Black Panther Party: Authenticity, Legacy, and Impact

Introduction

Authenticity, in a cultural sense, refers to being true to one's heritage and community. A growing number of modern observers agree that, despite their otherwise militant activities, the Black Panther Party was an authentic representation of Black Americans at the time. To determine the facts, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a background and overview of the Black Panther Party, an analysis of whether the BPP was authentic with respect to Black authenticity, whether such a standard is applied to Black people with different political views, and the positive and negative effects of the organization's activities. An assessment of the extent to which the Black Panther Party succeeded in achieving its goals is followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Background and Overview of the Black Panther Party

Co-founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was created during a turbulent period in American history. Conscription was still sending young men — including a disproportionate number of Black Americans — into the Vietnam War, Black citizens were still subjected to "white only" drinking fountains and restrooms in some parts of the country, and institutionalized racism was not only tolerated but encouraged. According to one historian, "The Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the U.S. government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community-based programs" (Baggins 3).

Over time, the Black Panther Party grew to include around 5,000 members in 40 chapters across the country that were actively involved in the distribution of information and the administration of community-based programs (Zulu 197). The "Self-Defense" part of the BPP's name was an important clue to the organization's overarching purpose and its attractiveness to disenfranchised members of the Black community. In this regard, Washington advises that "Curbing police abuse was a high priority for college students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale when they established the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in their hometown of Oakland, California in October 1966" (24).

Throughout history, people have always banded together for self-defense, and this goal of the BPP was an attractive draw for many like-minded Black Americans who feared for their lives at the hands of white law enforcement authorities. Washington adds that "Most of the 5,000 others who joined the Black Panther Party shared the co-founders' intense commitment to challenge police misconduct and other racist practices that historically relegated blacks to second-class citizenship" (25). Not surprisingly, the BPP's first recruits were all politically active young people, including Bobby Hutton, Regina Jennings, and a founding member and lieutenant of information for the Philadelphia chapter, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of a Philadelphia police officer in December 1981 (Zulu 197).

The BPP's platform and program, published in October 1966, set forth the organization's basic goals as follows:

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
2. We want full employment for our people.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man 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. We will accept the payment as currency which will be distributed to our many communities.
4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
5. 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 present-day society.
6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.
7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.
8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
9. 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.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny. (emphasis in original) (Black Panther Party Platform, Program, and Rules 1966).

It is important to note that with the sole exceptions of points 6 and 8, all of the foregoing demands were reasonable by any standard and were consistent with the existing laws of the land at the time of their publication. The release of all Black prisoners and exemption from military service were the only truly "revolutionary" aspects of the party's ideology. Given the disparate treatment afforded Black Americans during this period and the pattern of murder of Black leaders that existed — including many BPP leaders — even these demands could be viewed as legitimate in retrospect. These two demands in particular, however, were viewed with growing alarm by a mainstream American society already unsettled by the growing militancy of Black Americans demanding equitable treatment. This alarm was further heightened by some of the more aggressive tactics used by the BPP to further their goals, including "policing the police," wherein armed members of the organization would follow police officers to ensure they did not abuse or harass Black citizens (Potorti 44).

Although the BPP steadily grew in size and influence through the 1960s, the organization's fate was jeopardized by internal dissension and continuing attacks from external sources, and by the early 1970s membership began to falter (Washington 25). According to Washington, "With leaders in prison or in exile and programs floundering, membership dwindled" (25). In 1989, Huey Newton was killed during a drug deal in Oakland, but Bobby Seale went on to a successful career in lecturing and even a celebrated period as a highly acclaimed barbecue rib chef (Washington 25).

Since its formal dissolution in 1982 — due to disagreements between the co-founders that some attribute to FBI interference (Cleaver 6) — there has been a serious reappraisal of the BPP's contributions to American society. Zulu argues that "The Black Panther Party was one of the most important social movements to emerge during the 20th century" (197). Likewise, Baggins argues that "The party was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation — a party whose agenda was the revolutionary establishment of real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines" (1). These observations invite the question of whether the Black Panther Party was truly authentic, which is addressed below.

Authenticity of the Black Panther Party

According to the definition provided by Black's Law Dictionary, "authentic" means "Genuine, true, real" (133). In this context, being authentic means that someone is true to their heritage and culture, and many observers today suggest that the Black Panther Party was authentic because of their beliefs and commitment to Black communities across the country. According to Zulu, "The Black Panther Party received widespread support in the black community" (198). Indeed, the legacy of the BPP today suggests that this organization helped to determine what types of activities and behaviors were truly authentic for African Americans, rather than reinforcing the negative stereotypical images that were still firmly embedded in the minds of white America at the time.

Some modern analysts maintain that the BPP's authenticity lies in how their actions and efforts have influenced contemporary views about race relations and highlighted the lingering effects of racism that continue to surface in high-profile police shootings of unarmed Black youths in the United States today. As Washington points out, "Young people today envy the Black Panthers despite misunderstanding their social mission. But many young people today have the same Black Panther audacity, particularly in the Hip-Hop attitude … that willingness to say, 'This is me — take it or leave it!'" (26). Taken together, it seems reasonable to conclude that despite their eventual decline, the Black Panther Party had a significant impact on American political and social thought during their existence.

Conclusion

Americans born in the 21st century may find it difficult to conceptualize what life was like in the United States during the mid-1960s, and most have never encountered a "whites-only" sign except in history books. For African Americans at the time, however, slavery was only a few generations past and Jim Crow laws were still on the books in many Southern states. In that environment, armed self-defense and community-based programs made practical sense to many Black Americans who saw no other viable alternatives. It would be misguided to conclude that everything the Black Panther Party did was a positive contribution, but it would be even more misguided to conclude that the organization failed to achieve any of its stated goals — because it did achieve them, at least in part. The reassessments of the BPP's contributions and legacy in recent years have confirmed this achievement while acknowledging that the organization's founders were not saints. Some, however, have become martyrs to a cause that remains important today.

Works Cited

Baggins, Brian. "History of the Black Panther Party." Marxists Internet Archive, 2015. Web.

"Black Panther Party Platform, Program, and Rules." History is a Weapon, October 1966. Web.

Black's Law Dictionary. West Publishing Co., 1991. Print.

Cleaver, Eldridge. Interview with Eldridge Cleaver. Public Broadcasting Station, 1995. Web.

O'Boyle, Timothy, and Will Plouffe. "The Black Panther Party: The Early Years, Bobby Seale." Sociological Viewpoints 29.1 (2013): 1–3. Print.

Potorti, Mary. "Feeding Revolution: The Black Panther Party and the Politics of Food." Radical Teacher 98 (2014): 43–47. Print.

Washington, Linn, Jr. "Revisited: The Black Panther Party." The New Crisis 106.5 (1999): 24–26. Print.

Zulu, Itibari M. "Reappraisal of the Black Panther Party: Selected Essays for the 21st Century." The Journal of Pan African Studies 8.1 (2015): 196–199. Print.