A History of the Black Panthers

The Black Panthers came to rise in the mid sixties during the civil rights movement. The Party was founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA in 1966. Both Newton and Seale grew up with inequality and prejudice. Newton lived in the ghettos of Oakland and saw first hand the police brutality against blacks. Seale quit high school after being cut from both the basketball and football teams due to discrimination. The experiences of their youth left them searching for justice. They found what they were looking for in Malcolm X who called for blacks to defend themselves against their white oppressors. Malcolm X was a role model, showing dignity and self-respect, and having a strong will to better the black community. Newton and Seale were also influenced by the Black Power Movement that stressed dignity and self-reliance. Newton and Seale adopted many of the principles of Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement when forming the Black Panthers. 

The Panthers were a self-defense oriented group, they preached that blacks had the right to use violence to defend themselves and proclaimed themselves the protectors of blacks against police brutality. Unlike the rest of the civil rights movement the Panthers were not followers of non-violent protest. The Panthers were a very militant organization whose members frequently carried guns. Panthers would patrol black ghettos with guns and law books to protect the neighborhood from police. Violence erupted between police and the Panthers on several occasions in California, New York, and Chicago. The radical nature of the Panthers made them very attractive to young blacks who were angered by the system and wanted to assert their right to equality more aggressively than the non-violent protests lead by Martin Luther King Jr.