The legacy of the Black Panther Party and its co-founder, Huey P.
Newton, began in 1966, and started out as a group monitoring local police offices to help prevent police bruality in urban communities. This idea generated a powerful response within
black communities, which helped them organize and mobilize against massive
civil rights abuses across the United States. President J. Edgar Hoover
described the group as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the
country.” This was because Newton was a Marxist who studied the works of
revolutionaries like Lenin and Mao, and advocated for armed self-defense
against the state. This mix of theory and practice struck fear into the
establishment.
When discussing the civil rights era in school, sometimes students are rarely taught the true nature of the Black Panther Party. Instead student’s are taught that the group was full of criminals and thugs; this notion couldn’t be further from the truth. The group received such hate and vitriol mainly because they saw American imperialism and capitalism as the root cause of the problems people of color faced at home and abroad. Newton set up a ten-point program outlining the party’s ideology and demands. The program essentially asked for “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace” for black communities across the United States.
Newton’s most important contribution to the Black Panther Party’s goals was what he called “survival programs.” The Black Panther Party raised money in order to feed and clothe the poor within their communities, while at the same time educating the people about the causes of their living conditions and teaching them how to combat these issues. The most important of these programs was the Breakfast for Children Program; the Panthers claim to have fed more than 20,000 children during the school year of 1968-1969. The feed the people and Sickle Cell Anemia Programs were all invaluable because they taught people to rely on each other; they knew they couldn’t rely on the government and the law to stop their oppression and create better social conditions. In the end, the federal government saw the good in these programs and eventual incorporated and setup they types of programs to support African Americans and other oppressed people.
Although Newton will forever be remembered as a controversial figure, there is no denying his work helped unify the black community through education, self-betterment and localized care. It is important to remember Newton as a selfless leader who risked his life for the peoples’ cause. Too often the importance of armed self-defense is erased from the record of the civil rights movement; Newton’s legacy is testament to the importance of those aspects of the movement.
When discussing the civil rights era in school, sometimes students are rarely taught the true nature of the Black Panther Party. Instead student’s are taught that the group was full of criminals and thugs; this notion couldn’t be further from the truth. The group received such hate and vitriol mainly because they saw American imperialism and capitalism as the root cause of the problems people of color faced at home and abroad. Newton set up a ten-point program outlining the party’s ideology and demands. The program essentially asked for “land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace” for black communities across the United States.
Newton’s most important contribution to the Black Panther Party’s goals was what he called “survival programs.” The Black Panther Party raised money in order to feed and clothe the poor within their communities, while at the same time educating the people about the causes of their living conditions and teaching them how to combat these issues. The most important of these programs was the Breakfast for Children Program; the Panthers claim to have fed more than 20,000 children during the school year of 1968-1969. The feed the people and Sickle Cell Anemia Programs were all invaluable because they taught people to rely on each other; they knew they couldn’t rely on the government and the law to stop their oppression and create better social conditions. In the end, the federal government saw the good in these programs and eventual incorporated and setup they types of programs to support African Americans and other oppressed people.
Although Newton will forever be remembered as a controversial figure, there is no denying his work helped unify the black community through education, self-betterment and localized care. It is important to remember Newton as a selfless leader who risked his life for the peoples’ cause. Too often the importance of armed self-defense is erased from the record of the civil rights movement; Newton’s legacy is testament to the importance of those aspects of the movement.