John Chestnut
Dr. Stephanie Brown
ENGL 306
Research Project Final Essay
Hope, Oppression, two words with
different meanings yet two words that were brought closer together because of
the work the Black Panther Party did during the Civil Rights movement in the 60’s.
Started from the dream of two men, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, this group that
some would label as radicals, would forever change laws and help fight
oppressions by any means necessary. The Black Panthers stood for hope for many
and also stood for what is right. Their brand of justice could be labeled as
extreme, but it was effective nonetheless. They were a group that fought for
ending of not only oppression, but also equality not only on the streets, but
equality throughout schools, the medical and job field. Their impact on society
is still felt to this day.
In the beginning two men had a dream,
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton met at Merritt College. Huey had just received a
month long prison sentence for a knife assault right before he met Seale.
(Caprini 191) The US was caught in the middle of the Vietnam war with many
young African American men being drafted into the war. Seale and Newton each believed
that African American men being drafted over to fight for a country that didn’t
believe in being just to them was ludicrous. Thus, The Black Panthers were
born. (Nelson, Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution)
Seale and Newton would begin to
build their party with anybody who had a want and desire to end oppression and
bring equality to all. The BPP developed a ten-point program which was a list
of what they felt they needed to be changed in order to obtain the equality they
were fighting for. The ten-point program was listed out in this order, freedom
and full employment opportunities. They wanted to bring down the capitalism
that they felt was robbing their communities. They wanted equal housing,
schooling, medical care and equality from a technological standpoint, but not
just for African Americans, but for all people who were oppressed during those
times. They also wanted to bring an end to the police brutality that was taking
place all across Oakland and the nation. At the time, the Vietnam War was being
fought anf they also wanted to find a way to bring an end to that so that no
one would have to sacrifice their body, and finally they wanted a fair justice
system that gave everyone a fair trial. (North American Review 16-17)
Many people remember the Black
Panther Party as being an extremist group, they were more focused on building
and creating change on their own. One way they did this, was through
healthcare. By 1965 the Black Panthers had set up 13 health care clinics across
the country. (Basset, 741) The health care clinics started in Oakland, and had
spread all the way out to Boston, Massachusetts and Mississippi. In doing this
the BPP had established that healthcare is not a privilege, but a god given
right to everyone who was living on the earth. (Bassett, 743) The BPP also knew
that they needed doctors in order for these clinics to stay up and running.
They would bring in doctors who had medical degrees to work at these clinics
and help people out. They wanted people to feel like they were at a clinic that
was better than what most privileged people had. (Brown 756)
The first clinic was opened in
Lawndale, Chicago thanks in part to Ronald Satchel and Fred Hampton. Ronald
Satchel was the minister of health for the Illinois chapter of the Black
Panthers, while Fred Hampton was one of the leaders of that chapter. Both men
were able to attract good doctors to the clinic, one of those being Quentin
Young. Young had decided to join the clinic because of how one-sided healthcare
was during his time at the University of Chicago. Young said that the white
people would receive health care right at the school while colored people were
sent away in search of whatever run down clinic would take them in. Young also
states that the clinics were served as a tactical and survival advantage. Many
members of the BPP would use the clinics that were set up throughout the nation
as a way to stay out of police line of sight and to lay low. Young’s
partnership with the clinics was the beginning to a positive long term
partnership with professional alumni. (Brown 757)
As the clinics had gained exposure
and begun to help everyone out, authorities decided that they needed to step
in. They would step in and try to hand down different health violations many
times being fabricated all in an attempt to shut down a clinic. The many
attempts never worked as many of those old clinics still remain open today.
They help anywhere from twenty to thirty people a day and an advocate of the
Black Panther Party stays at the centers to conduct in person interviews with
almost every patient. (Quentin Young, 754-755)
On December 4th 1969, Chicago
police would raid Fred Hampton’s apartment and kill him in his bed. Ronald
Satchel was also in that apartment and would be shot multiple times, but would
not be killed from it. Police claimed
that the men had opened fire on them while a search for weaponry was ongoing in
the apartment. Evidence would show that something different happened and that
the Chicago police had put together an assassination plot to take out the two
Black Panthers leaders along with another leader, Mark Clark. (Assassination of
Fred Clark, 2014)
Along with providing free
healthcare, the BPP started to provide a breakfast program for children. People
who lived in the community would get together in the morning and make breakfast
for all of the children who were not fortunate enough to have a well-balanced
breakfast before school. It was a program that helped provide for families that
were unable to provide the necessities on a day to day basis for their children.
(Nelson, Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution)
As The Black Panther Party did their best to
help out with the children and medical programs, they were quickly gaining fame
for what people call their more radical and extremist measures. The Black
Panthers wanted to create change, and they needed people to do it. All they
required for people to change was have the want to create that change by any
means necessary. Members would often open carry firearms with them wherever
they went as a way to intimidate. Any time they hear about injustice from the
police happening they would pull up in their cars, often times across the
street from where it was happening, get out with their guns in plain sight and
stand there and watch as a way to intimidate the police and bring an end to it.
