant and tragic component of the Black Panther Party assassination of

328 two members of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party by the Chicago Police under the orders of the Cook County Illinois State Attorney Ed . Unbeknownst to me , I had witnessed the consequence of the Counterintelligence Program ( devised by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) Edgar Hoover . was designed to expose , disrupt , misdirect , discredit , or otherwise , neutralize the activities on black nationalist , organizations and groupings , their leadership , spokesmen , membership and Moreover , it sought to prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify the militants and electrify the Black nationalist movement . By 1969 the Black Panther Party considered itself the vanguard of the movement and became the primary target of . By 1969 the charismatic Fred Hampton , Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party , represented this potential rise of a Black Consequently , he became the target of the Chicago Police Department , the FBI , and State Attorney General Ed . On that cold day of December , 1969 , at AM , a intelligence unit raided Hampton apartment at 2337 Monroe , shooting nine shots and killing Fred Hampton and Mark Clark ?

Senate , Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans , Book , Final Report ( Washington , Government Printing Office , 1976 ) Respect to Intelligence Activities , The FBI Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party , in Supplemental Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities , The FBI Coven Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party , in Supplemental Detailed Staff on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans , Book , Final Report ( Washington , Government Printing Office , 1976 ) Williams , From the Bullet to the Ballot The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago ( Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 2013 ) 180 .

329 CIVIL RIGHTS BLACK POWER MOVEMENT A growing number of scholars has explored and challenged the traditional paradigm and narrative of the Civil Power ' Likewise , a number of crucial issues continue to be reexamined , challenged , and revised in the new scholarship . This new paradigm seeks to expand the discourse of the meaning and significance of the Civil Power movement . First , the new scholarship focuses on local people , local struggles , and the ordinary people , through courage and determination , who made extraordinary steps to change their circumstances . Second , the traditional narrative of the Civil Rights Movement that begins with Brown . Board of Education and ends with 1965 Selma to Montgomery March is not only problematic but minimizes later developments . This timeline , with its regional focus on events in the Deep South , also ignores Northern movements . Evelyn Brooks commented that in the late scholars came increasingly to question static and bifurcated regional that equated the Southern movement with racial desegregation and the belief in nonviolence and the Northern movement with Black Power and ' Furthermore , Jeanne I use the term Civil Power to emphasize the point that these movements , which have often been viewed and examined as a dichotomy , are in fact interrelated . The revisionist scholarship has begun to examine this relationship and interconnectedness of Black Power and Civil Rights . Evelyn Brooks , Foreword , in Jeanne and Woodward , Freedom Non Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South , New York Press , 2003 ) xi .

330 asserted that early attention to black nationalist and militant revolutionary groups also largely fell into this paradigm , reducing organizations like the Black Panther Party to a handful of fiery male masterminds . Ideologies of , socialism , independent political action , and were not understood as locally grown philosophies and strategies but instead were attributed to the charismatic brilliance ( or ideological rhetoric ) of leaders such as Malcolm , Huey Newton , and Eldridge Cleaver and the of Northern black Hence , in this work I will utilize the term Freedom Movement , which aptly describes the War II movement activities that occurred in various regions in the country . Since the , a plethora of articles , books and documentaries have been published to reexamine the interpretations and narrow analysis of the Civil Power movement and organizations . Charles Payne I Got the of Freedom The Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle and John Local People The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi ushered in a revisionist approach in examining the Black Freedom Movement . Challenging the traditional emphasis on larger events , Birmingham , March on Washington , and the Selma campaign , this formative publication focuses on local struggles and people who laid the foundation for larger events in the Jeanne , Introduction , in Jeanne and Woodward , Groundwork Local Black Freedom Movements in America ( New York New York Press , 2005 ) Charles Payne , I Got the Light of Freedom The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle ( Berkeley University of California Press , 1995 ) John , Local People The Struggle for Civil Rights , Chicago University of Illinois Press , 1995 )

331 Woodward 1999 book , A Nation a Nation ( Jones ) and Black Power , set the stage for a more serious and critical look at the Black Power Movement , and critiqued historians who claimed that black nationalism was the cause of the early demise of the Black Instead , A Nation a Nation argued that the politics of black cultural nationalism and the dynamics of the Modern Black Convention Movement were fundamental to the endurance of the Black Revolt from the into the Over the last two decades , a number of authors have similarly provided new research and interpretations which challenge the traditional characterization of the Black Power movement and its participants . These works examine the Black Power movement not as a dichotomy of the civil rights movement , but intertwined with , connected to , and extended from the larger social and political struggles of the Woodward , A Nation a Nation ( Black Power ( Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina Press , 1999 ) For further examinations of Black Power see Timothy Tyson , Radio Free Dixie Robert and the Roots of Black Power ( Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 1999 ) Joseph , Waiting 777 the Midnight Hour Narrative History of Black Power in America . New York Owl Books , 2006 ) Jeffries , Black Power In the Belly of the Beast . Chicago University of Illinois Press , 2006 ) Cedric Johnson , Revolutionaries to Race Leaders Black Power and the Making of African American Politics ( University of Minnesota Press , 2007 )

