The Black Panther Party: A Closer Look at the Controversial US Movement - Research Paper

Thesis Statement

The history of America on civil rights led to the rise of various movements, including the Black Panther Party was one of the movements in the United States History. The Party was one of the best if not the leading controversial organization during the 1960s.

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Beekman, N. The Black Panther Party: A Closer Look. 2015. Retrieved from https://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/002/213/161/RUG01-002213161_2015_0001_AC.pdf

Beekman asserts that the Black Panther Movement was one of the most prosperous organizations in the United States Civil Rights Movement. The movement had the objective to build a robust black movement for the black Americans without integration with the Americans. The action means that the Party was on a different path from that of Martin Luther King because he wanted the combination of the Whites and Black Americans to live in harmony as a peaceful community. The movement applied different methods to accomplish what they intended. The organization used violence to help bring their objectives to reality. The followers of the campaign were the poor, hopeless, run-of-the-mill youths. The movement had its foundation in the ghetto.

Berman, M. The Black Panther Party as the Vanguard of the Oppressed. 2008. Retrieved from https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A1476/datastream/OBJ/view/All_power_to_the_people.pdf

According to Berman, the black population suffered and continued to suffer despite the effort to deal with segregation until they managed to outdo, but the lack did not change. The black suffered despite laws being made to help them acquire what they sought. The Black Panther Party came as a new power to help the Black Americans air their views. Their challenges ranged from capitalism, employment issues, and the ideology formulated by Newton Huey affected the movement positively. The paper speaks about phases of the doctrines and the entire journey towards attaining the objectives.

Carpini, M. Black Panther Party: 1966-1982. 2000. In I. Ness & J. Ciment (Eds.), The encyclopedia of third parties in America (pp. 190-197). Armonke, NY: Sharpe Reference. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/1

According to Carpini, the Party began with a significant point that guided it in terms of how it wanted to benefit the black Americans. The Party used these as strategies to determine how the targets would be made to reality. Among the objectives in the stipulated were; employment, proper housing, and other security matters like exemptions from brutal attacks that they were facing. Similarly, the author emphasizes that the blacks were called to arm themselves for purposes of protection. The philosophy of Black Panther was not definite as it often changed and most times based on the social contract theory. The Party sought for right indicated in the US Constitution. The Party was not focused on achieving political power but on the initiatives from the philosophy.

Cleaver, E. On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party. 2019. Retrieved from http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/Black%20Liberation%20Disk/Black%20Power%21/SugahData/Books/Cleaver.S.pdf

Cleaver, just like Carpini, discusses the ten primary objectives that the Party began to pursue right from the beginning. The research asserts that the Black Americans were not represented during that time; they felt helpless because they did not have control over anything in their nation. All that they had to do was survive despite the conditions bearing in mind that things may change anytime. The article also asserts that black Americans could not claim to be Marxist-Leninist because it seemed like they were calling themselves white people. The work discusses Fanon that was not biased but concerned with the rights of black people outside America. The society is based on a working system where the proletariats are prioritized, and the bourgeoisie has no say, the only thing that would help them is collective bargaining. Through new systems and rebellions, the Party was able to fight for rights of black.

Seale, B. The Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party. 2019. Retrieved from https://libcom.org/files/STT.pdf

Seale published the book to shed light about the Black Panther Party which was intended to make people know what happened and not really on false information. The black Americans feel oppressed right from the beginning when their people were killed trying to fight for their rights. They still have the same spirit despite all the measures that have been taken against them. Some of the members are in prison suffering because of fighting against oppression. The history of the Black Panther Party together with the founder and the entire journey till the Party was popular has been discussed at length.

Seifert, M. Political Art of the Black Panther Party: Cultural Contrasts in the Nineteen Sixties Countermovement. 2009. Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato 9(15). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/facf/cbee9bed1d7bce364eac7a080997102b5bc9.pdf

Seifert contends that the organization came up as a result of the difference in the race in the community at the time. The Party came as a remedy for the frustrated black American with the efforts that they had made to make a difference in the society which they had not yet achieved. As a result, they ended up using the violence manner to fight for their objectives and for defending themselves. The people had suffered enough and decided to take the time to revenge, making the organization known to the black American community. The people came together with leaders that opted to use violence to achieve their objectives.

