Black Panther Party For Self Defense example essay topic

Is Violence the Answer? : The Black Panther Party Organized in the 1960's at the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party emerged as a revolutionist group pioneering a strategy of militancy. The Party's aims were to eliminate the discrimination challenging African-Americans in America since the time of slavery, and to protect their communities from police brutality. Inspired by contemporary radical leaders such as Malcolm X, the party recognized that in order to restructure American society so that civil equality was obtainable by all people, a much stronger opposition was necessary. Party members felt the passive resistance adopted by their predecessors fighting for equality proved futile, and therefore the Party endorsed new tactics of self-defense and violent resistance to secure their political and social rights as American citizens. However, the promotion and employment of open violence fueled the government with legitimate reason to battle for the Party's eradication.

Regardless of its success in instituting innovative community reforms in African-American neighborhoods, during its short existence the Black Panther Party was never able to achieve its fundamental goal of eliminating racial discrimination and ensuring civil equality for all when battling against an America averse to change. The period ranging from approximately 1950's-1970's witnessed a rabid call for social change: in particular, the demand for civil equality. In 1966, frustrated by the lack of progress in the fight for equal rights for blacks, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Outraged by instances of police brutality and violence toward civil rights workers and even innocent citizens, the Party adopted a policy of self-defense and militancy recognizing that "All history has shown that this government will bring its police and military powers to bear on any group which truly seeks to free African people" (Acoli 2).

This new strategy of "fighting back" differed dramatically from the non-violent rebellion that leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated. These non-violent leaders had adopted a strategy of building a respectful coexistence with the rest of society, which they hoped would eventually lead to social change. However, change was not transpiring rapidly or extensively enough for the founders of the Black Panther Party. Originally a small coalition of men with the goal of protecting their community of Oakland, California, the Party developed itself into a prominent national organization maintaining chapters in forty-eight states all fighting to rid the country of discrimination and unlawful violence against blacks. While other prominent civil rights groups were engaging in non-violent protests such as sit-ins and rallies, the Black Panther Party was determined to take a bolder stance against injustice. The Party believed that the methods that organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNI A), and leaders such as Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. were implementing remained ineffective against an extremely discriminatory America: despite mass uprisings by blacks in resistance to unrelenting violence and the law's delay, despite tacit urgings by blacks to be afforded some means to survive, despite bold attempts to live separate lives in America [... ] blacks, in the main, found themselves denied of every possible avenue to either establish their own socioeconomic independence or participate fully in larger society ("Panther").

The Black Panther Party, therefore, ventured to adopt a new strategy: revolution. The Party was strongly influenced by the rising Black Power movement, which stressed dignity, self reliance and racial unity. Robert F. Williams, an early Black Power leader, was one of the earliest advocates of violent protest against the continued injustices confronting blacks. He determined that "nonviolence could not be looked upon as the cure-all for all the problems of the Afro-American community" (Coombs 5). Williams asserted that because non-violent demands for civil equality were met with seemingly unnecessary violence by police and government forces or ignored altogether, blacks must be prepared to engage in a full scale war against oppressors. Williams avowed, "it is precisely this unchallenged violence that allows a racist social system to perpetuate itself" (6).

Drawing on Williams' and other Black Power activist's arguments as encouragement for taking up arms, the Black Panther Party sought to reform society through violent means. Although armed and fully clad in black leather jackets and berets, the party's militant guise, the party sought not to retaliate for past violent actions against blacks. The Black Panther Party instead encouraged blacks to defend themselves only when faced with hostility. Adopting the black panther as their emblem, the party hoped to communicate that like the animal, it "never attacked another animal" but was prepared to "defend itself ferociously when challenged" (Coombs 10). Black Panther members worked as surveyors of their community police forces, ensuring that the police were not being unnecessarily hostile during routine operations. Panthers would trail police cruisers and when one stopped an African-American, they too would stop and make certain the person pulled over was receiving proper legal treatment.