332 Black Panther Historiography The saw the most pervasive and glaring movement to transform and revolutionize the economic , cultural , and social climate in the United States . From the Black Freedom Movement to the Movement , from the Free Speech Movement to the women rights movement , the nation faced a renewed challenge to the oppressive , racist , and discriminatory history of the United States . The Black Panther Party emerged in the context of this renewed struggle . Yet , the history of the Black Panthers , like similar Black revolutionary and radical organizations , has been reduced to symbolism and that distort and minimize the revolutionary time that the represent . Important symbols that reflect the meanings of struggles are reduced to nostalgic memories and romantic recollections of days gone by . Hence , the Black Panther Party for ( represents another challenge to our historical consciousness on how to analyze its significance , strengths , and weaknesses . Jama and In Search of the Black Panther Party New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement remarked that The remains caught between popular perception , idealization , and misconception of the Party rooted in the cultural politics of the past and romanticism of the ' Ryan adds that Of all the Black power groups to emerge from the tumultuous environment of the , the Black Panther Party ( remains one of the most misunderstood and ' Jama and Williams , In Search of the Black Panther Party New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement ( Duke University Press , 2006 ) 25 Ryan , The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Community Activism and the

333 The historiography of the Black Panther Party can be divided into four periods . The first period included publications of books , articles , essays , and commentaries by participants emerging in the late and early . These personal and accounts provided an examination of the origins , beliefs , and ideological underpinnings of the Black Panther Party . Likewise , the media fascination served as an important platform for the Panthers to explain its The second period emerged with the publication of Hugh Pearson The Shadow of the Panther Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America Shadow of the Panther Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America . Pea account proved to be the catalyst for a new phase of Black Panther Party studies , not least because it lay bare the amorality of a icon , Huey Newton . Given the central position of the Black Panther Party in the popular memory and history of the , Pearson book was likely to be read widely given its relentlessly negative tone , it was sure to provoke a vociferous response from Panther supporters , asserted Joe The publication of Black Panther Party , Canadian Review of American Studies , Vol . 41 , No . 2011 ) See Huey Newton , To Die for The People The Writings of Huey Newton ( New York Random House , 1972 ) Bobby , Seize the Time The Story of the Black Panther Party and . Newton ( New York Penguin Books , 1970 ) Earl Anthony , Picking Up the Gun A Report on the Black Panthers ( New York Dial Press , 1970 ) Baruch , The Vanguard A Photographic Essay on the Black Panthers ( Boston Beacon Press , 1970 ) Stokely and Charles Hamilton , Black Power The Politics of Liberation in America . New York Random House , 1967 ) Carson , In Struggle and the Black Awakening of the . Cambridge Harvard University Press , 1982 ) 11 Joe Street , The Historiography of the Black Panther Party , Journal of American Studies , Vol . 44 , No . May 2010 ) 363 Hugh Pearson , The Shadow of the Panther Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America ( Massachusetts Addison Wesley , 1994 )

334 book witnessed an enormous outpouring of books and articles to refute and challenge this view of the party and Huey Newton . The third phase focused on the Black Panther Party contribution to African American and American political culture . The emergence of the renewed scholarship provided more documentaries and books that explained the positive contributions of the Party and the challenges that it faced as a vanguard organization . Challenging the notion that the party was simply an organization that promoted violence and was composed of misguided youth , the new publications revealed the complexity , composition , and varied interests of the party . Examples of this new scholarship were Jama and In Search of the Black Panther Party New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement and Brian Shih and The Black Panthers from an Revolution . Shih and text is a collection of interviews , essays , and photographs of the members . The value of the portraits is that they challenge the myopic , narrow , and negative perceptions of the Black Panthers and examine the Party from the bottom up . This collection also sheds light on the various reasons that ordinary people joined the Party and the varied experiences of its Fourth , overlapping the books and articles is a number of documentary and films . Filmmaker Stanley Nelson The Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution was the first documentary to explore its significance . More recent is Shaka King Judas 12 and Williams , Brian Shih and Williams , The Black Panthers from an Revolution ( New York Nation Books , 2016 )

