-This is a continuation of the essay in Issue #2-
Although the Black Panther Party was subject to mass media criticism and government subversion, they made many positive steps in the Black Liberation Movement and the road to Afro-American freedom.
The Black Panther Party gained mass Afro-American support by way of their policy to serve the people. Members of the party traveled to the laden masses, lived among them, shared their burdens, and educated them on developing their own solutions to their problems. The Party organized free breakfast programs for children, free health clinics, survival programs, Inter-communal Youth Band, rent strikes resulting in tenant ownership of the buildings, Liberation schools for grade-schoolers, free clothing drives, campaigns for community control of schools and police forces, campaigns to stop drugs and crime, and campaigns to stop brutality and murder by the police. These techniques spread beyond the Party’s membership. Years later the American government established free school lunches, expanded Medicare and childcare facilities, and liberalized court procedures for tenant takeover of poorly maintained housing. Even though these steps seem very large in the way of Black Liberation, most Afro-Americans were still being governed by the white capitalist world. The steps the American government took to support the less fortunate were only an attempt to snuff out the values the Black Panther Party and make them seem as only a militant fascist regime.
When Bobby Seale ran for mayor of Oakland in 1973, it showed that the Black Panthers had learned a valuable lesson along their journey. If you want to win your ideas over in a white world, you have to beat the white man at his own game. Bobby Seale went back to a document the Panthers published in October 1966, called “WHAT WE WANT, WHAT WE BELIEVE.” This outlined the goals of the new Black Panther Political Party. It became the platform for Seale’s election and his campaign.
“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.”
Sadly enough, even this tactic did not work. In 1968, there was a false photo published in many newspapers. It revealed many different types of heavy guns that the Oakland Police Dept. supposedly confiscated from a raid on a Black Panther building. The photo was propagated during Seale’s election, ruining his campaign.
The Black Panther Party was attempting to create a system whereby the oppressed Black Americans and other people of colour could control their own destiny. They accomplished their platform and gave pride in Black communities. They taught what every American feared. It is a citizen’s right to question the workings of their government. If the government is not protecting that citizen’s rights, it is the job of that citizen to overthrow the government. The Black Panther Party was only fighting for their constitution. So, was The Black Panther Party a militant threat, or simply, the bullet for the gun of democracy?
