Lost Black History
By Don Valentine
The legendary Huey Newton, Angela Davis, Stokeley Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Bobby Seele, and H. Rap Brown are some of the names we remember from the Black Panther Party. Sadly it was the violent acts adjacent to the Panthers that we learned in school. The Panthers had many more layers of peaceful participation that were rarely exposed. In 1966 Bobby Seele and Huey Newton, at a small White college in Oakland, made the schematic for the Panthers.
Seale and Newton drew up a controversial “Ten-Point Plan,” which was inspired from the words of Dr. King and the U.S. Constitution, and became the paradigm for the Panthers nationwide. Smithsonianmag.com wrote, “It articulated the demands of an angry, abused community. Some points ‘We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER
of Black people’—were (and remain) incontestable. Others, like the call for all Black prisoners to be freed and all Black men be exempt from military service, provoked an uproar.”
After a number of killings of unarmed Black men, the Panthers began patrolling the police in Oakland and nearby Richmond, wearing berets, pea coats and brandishing rifles. In the late 60’s California law allowed “open carry” of firearms. That image was branded into mainstream White America and made the Panthers an iconic civil rights group. Smithsonian magazine documented the rabid popularity of the Panthers between ‘66 – ‘71. “Of the BPP’s more than 5,000 members, two-thirds were women. And the Panthers did far more than seek justice for victims of police violence. They provided breakfasts for children, ambulance services, escorts for seniors, health clinics, sickle cell screening and food distribution. Their effort became international, beginning in Oakland but eventually embracing the world.”
The humanitarian projects for the kids and seniors are what a lot of Blacks admired about the Panthers. Unfortunately the visual protest to free Huey Newton, is what the mainstream press put into the newsfeed. In 1967 Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of a police officer. That sparked the chants of “Free Huey Newton” in urban areas all over California.
The Panthers encouraged feminist leadership in the party. According to Essence magazine, “By the 70’s, women made up the majority of the party and today, those same women continue to fight in the name of justice and Black liberation.” Women had an integral role in the creation of the Panthers. These proud Black women defied societal gender roles, because they were strong, assertive, revolutionary figures.
The Panthers had an extended period of hibernation, but it has seen a rebirth in San Diego. KPBS in San Diego reported, “The original members revived the organization in 2016, and they are now recruiting the next multicultural generation. The KPBS documentary notes, “The Black Panthers of San Diego run a community garden, feed unhoused people and set up a free store on what used to be a site of gang activity.” The rally cry was and is, “All power to the people!”