335 and the Black , which details the betrayal of Fred Hampton by the FBI informant William that led to Hampton death in 1969 . BLACK PANTHERS FOR The Black Panther Party emerged amid the burgeoning Black Arts and Black Consciousness movement of the late . The death of Black nationalist icon Malcolm galvanized a generation of poets and writers who began to publish their work in literary magazines , held poetry readings , staged plays in community theatres , and established independent printing presses . These artists represented a rejection of the values of the dominant society , and African Americans began to call themselves Black and identify with Africa . They began wearing , taking on African names , changing their hairstyles to natural , and emphasizing links to the world and the African liberation movements . The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ( emerged as the major youth organization in the Black freedom struggle in 1960 . Created as a mechanism to organize the movement , served as the bridge for many activists who became more radical in the late . I use the word perceived because , in reality , was a radical group only in the context of the times to challenge the prevailing White power structure throughout the South . Ella Baker , a longtime activist who had served in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headed by Martin Luther King urged students to remain independent from the mainstream civil rights organizations . The

336 movement would become controlled by youth who had different ideas that challenged the mainstream civil rights leaders . It is vital to understand the roots of the and its forerunners . In Bloody Civil and Black Power in Alabama ?

Black Belt , Hasan Jeffries explained the of the County Freedom Organization ( stating that the creation of the was the defining event of the movement . It transformed local black political behavior by providing African Americans with a framework for a new kind of political Inspired by local activists and , County Freedom Organization ( used the ballot symbol of a black panther , which later inspired Huey Newton and Bobby as the name of the Black Panther Party for Defense . In County in Alabama in 1965 , the Black population was eighty percent Black , but not a single Black citizen was registered to vote . More than half of the African American population in County lived below the poverty line . 14 Moreover , White supremacists had a long history of extreme violence toward anyone who attempted to vote or otherwise challenge rule . County Freedom Organization members did want to vote simply to place other White candidates in office . Instead , they wanted to be able to vote for their own candidates . The resistance to the movement resulted in various tactics to destroy the movement . The White power structure evicted sharecroppers , leaving many Black residents unhoused and unemployed , and it refused to serve known members in stores and restaurants . 13 Hasan Jeffries , Bloody and Black Power in Black ( New York New York University Press , 2010 ) 14 Ibid .

337 Small riots broke out with the local police often firing only on Blacks during these confrontations . However , despite these attempts at intimidation and , the pushed forward and continued to organize and register voters . In 1966 , several candidates ran for office in the general election but failed to win . While their attempt was unsuccessful , the continued to fight and their goal and motto of Black power spread outside of Alabama . That same year in Memphis , Tennessee , James Meredith began his March Against Fear . Meredith had been the first African American enrolled in the University of Mississippi . In Mississippi more than African Americans were not registered to vote despite the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 . On June , 1966 , Meredith left Memphis on a march to Jackson , Mississippi , to point up and challenge this and overriding fear that is so much a part of the life of the Negro in this country and especially On the second day of the march , a White supremacist shot Meredith in the back . Martin Luther King Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( and Stokely rushed to Mississippi to complete the march . It was during this march that the tension between and came to a head . planned to issue a new call near Greenwood , Mississippi . Instead of calling for Freedom Now , the new call would be Black asked , what do we want ?

The crowd responded , Black Power ! 15 15 James Meredith as quoted in Henry Hampton Eyes on the Prize The Has Come ( 1987 ) a production of , Alexandria , Virginia Video , 2006 ) 15 Ibid .

338 It was within this context that the Black Panther Party for Self Defense emerged in 1966 in Oakland , California , where it aimed to combat rampant police brutality . Huey Newton and Bobby had their first political experiences with Donald Warden in the Association . Warden founded the association while he was a student at the University of Berkeley . Many of the Los activists , including Cedric Robinson , Richard Thorne , Ernest Allen , and Ron Everett ( who changed his name to ) received their in the association . There was a large following at College who demanded Black Studies courses under the newly created Soul Students Advisory Council ( later renamed the Black Student Union ) Donna Jean argues that the foundation and formulation of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense ( and other organizations ) had their campus struggles over curriculum and campus PRECURSOR TO THE IDEA OF Armed has a long tradition in the Civil Black Power movement . Charles Payne noted that Mississippi has a long tradition of Black folks taking up arms to defend themselves and their communities . The idea that the Southern movement was nonviolent does not adequately speak to the notion that southern Blacks , when necessary , pick up the gun to protect themselves . Although many Southern Blacks 17 Donna Jean , Living for the Migration , Education , and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland , California . Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 2010 ) 125 .

