Black Panther Party
In the mid twentieth century, racial discrimination against black people by the government was imminent. This sparked the need to empower the black people through out the United States. Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton set up an organization that was meant to protect the black people. Black Panther Party of Self defense was founded by these two in 1966, later it was shortened to Black Panther Party (BPP). This party made demands on behalf of the black people in a quest to protect them. The party was so determined that they managed to fight for their rights. This movement was not against the white people but was against the government. This paper will explore all facts about the Black Panther Party. The impact of BPP could not be ignored as it inspired many people to form other organizations similar to it. After the Vietnam War, its influence was even much more. Young whites joined with young blacks to condemn this act by the then government.
Statement
African Americans in the United States have not had piece of mind till the late 1970s. Racial discrimination against these people was the talk of the day. Institutional racism was at its peak arousing thee communities that were being oppressed to fight for their rights. There were many uprisings against this around the United States especially in the southern states where blacks were predominant. More than forty racial riots were reported in the United States. This shows the extent of racial discrimination was very high and the communities that were being discriminated were fed up with racial discrimination.
Black Panther party was formed at this time in a quest to mitigate the manifestations of institutional racism. Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton were responsible for the formation of the BPP. Newton was courageous and angry at the way black people were treated in the United States. He had good leadership abilities and high intellectual capability that helped him form the BPP. The main motif of the organization was self defense against police brutality. Black Panthers wore uniforms and used to follow police cars either on foot or on other vehicles. They carried loaded shot guns with them to fight police officers who mistreated black people.
The ideology of self help and advancement was acquired from Mao Tse Sung’s axiom of picking up the gun, Malcolm’s X nationalism theory and Frantz fanon’s and Che Guevara’s theory of revolutionary violence influenced BPP’s formation and function. The BPP had a number of ideological changes after some time. The organization maintained the nationalism ideology and expanded their political ideology by embracing revolutionary socialist ideology.
There were several limitations during the formation of the BPP organization. Most of the members at that time were men because male chauvinism was very high.
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