Street, J. Free Huey or the Sky's the Limit: The Black Panther Party and the Campaign to Free Huey P. Newton. 2019. European Journal of American Studies 14(1). Retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/14273

Street discusses the arrest of Huey charged with the murder of a police officer during a time that the Party was almost collapsing. The fact that Huey was imprisoned led to many reactions across the globe, most of which wanted his release. The Party was transformed into one of the most popular during this time; therefore, Huey becomes an icon during that year. As the campaigns to free him continued, the Party continued to gain momentum and since the philosophy was not clear, but Huey became very popular and could not be compared to any other person.

Introduction

The Black Panther Party was started in 1966 in Oakland, California. The group began with few members then continued to develop as the organization continued to gain popularity. The part came to an end in 1982 after a short duration, but still, it had made a significant change in the lives of the members. The Party was known for the politics and militarism on behalf of the black Americans. The Party used violence as a method to acquire the rights that they believed were entitled to yet could not access them. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were the founders of the Party have been active members of politics while at the campus. The name of the Party was imitated from Freedom Organization of Lowndes County, Alabama, that had a panther as the symbol. The movement was radically based on supporting the black Americans with self-defense as the primary objective. The organization raised funds from selling copies of the book "little red book" by Mao Zedong (Carpini, 2000).

Philosophy

The philosophy of the Party was, at times, sophisticated and not easy to understand with the basis being the social contract theory that is most common in the United States. The social contract theory involves the rich focusing on remaining rich while the poor people help the rich acquire more wealth. The Party was not in support of the social contract theory and instead advocated for the individual rights as stipulated in the US Constitution. The black communities in the United States were referred to as colonies that required liberation from the harsh surrounding that they were living. The philosophy of the Party concentrated on the radicalization of the intention to have a diverse culture during those days. The Party, even though it mostly advocated for self-defense, they abided to the national laws. When it came to the weapons, they kept them but also heeded to the regulations. The Party focused on the protection of the other sensitive groups like LGBTQ, the poor, and women (Carpini, 2000).

Platform

According to Cleaver (2019), the Party had wants presented as part of the main objectives to help the people understand what was intended by the movement. The platform consisted of ten primary desires. The platform served as a medium of enlightening the people regarding the beliefs and wants the Party sought. The wants will be explained briefly below.

They wanted freedom - the black community desired the power to determine how their future will be other than be subjected to strict conditions.

They wanted employment for the black people- the government was responsible for the work or guaranteed that all persons were entitled to the income. They claimed that the proletariat would not offer guaranteed employment for long-term.

Robbery through capitalism to be brought to an end- the black community continued to suffer through increased levels of poverty. The rich people wanted to retain their riches while the sparse black population continued to suffer

The culmination of murder and police brutality towards the black community- the black community suffered criminalization, whereas the members subjected to death were innocent. The black felt helpless that they had nobody o protect them most crimes were associated with the black community.

They wanted the freedom of black men that were in prison- the black people that suffered in jail were arrested for reasons like fighting for their freedom. Others were subjected to the punishment due to crimes that they were not guilty.

Justice for the black community- the black had nobody to defend them. When it came to insecurity matters, the blacks were first suspects making them suffer innocently for crimes they did not commit. The law was not for the poor but for the protection of their rich and their wealth.

They wanted good housing systems suitable for humans- the black community lived under harsh conditions unfit for humans. They wanted better places to live since they were also entitled to the same concerning the United Nations provisions and the United States Constitution.

The black community had to be exempted from joining military- the black community was used to provide security to offer protection of the resources of wealthy white people in business.

They wanted the will of the black community realized through a program supervised by the United Nations- guided by the universal laws from the United Nations, the black community. For matters like food, housing, security, and protection, they knew that they were entitled as the laws required.

They wanted education for the black community- the black was identified as poor and uneducated. The schools were mostly for whites; therefore, the black community felt that they also needed to have equal rights to all the resources just like the United States stipulated.

The Founders

According to Seale (2019) in the article that he wrote, he and Huey lived lives of poverty. They had to live a life of opposing all the harsh treatment that they suffered from their environment. Seale wanted to associate with the people that stood out to protect the oppressed that he wanted to name his son after Stagolee. In the beginning, Seale only heard about the civil rights movement but did not know that he was going to be part of the same one day. All that Seale did while at school was read a lot about the movements and the history of their country. Th...