339 believed in the philosophy of nonviolence , they saw no contradiction in using armed defense when attacked by White terrorists . Additionally , Malcolm influence on young activists was enormous , especially on those in the urban areas of America and on some participants in whom he encountered during his trip to Africa . He spoke to young activists concerning the limitations of nonviolence when local , state , and federal government was unwilling or unable to protect American citizens who were peacefully protesting for basic human rights . Prophetically , Malcolm pointed out the frustration and questioning of the traditional civil rights strategies and objectives , noting , And now you facing a situation where the young Negro coming up There new thinking coming He asserted , There new thinking coming in . There new strategy coming in It be ballots , or be 18 Malcolm believed in armed to protect activists when the federal government , local police , and state troopers were unwilling and unable to protect Black people . Moreover , Malcolm believed that the Black Freedom Struggle was part of the global struggle against western imperialism . The assertion that the idea of armed was a phenomenon that emerged from the Black Panthers is , thus , erroneous . Quite the contrary , the idea of defense was practiced and used in Southern towns and cities . Robert Williams was born and raised in Monroe , North Carolina . After serving in the Marine Corps in the , he returned to Monroe and in 1956 assumed leadership of the nearly defunct local chapter 18 Malcolm quoted in George , Malcolm Speaks Selected Speeches and Statements ( New York Grove Press , 1990 )

340 of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( Within six months its membership grew from six to two hundred . Many of the new members were veterans who had served in World War II , and emphasized their right to armed defense against violent White supremacists . and trained in the use of arms . Davis pointed out armed resistance was not a new phenomenon , having existed before the Black Panther Party due to the armed patrols in Birmingham to protect Black citizens against state and private brutality . It simply is not true because in Mississippi , Alabama , Louisiana , and countless towns in the South , this practice was clearly understood and , more , was not a contradiction to the idea of . Paradoxically , although King espoused the philosophy , it did not prevent him from having armed guards who protected him and his family . Finally , Lance Hill indicated , In 1964 a clandestine armed organization formed in the black community in , Louisiana , with the goal of protecting civil rights activists from the Ku Klux Klan and other racist African American men in , Louisiana , led by Earnest Thomas and Frederick Douglas founded the group known as the Deacons for Defense and Justice to protect members of the Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) against Ku Klux Klan violence . Most of the Deacons were veterans of World War II and the Korean War . The group organized an affiliate chapter in nearby , Louisiana , led by Charles Sims , Young , and Robert Hicks . Eventually , they organized a third chapter in Louisiana . 19 Robert Williams , Negroes with Guns ( New York , 1962 )

341 The Deacons tense confrontation with the Klan in was crucial in forcing the federal government to intervene on behalf of the local African American community . The national attention they garnered also persuaded state and national officials to initiate efforts to neutralize the Klan in that area of the Deep BLACK PANTHERS , The question then is what made the Panthers different ?

What was the charisma that captured the nation , Black youth , activists , and people who had been apolitical in the Oakland area and beyond ?

The Panthers were bold and openly challenged police brutality by patrolling the police . The Panthers , with their leather jackets , berets , large , and emphasis on Black culture , were primarily young people in their late teens and early twenties , representing the new wave of Black consciousness . Moreover , the brutality and repressive measures that were seen on the nightly news of Black people being beaten , water hosed down , attacked by police dogs , and killed in the Southern Black civil rights movement left an indelible mark on the urban youth . The party emergence also stemmed from local problems in Oakland such as the murder of in Oakland , African Americans in Oakland had experienced years of police Lance Hill , The Deacons for Defense Armed Resistance and the Rights Movement ( Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 2004 ) 21 Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin , against Empire The History and Politics of the Black Panther Part ) Oakland University of California Press , 2016 )

342 brutality . The jump on you , beat you up , put the gun to your head . This is what we were going through on a daily basis , stated Wayne . 22 Adopting the symbol of the panther from the County Freedom Organization , Huey Newton and Bobby formed the Black Panther Party in 1966 primarily for . Newton had studied the legal system in Oakland and discovered that it was legal for those without a felony to carry a firearm , and the weapon could not be concealed . Thus , they began to patrol the police . If a person was pulled over , the Panthers would walk to the scene and stay a legal distance with their weapons . Forte , a member of the Panthers , stated that we referred to ourselves as the vanguard and we were setting by example a new course that we wanted the entire community to 23 Two major occurrences marked the organization emergence on the national arena . In the early afternoon on February , 1967 , Betty was scheduled to deliver a speech on the anniversary of the assassination of her husband , Malcolm . She arrived at the San Francisco airport and was met by eight members of the Black Panthers dressed in uniform , leather jackets , powder blue shirts , and black berets and carrying shotguns and pistols . Huey Newton encountered a police officer in the airport who demanded to know why he was carrying a weapon , and when Newton responded that it was his right to carry the weapon , the officer commenced to unstrap 22 Wayne in Stanley Nelson , The Black Panthers of the Revolution , Firelight Films ( Alexandria , Virginia Films , 2015 ) 23 Forte in The Black Panthers of the Revolution .