The state of California would change the open carry laws shortly after in hopes
of easing the unrest in the streets. As a matter of fact, the open carry laws
we have in the US today are because of the way the Black Panthers would open
carry. (Nelson, Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution)
Open carry of fire arms was one reason
why the BPP had the image of being a radical group, but they also gained that
image from the people who were part of the group. One man named Eldridge
Cleaver, would become a sort of spokesperson for the BPP when Huey Newton would
be arrested for the fatal shooting of an Oakland police officer in October of
1968. A literary writer, Eldridge held a press conference and said this, “The
Black Panther Party demands that Huey P. Newton be set free, and we wish to
make it very clear that if he is not set free, there is little hope of avoiding
open, armed war on the streets of California and sweeping across this nation.” This
would create a huge protest movement where people would march and chant “Free
Huey!” This case would deliver two trials both of which led to a mistrial. Huey
P Newton would be freed and charges of be dropped in December of 1970. (Nelson,
Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution)
The BPP had started to become a group that
was not only for change, but about pop culture. People were emulating their
style and the more they would see of them the more they wanted to be like them.
J. Edgar Hoover, president at the time, wanted to put a stop to the group as
quickly as possible and developed a Counter Intelligence Program that would
force dissension among the ranks. Members of the BPP began to be blackmailed and
had letters sent to their parents and spouses with blatant lies, all as a way
to shame them publicly and have people turn their backs on them. Many African Americans
would be arrested for something minor and then be told that the only way they
could be freed is if they were to join the BPP and become an FBI informant.
William O’ Neal was one of them and he says that, The police had a case against
me…FBI agent Roy Mitchell asked me to, go down to the local Black Panther
office and try to gain membership.” Hoover and the FBI had kept this program as
secret as possible. (Nelson, Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution)
After a few years of fighting and things
becoming tougher, Eldridge Cleaver would move to Algeria and denounce the BPP. “I
don’t agree with saying that the Black Panther Party supports breakfast for
children and that’s all that we’re about…The black Panther Party is for
overthrowing the United States government.” Eldridge would only push the image
of the BPP being a radical group built on violence and war even more, and that
was something that most of the communities did not agree with. Eldridge and
Newton would have a falling out and bring a split within the panthers forcing
people in the BPP to have to choose a side. Some did while others ended up
walking away. (Nelson, Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution)
Years would pass and the BPP would begin
to lose its effect on the communities where they were at. Bobby Seale would try
to become the governor of Oakland California while Huey P. Newton murdered in
Oakland California in the year 1989. The man caught for the murder was a drug
dealer who would not sell drugs to Newton. After they argued for a few minutes
Newton would try to steal the drugs which would lead to his fatal shooting.
While the BPP’s history is laid out for
us their message is something that continues to stick around. People always compare
Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers together. One man led a peaceful
protest to help gain equality for all man, while the Black Panther Party was
known for more of their radical and extremist measures. The Black Panthers had
their ten-point program of what they wanted laid out, the main theme of that
list was ending oppression. Every bullet point on that list was something to
accomplish to help fight the oppression.
People and writers all have their own
views about what the Black Panther Party was and if they had gone about doing
their work the right or wrong way. David Oppenheimer had a new way of looking
at the Black Panther Party and writes, “The members are nothing more than a race
of people who were proud of their identity.” (Oppenheimer, University of
California Press)
While the Black Panthers were definitely
proud of who they were and wanted to show their pride, they wanted to create
and bring awareness to social justice. At the time they were the gatekeepers,
so to speak, of the black community. They helped out children, brought in
medical care and also fought oppression by any means necessary no matter how it
made them look. If they were a group that were only proud of their identity,
then you could argue that they would not have gone through as much trouble to
do certain protests and set up the different chapters of the Black Panthers
that were spread across the country at that time. Also, something of importance
to note, is that when the writer says the members of the Black Panthers were
only proud of their race, he fails to realize that anybody who felt oppressed
or wanted to end the oppression could join in on the marches and be welcomed as
a member. Quentin Young was a white doctor who helped pave the way for the
Black Panther medical programs, so to say that the party was created as a
matter of race is something that can easily be argued as false and is a way
that the writer is discrediting the impact that they left on society today.
Over time certain members of the Black Panther
party started to form their own opinions of what the party should be. One guy
in particular, whose name keeps popping up, is Eldridge Cleaver. Earlier in the
paper I quoted him saying that the Black Panther party was created to overthrow
the government and to an extent he is right. Bobby Seale and Huey Newton were
highly influenced by the work of Malcom X. Malcom X believed in necessary
violence as a way to create the social justice. (The Black Panther Party,
Socialist Alternative) He created a ‘Ballot or Bullet’ campaign in where he threatened
the US government with violence if African American’s were given the same equal
voting privileges. The ‘Ballot or Bullet’ slogan would be something the Black Panthers
would adopt later on as well. (Malcom X – Ballot or Bullet, YouTube) As you can
see, Malcom X easily advocated the use of weaponry to obtain the social change,
something that the Black Panther Party also advocated for to help create the
change on the street and help bring an end to oppression.
