ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE
The Black Panthers is most known for its militancy, but its violence was not unchecked or abused and only used when absolutely necessary; its controlled use of violence to achieve their goals demonstrates violence was not a means to get revenge or to punish, but a means to protect, to expose the gravity of the violence inflicted on blacks, and to achieve social change. From the start, BPP established rules on how and when violence should be used: “No party member will use, point, or fire a weapon of any kind unnecessarily or accidentally at anyone… All Panthers must learn to operate and service weapons correctly… Do not hit or swear at people… If we ever have to take captives do not ill-treat them.”[8] BPP did not intend for its members to use violence to hurt or kill racist sheriffs and politicians to remove those who did not have blacks’ interests in mind out of the way of the black race’s pursuit of justice; the goal was “to use the threat of violence; we live in a violent society and violence is all that society understands. And we would never take up arms unless we were forced to.”[9] Many followers turned to the BPP because they were frustrated with the ineffectiveness of nonviolence, so they became more receptive to the use of open violence.[10] People began to view self-defense as not just a necessity, but also as “a right to be protected by law.”[11] Most blacks did not know that it is their constitutional right to bear arms and to defend themselves, even against the police if the police was wrong, and BPP intended to teach the community that blacks have this right to self-defense.[12] For the victims of police brutality, the BPP represented hope and a challenge to white America by using violence to expose police brutality. Members armed themselves with weapons and patrolled their neighborhoods to protect blacks from racist police oppression and injustice.[13] They questioned police conduct by arriving at scenes of police harassment of blacks with weapons and reading the legal code out loud to the arrestee.[14] By organizing armed patrols in black communities, the BPP hoped to put a stop to police harassment. Their knowledge of the law and guns sent a message to the officers that blacks were no longer going to be passive victims and chose the risk of death over continued repression. Blacks were proud to be black and this self-respect and self-love encouraged them to defend themselves and the black people.[15] This willingness to defend and to sacrifice unified blacks and demonstrated the extent and duration of the oppression that had been forced upon blacks.
BPP made it a priority to serve the black community’s needs because whites had been unwilling to and inadequately doing so, despite their incessant control over blacks. This led to the development of over sixty survival programs to help blacks survive outside the local, state, or federal systems that were already under-servicing them. The creation of these programs is a testament to the failure of white America to provide for its black citizens as BPP self-fulfilled many of its demands for basic needs, demonstrating the commitment and power of the people to control their own destiny. In 1969, the first program, the Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren Program, was created and soon enough, other survival programs such as the Free Medical Research Health Clinics, Cooperative Housing Program, Free Employment Program, among others, were developed.[16] Even though the survival programs satisfied many of the urgent needs of the community, they were not permanent solutions to the race-related entrenched problems; Newton said, “[the programs] will help us to organize the community around a true analysis and understanding of their situation. When consciousness and understanding is raised to a high level, then the community will seize the time and deliver themselves from the boot of their oppressors.”[17] The goal was to give blacks hope that their poverty did not have to be everlasting; by eliminating the constant concern for obtaining basic necessities, blacks would be able to focus more on removing themselves from whites’ restrictive hold on blacks’ freedom and asserting their power in society. These projects challenged the perception of the BPP as violent and dangerous, but the media refused to view the BPP in a positive light and argued it was propaganda to lure black youths into the organization and to carry out the BPP’s “communist” agenda. However, Seale created the programs with the intention of protecting the community from hunger and complete poverty, a protection among many others that whites have been unable to provide.[18] All the programs were free and driven by black love for the black community; if the people had a need, the BPP served that need and tried to get them to understand why they were in need while living in such a rich nation, supporting the idea that only blacks will be willing and able to help themselves. Addressing the problems that plagued black life helped raise blacks’ political consciousness and motivated them to overcome economic oppression and to transform society. |
[8] Philip S. Foner, The Black Panther Speak (New York: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1970), 5-6.
[9] Lawrence Swaim and Black Panther, “An Interview With A Black Panther,” The North American Review, Vol. 253, No. 4, 31. [10] Austin, 12. [11] Ibid., 10. [12] Swaim, 29. [13] Peter B. Levy, The Civil Rights Movement (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998), 142. [14] Jane Rhodes, Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon (New York: The New Press, 2007), 69. [15] Austin, 8. [16] Hilliard, 30. [17] Huey P. Newton, “To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton” (circa 1972); quoted in Hilliard, 3. [18] Rhodes, 252. |