343 his pistol . Instead of backing down Newton shouted , you big fat racist pig , draw your The cop made no move . Newton shouted , Draw your gun , you cowardly dog , and loaded a round into the chamber . Here were young brothers carrying weapons , challenging the police , and espousing revolutionary ideas such as the right to carry weapons and patrol the community against police brutality . Notably , the party full name was the Black Panthers for . The second incident that propelled the onto the national scene occurred in Sacramento in May 1967 . In a direct response to the Black Panthers , the California legislature was entertaining a new bill , the Act , which would repeal a previous law allowing public carrying of loaded firearms . The Black Panther Party decided to send a group of Panthers to Sacramento to voice their disagreement . Walking through the capital halls in their trademark black leather jackets and berets , the Panthers mistakenly walked onto the floor of the capital where the discussion of the Act was in session . The Panthers charismatic character was on full display to the nation and had a tremendous effect on Black people who witnessed their resistance on every television set , radio station , and newspapers around the country . Almost overnight , a group in Oakland gained national notoriety and would become the vanguard of the movement to empower and protect Black Americans . The Panthers did not intend to have a nationwide organization , but the events of 1967 led to the creation of organizations in Washington , New York , Chicago , New Haven , Atlanta , Nashville , Raleigh , and countless other cities . The linked the Black freedom struggle to the global movements for national liberation and the

344 fight against imperialist nations . Similarly , they were influenced by the writings of Fanon , Chairman Mao Tse Tung , and national independence movements in Vietnam , Guinea , Algeria , and the Congo . From these influences , Newton and sat down to develop the program ( See Appendix ) Bryan Shih and The Black Panther from An Unfinished Revolution provides accounts of why people joined the Panthers . Moreover , it examines Panthers from the bottom up , rank and file members rather than the leadership . People joined the Panthers for different reasons . Some joined because they had been the victims of police brutality and supported the idea of policing the police . Others were attracted to social programs like housing , health , and free breakfast . The Panthers did not specifically target the church people , or the Muslims , or members of the mainstream civil rights organizations . They sought the brothers who were in the streets , who had just been released from prison , or who had been the victims of police brutality . These were students , young people who had not been involved in movement organizations . A cursory examination of the Panthers Program provides a more robust and insightful analysis that challenges the often myopic view that the Panthers were simply thugs . The Program revealed the party goals and demands , including freedom , full employment , decent housing , decent education , completely free health care , an end to all wars of aggression , and the end of police brutality . Moreover , the Panthers goal was not to reform the American economic system , but to dismantle the capitalist system that oppressed African American people . The Panthers promoted an and position and supported national

345 liberation struggles in Asia and Africa . Yet , unlike their actual efforts to create an racist , democratic society , the Black Panthers have consistently been portrayed as violent , racist thugs in popular GENDER AND THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY The success of the grassroots activism was due to the membership of the Black Panther Party chapters . As such , the role of women in the party can not be underestimated . Although the public faces of the organization were men like Huey Newton , Bobby , and Eldridge Cleaver , women constituted more than of the membership . Shortly after it was formed , women began joining the party and playing pivotal roles . Several women even served on the security force when Betty visited San Francisco and were in the entourage when the Panthers traveled to Sacramento to protest the Act . In 1966 , Kathleen Neal was working with in New York City and had organized a conference at Fisk University , where she met Eldridge Cleaver , who asked her to come to Oakland and join the party . The two married in December 1967 , and Kathleen served in several executive offices , including the position of Communications Secretary , a role that enabled her to solicit and write articles for the Black Panther Party newspaper . The newspaper was a vehicle that allowed the organization to publicize its program and to promote the political positions in a way that was unfiltered through mainstream 24 Meredith Roman , The Black Panther Party and the Struggle for Human Rights , Spectrum A Journal of Black Men , Vol . No . 2016 )

346 news affiliates . It also served as a recruitment tool to distribute information on the Panthers throughout the United States . Other notable women Panthers included , who withdrew from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania to join the party in Oakland . Claudia joined the New York Party and taught the chapter political education classes . When Sutton joined the party as a college student , she sold newspapers on campus and served on a committee with other Panthers to start the Langston Hughes Library . Katherine Campbell did not know anything about the Panthers when her sister suggested she volunteer for the Black Panthers Free Breakfast for Children Program . Although initially hesitant at first , Campbell joined the party and became a dedicated member . Hence , although much of the attention was directed toward the Black men with the leather jackets and berets , women served as the backbone of the Panthers and held important administrative positions , participated in armed security , organized chapters in other cities , worked in the free breakfast program , and taught in the freedom As such , there were inevitable gender complications in the Panthers that have been highlighted by Kathleen Cleaver and Angela Davis ( who was a supporter , not a member ) among others . However , it was not simply a Panther issue because gender disparity was an issue among many student and activist organizations in the sixties , including , Students for a Democratic Society , and the Free Speech Movement as 25 Kathleen Cleaver and George , on , Imagination , and the Black Panther Party A New Look at the Panthers and Their Legacy ( New York , 2001 )