Not only did the Black Panther Party offer protection against police hostility it sought to reform deteriorating African American communities. The Panthers were able to make substantial contributions to the improvement of African-American communities. The Party sought to reform their neighborhoods from within by "going to the masses, living among them, sharing their burdens, and organizing the masses to implement their own solutions to the day to day problems that were of great concern to them" (Acoli 2). The party instituted many ground-breaking community reforms that provided "a model for an alternative, more humane social scheme" for African-Americans ("Panther"). Through commonly labeled "Survival Programs", the party was able help meet the basic needs of the people, those often ignored by the central government ("Panther"). The Black Panther Party did this by initiating community help programs ranging from free breakfasts for children, free health care, and free clothing drives to reforms aiming to reduce drugs and crime in their neighborhoods.

The reform techniques were so successful that similar measures were implemented by the government years later to help disadvantaged communities and people. Along with the results of violent aggression (68 members were wounded, 28 members and 14 police officers were left dead, and hundreds had been imprisoned) the Party also successfully produced 200,000 hot breakfasts daily for school children, gave 1 million sickle-cell anemia tests, and processed 200,000 weekly newspapers (Murphy 2). However successful community reforms proved, Black Panther Party member's faced challenges due to their exercise of violent defiance of government and police powers. The Party's disruptions during police operations left them open targets for the government. Such confrontations created hostility between the opposing governmental forces and the Black Panther Party, especially when the Panthers employed violence. Therefore, because of the Party's employment of violence as a mechanism for social change, the success of their vision was undermined.

As a result of open hostility, the Party frequently engaged in gun battles with police, most often in the cities of Los Angeles and Chicago. Determined to dissolve the Party, government and police officials jailed Party members on conspiracy charges and raided and vandalized party offices in twenty cities ("Panther"). J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation asserted that the Black Panthers composed "the greatest threat to the internal security of the U.S". ("Panther"). The government was determined and prepared to launch a counterattack against the Black Panther Party, with the aim of completely eliminating the threatening coalition.

The Black Panther Party was fighting against a hostile America, unwelcome to the idea of social equality for blacks with deeply rooted practices of discrimination dating back to the time of slavery. Therefore, the Party realized that only a radical challenge would beget change. But perhaps because they viewed their oppressors "in terms of opponents, as evil forces to be fought" and did not seek to build a foundation based on mutual respect, their mission for social change was undermined (Shields 57). Open violence gave the police a "convenient excuse to make raids on any and all BPP offices, or member homes, under the pretext that they were looking for suspects, fugitives, weapons, and or explosives", therefore inhibiting the Party from effectively organizing (Acoli 3). Resulting internal disorganization presented the FBI with the opportunity to launch a successful campaign against the party. This operation caused structural and leadership problems, eventually leading to the Party's demise.

The FBI was able to apprehend leading Panthers on counts of conspiracy against the government due to their open violence against police forces. Even Huey Newton, the Party's own Minister of Defense, later acknowledged the failure of violence to bring about social change: "All we got was a war and a lot of bloodshed" (Coombs 13). In the end, the Black Panther Party had to acknowledge a fundamental truth about implementing social change: "Ultimately it is what you are being rather than doing [... ] that has the greatest influence" (Shields 63). It was only when the Party adopted a strategy of promoting community reforms, rather than that of instigating of violence, that it was able to achieve considerable success. While the Black Panther Party may have made significant contributions to its own black communities and ignited the fight for civil equality with passion and fervor, it was never able to achieve its ultimate goal: to eliminate discrimination against African-Americans in the United States.

The exercise of violence gave the government far too much justification for working to eradicate the Party. The reliance on open hostility therefore, undermined the Party's mission and left it susceptible to charges of being too revolutionary. Fighting against the government, rather than collaborating with it as it the ultimate executor of social change gave the Black Panther Party little change to significantly remedy the inequalities so embedded in American culture.

Bibliography

Acoli, Sundiata. "A Brief History of the Black Panther Party. Its Place in the Black Liberation Movement". World History Archives. Ed. Haines Brown. 1995.
Hartford Wed Publishing. 24 Oct. 2002 Coombs, Norman.
The Black Revolt". The Black Experience in America. 7 June 1993: Information Services Division.
Electronic Archives. Leave Library. University of Southern California. Los Angeles, CA. 5 Nov 2002.
Murphy, Dean E. "Black Panthers, Gone Gray, Fight Rival Group". New York Times. 7 Oct. 2002.
Panther. The Black Panther Party. 23 Oct. 2002.
Shields, Katarina. In the Tiger's Mouth. Philadelphia: New Society, 1994.