347 well as in the traditional civil rights organizations like , and CORE . Scholar Matthews notes that despite the initial creation by the leadership of a masculine public identity for the Panthers , some women and men in the Party challenged the characterization of the struggle as one mainly for the redemption of black She further stated While it can justifiably be argued that the at various points in its history was a , organization , this point should not negate the important ideological and practical contributions of its female members or of the men who resisted chauvinistic and sexist tendencies . Indeed , the diversity , both in terms of geography and can not be understood and appreciated through simplistic 25 BLACK PANTHER PARTY NEWSPAPER The Black the official newspaper of the Black Panther Party . It began in 1967 as a newsletter in Oakland , California . The members performed most of the work . In December 1966 Eldridge Cleaver was released from prison and gained some notoriety for essays published in Ramparts , the leading radical magazine in the . After a brief stint as a reporter for the magazine , he joined the Black Panther Party and became the Minister of Information and Chief Spokesperson . The first issue was published on April 25 , 1967 , and The Black Panther remained in circulation until November 30 , 1976 . It became the main vehicle for financing the livelihood of the party . The newspaper cost to print and sold for . The profits 25 Matthews in Betty and . Franklin , Sisters in the Struggle rican American Women in the Civil Power ( New York New York University Press , 2001 )

348 were used for the party programs , and the paper became an international vehicle to promote the Ten Point Platform and to establish the Panthers identity and goals . With the growth of chapters around the country , the newspaper was a means to spread the Panthers program to cities and other locations where the Panthers could not reach personally without an enormous financial burden . The paper promoted positive images of Black people , discussed important issues arising in the community , advertised the social programs , and featured powerful artwork by Emory . Initially an idea from Huey Newton and Bobby , first drawing was a pig on four legs . Emory edited the drawing by turning the pig upright and dressing him in a , holster , and a badge with flies surrounding the pig . It became the symbol for the police and served as common rhetoric used by the Panthers . Interest in the party grew so large and so fast that there was no way to prepare for a nationwide organization . More than forty chapters emerged in cities across the nation , including Boston , Des , Cleveland , Chicago , Philadelphia , Seattle , Kansas City , and Detroit . International chapters were also organized in France , Israel , India , Germany , and several African countries , particularly after Eldridge Cleaver fled to Algeria following a shootout with the Oakland police . The membership of local chapters chose their focus depending on the context of the issues in their towns and cities . The overriding challenge that the Panthers faced was the tremendous growth of the party nationwide , which was not its original intention . Furthermore , there was no structure to vet or screen potential members or their reasons for joining the organization .

349 Because anyone could join the organization , some individuals who had no experience in organization were vulnerable to infiltration by agents . Additionally , confrontations with the police and the arrests of Panther leadership , particularly Huey Newton , resulted in extensive time , effort , and money for posting bail and paying lawyers , which drained the party of its resources . Notwithstanding these conditions , the party remained relevant and successful in attracting members , and this success led to a concerted effort to destroy the Black Panther Party . SOCIAL PROGRAMS , POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND The Black Panther Party social programs were a major success in communities across the country . The Panthers and community activists were aware of studies about the effects on young children of not eating a nutritious meal and its impact on their learning ability . From 1969 to the early , the Panthers Free Breakfast for Children Program fed thousands of young people . The program first launched at the Augustine Church in Oakland and quickly spread to community centers operated by Panthers members . Grits , eggs , bread , and milk were donated by local businesses . Although the federal government had begun a pilot program to provide breakfast to nutritionally needy school children in 1966 , the School Breakfast Program targeted high poverty areas where children had to travel a great distance to Partly because children

350 in Black communities were receiving these benefits , the Black Panthers successfully established free breakfast programs in cities across the In addition to the Free Breakfast for Children Program , the Panthers established free educational services focused on reading , writing , and history other programs included free shoes , coats , and clothing drives . To meet the medical needs of the community , the provided free medical clinics and sickle cell testing services . The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party was successful in establishing survival programs along with making serious inroads in political organization . Not only did these programs earn community support and legitimacy , they challenged the narrow views of the Panthers projected by the media and police . At the time , the Panthers were not fully aware of the forces that were being designed to neutralize and disrupt the programs effectiveness . The FBI Counterintelligence Program ( initially started in 1956 as a mechanism to disrupt the activities of the Communist Party of the United States . By the the program broadly targeted a myriad of dissident In a 1967 letter to FBI field offices across the country , FBI Director Edgar Hoover explained shift to expose , disrupt , misdirect , discredit , or otherwise , neutralize the activities on black nationalist , organizations and groupings , their leadership , spokesmen , membership and Moreover , Hoover goal was to prevent the rise of a 27 Breakfast Program Food and Nutrition Service , 24 July ( accessed July , 2021 ) 23 Brian , War at Home Covert Action Against . and What We Can Do ( Boston South End Press , 1989 ) 77 .

351 Black messiah who could organize and electrify the growing youth revolt . The program targeted , CORE , Students for a Democratic Society , and the Nation of Islam . However , the brunt of the FBI secret program was primarily directed at the Black Panther Party . On July 16 , 1969 , Hoover announced publicly that the Black Panther Party represented the greatest threat America . On April , 1969 , nineteen men and two women of the newly formed Harlem Black Panther Party were charged with conspiring to blow up subway and police stations , local department stores , railroad cars , and the Botanical Garden in the Bronx . Over two years later when the case made it to court , as activist Lilly explained , Despite the odds , after all the surveillance , warrantless wiretapping , infiltration and , not one shred of state evidence stood in After minutes , a multiracial jury rendered their decision all members were The most egregious of actions occurred in Chicago . At the age of 21 , Fred Hampton exhibited the qualities of a Black messiah , having shown that he was an effective leader on several levels . He had been elected as the President of the Youth Branch of the . He effectively organized civil rights activists by supporting civil rights workers in Mississippi and sending food and clothing to Mississippi aid workers . Not only was Hampton an effective organizer , he also possessed the qualities of a dynamic , charismatic , and electrifying speaker . He became a force to be reckoned with in Chicago . He built multiracial between various factions in the Chicago 29 Lilly , Panther Power and the New York ( accessed July , 2021 )

352 community , and with the assistance of Bob Lee , the recreation leader of the YMCA , worked with African American , Puerto Rican , and White gang members . Forming a Rainbow Coalition of poor Whites , the Young Lords , and the Young Patriots was a daunting task , but Hampton and Lee were quite successful . Hampton also engaged in dialogue with the two largest Black gans in Chicago the Black Stone Rangers led by Jeff Fort and the Black Disciples . The goal was to bring awareness of racism and classism to the different gang memberships so that they could work with the Panthers to form a powerful political unit . Unbeknownst to Hampton , FBI informant and agent provocateur William joined the party and rose through the ranks to become Hampton bodyguard . was also a paid informant of the Chicago Police Department who among other acts of betrayal , provided law enforcement with the layout of Hampton apartment . On December , 1969 , a gas truck arrived at the apartment building at 2337 Monroe Street on the West Side of Chicago . With detailed map , fourteen plainclothes police officers filed out of the truck armed with pistols and machine guns . Coordinated under the orders of Cook County State Attorney Edward and FBI Director Edgar Hoover , Hampton was murdered while sleeping . called it a shootout , but evidence revealed that 99 shots were fired into the apartment and only one shot came from inside the apartment . After the death of Hampton , activities increased . On December , 1969 , the Los Angeles Police Department served a warrant to search for stolen weapons at the headquarters at 415 Street and Central Avenue . The warrant was obtained

353 using false information . What followed was a dramatic shootout by the assault team that included 200 police officers , the newly created Special Weapons and Tactics ( SWAT ) team with gas masks , a helicopter , a tank , and grenades . The raid was televised and gained national attention , and it resulted in 13 arrests and 72 criminal counts . A young attorney , Johnnie Cochran , represented the defendants and argued that the group acted in . A found the Panthers not guilty on almost all charges . On March , 1971 , a cab driver , a daycare worker , and two professors broke into the FBI field office in Media , Pennsylvania , and stole over documents , including evidence of , and after Senate hearings in 1976 , the program disbanded . effectively reached many of its goals in disrupting , discrediting , neutralizing the activities of Black nationalist groups . It destroyed lives , caused dissension between organizations , and imprisoned countless numbers of activists . Designated as political prisoners , activists from the have been imprisoned from nineteen to years . In 2020 , formerly known as Anthony Bottoms ) was released after serving nearly fifty years in prison . Robert Seth Hayes was released in 2019 after serving years in prison . Elmer Geronimo spent years in prison for a murder he did not commit and was released in 1997 . Bin served nineteen years as a result of a murder conviction and was released in 1995 . Despite these releases , at least sixteen known members of the Black Panther Party are still in prison and a number of members are in

354 exile , most notably , who is listed as one of America most wanted terrorists with a million bounty for her capture . Presently , she lives in political asylum in Cuba and has been protected from several attempts at extradition . CONCLUSION The represent the most pervasive era to transform and revolutionize the economic , cultural , and social climate in the United States . The activist movements of the time did not emerge from an empty vacuum , nor were they initiated by any one individual or organization . The Black Panther Party has often been reduced to symbolism and that distorts and minimizes the revolutionary time that the represent , and symbols that reflect the meanings of struggles have been reduced to nostalgic memories from a detached past . For a more nuanced view , activist groups must be addressed individually , not as a monolithic entity . The Black Panther Party in particular must be reconstructed and reexamined as one of the most significant and radical organizations of the 19605 whose greatest legacy is the expression of human agency . The ideologies , actions , and programs were an expression of individual and collective power . They exhibited the power of people who think for themselves and act in ways to shape their life experiences and possibilities despite mechanisms and forces designed to hinder progress . In seeking to challenge the repressive state apparatus , they showed the possibilities and the perils of such endeavors .

355 Given the internal challenges and external forces designed to destroy the party , it is a testimonial to the courage and tenacity that the Black Panther Party was enormously successful on many breakfast and educational programs , free medical clinics , free sickle cell testing , clothing drives , and food banks . The power struggles within the party between Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver , the enormous resources to free Huey Newton and to pay bails for members who were arrested and facing trial drained the resources of the party . Of all of the organizations that were part of the Civil Power movement , the Black Panther Party was confronted with the full force of the repressive state , from police departments and state attorneys to the FBI and . With the revelations that came to light after the secret program of was exposed in 1971 , the Panthers obviously spoke truth to power . Finally , the continued relevance of the history of the Panthers is evident in the present issues of police brutality , the criminal justice system , voting rights , and human rights . The Black Lives Matter movement is addressing these challenges , and despite the different context of the present movement , there are strategies that can be examined , not duplicated , in the ongoing and complex institutional racial discrimination . Discussion Questions . What factors influenced Huey Newton and Bobby to create the Black Panther Party ?

What were some of the survival programs that the Black Panther Party created ?

356 . What role did women play in the Black Panther Party ?

What was the role of the The Black Panther newspaper in the growth of the Panthers ?

What challenges arose with the nationwide expansion of the Party ?

Explain why the Black Panther Party was targeted by the FBI . Writing Prompts Choose a Black Panther mentioned in this article and do your own research on his or her life . What motivated them to join the Panthers ?

What were their contributions to the organization ?

Appendix The Black Panther Ten Program . We Want Freedom . We Want Power to Determine the Destiny of Our Black Community . We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny . We Want Full Employment for Our People . We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income . We believe that if the White American businessmen will not give full employment , then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living .

357 . We Want an End to the Robbery by the Capitalists of Our Black Community . We believe that this racist government has robbed us , and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules . Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people . We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities . The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people . The Germans murdered six million Jews . The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over million Black people therefore , we feel that this is a modest demand that we make . We Want Decent Housing Fit for the Shelter of Human Beings . We believe that if the White Landlords will not give decent housing to our Black community , then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community , with government aid , can build and make decent housing for its people . 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 Society . We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self . If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world then he has little chance to relate to anything else . We Want All Black Men to be Exempt from Military Service . We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a

358 racist government that does not protect us . We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who , like Black people , are being victimized by the White racist government of America . We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military by whatever means necessary . We Want an Immediate End to Police Brutality and the Murder of Black People . We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist police oppression and brutality . The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms . We therefore believe that all Black people should arm themselves for . We Want Freedom for All Black Men Held in Federal , State , County and City Prisons and Jails . We believe that all Black should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial . 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 believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that Black people will receive fair trials . The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group . A peer is a person from a similar economic , social , religious , geographical , environmental , historical , and racial background . To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community from which the Black defendant came . We have been , and we are being , tried by

359 juries that have no understanding of the average reasoning man of the Black community . 10 . We Want Land , Bread , Housing , Education , Clothing , Justice and Peace . When , in the course of human events , it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another , and to assume , among the powers of the earth , the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature God entitle them , a decent respect of the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation . We hold these truths to be , that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain in alienable rights that among these are life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness . That , to secure these rights , governments are instituted among men , deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that , whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends , it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it , and to institute a new government , laying its foundation on such principles , and organizing its powers in such form , as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness . Prudence , indeed , will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and , accordingly , all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer , while evils are sufferable , than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed . But , when a long train of abuses and , pursing invariably the same object , evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism , it is their right ,

360 it is their duty , to throw off such government , and to provide new guards for their future security .