While, Malcom X had inspired the Seale
and Newton to create the Black Panthers, those two men had inspired others to
create protests of their own. Two men in particular, Tommie Smith and John Carlos
would use the 1968 Olympics to do that. During the medal ceremony for the
200-meter race the two men would create an image and a silent protest that
still leaves an impact felt to this day.
John Carlos and Tommie Smith would stand
upon the podiums after receiving their medals and raise their right fist into
the air. The raised fist signified, according to Carlos and Smith was a sign of
self-defense for what was happening in the country. Martin Luther King Jr. had
recently been assassinated and Smith and Carlos decided that a new message
needed to be sent out. They used the Olympic games as their moment to do just
that and in turn created that everlasting Image. (1968 Black Power Salute, YouTube)
The third man in the photo is Peter Norman,
he raced or Australia and ended up placing 2nd. He wore a tag on his
left breast which read, Olympic Project for Human Rights. Norman was also on
board for the protest because Australia had begun a “White Australia” movement
just a short time before the Olympics. Before the race started Norman would
give the idea to Carlos to wear the black glove over their wrist. Carlos and
Smith were disgraced and sent home immediately while Norman would be held out
of future Olympic games and never be allowed to run for the Australian team
again. (James Montague, CNN) The raised power fist would become a symbol of
human rights and one that the Black Panthers would begin to use the raised fist
as their sign after the new open carry law had passed.
“We were just human beings who needed to
bring attention to the inequality in our country.” A quote by Smith about why
they did what they did at the medal ceremony. The affects and the image is
still felt to this day with former president Barack Obama even giving high
praise of what the men did. “We’re proud of them. Their powerful silent protest
in the 1968 Olympic games was controversial, but it woke folks up.” (Dave
Boyer, Obama Praises Ex-Olympians)
The impact of John Carlos and Tommie
Smith is still felt in the sports world today as well thanks in part to Colin Kaepernick
and what he has done this past season in the NFL. Kaepernick started using his
star platform to begin his own silent protests. In the beginning of the season
Kaepernick sat to protest the National Anthem. Tommie Smith had this to say, “He’s
taken a stand. I support the idea of what he’s doing.” While John Carlos chimed
in with this, “He’s pushing for the same thing we pushed for 48 years ago, which
more dialogue and discussion. (Rich Schapiro, Colin Kaepernick praised…) On
Sunday November 13th after scoring a rushing touchdown Kaepernick
immediately threw up the black power fist. The impact that Carlos and Smith
left on sports and the world is huge. The black power fist is something that
players other than Kaepernick still use today. Smith and Carlos showed people
how to use their platform to create an image that is still being used and will
forever be used as long as we continue to have a need for change.
In today’s world, talking and learning of
the Black Panthers is becoming a crucial piece of information. Just this past
year at the latest Super Bowl, Beyonce took the stage during the most watched
halftime show of the year and helped create a discussion about the black
panthers again. Her Super Bowl
performance features dancer dressed up in an all-black outfit with afros just
like you would have seen in the old days of the panthers. The performance
certainly made people mad and got discussions started. Milwaukee County
Sherriff David A. Clarke Jr even had this to say about it, “Coming out in those
Black Panther type uniforms, would that be acceptable if a white band came out
in hoods and white sheets in the same fashion?” To begin, David Clarke is referencing
the Ku Klux Klan, an organization that had one goal and that was to
re-establish white supremacy throughout the country. The KKK wanted to get this
message out through violence and whatever they thought was necessary. (History,
Ku Klux Klan) While violence could be something that you could say the KKK and
BPP had in common, their overall message was completely different. The BPP as
mentioned throughout were all about wanting to create social justice and end oppression
not only for African Americans but for all people living any way possible. To
mention these two groups in the same breath would be a discredit for everything
that the Black Panthers had fought for in the 60’s. Instead of wondering about
what would happen if a group wore white cloaks and sang on a stage we should
step back and look at which group inspired more change and inspired people to
act out in honor of what was right instead of what was wrong.
While
Beyonce drew a ton of backlash for her performance Colin Kaepernick had taken
the time to create a Black Panthers inspired youth camp in Oakland California.
He also hopes to expand the camp to bring the program to other cities across
the country. Kaepernick had this to say to people who attended the camp. “We’re
here today to fight back and give you all lessons to fight back…to combat the
oppressive issues that our people face on a daily basis.” (Huffington Post,
Colin Kaepernick just started a Black Panther Inspired Youth Camp)
The effects of
the Black Panthers are still being felt today, whether it is Colin Kaepernick
or Beyonce stepping out and protesting we still see that they are a group that
has made a lasting impact on our country. From sports to music, the Black
Panthers changed not only the way people lived, but the way people protest.
They were able to intimidate through violence thanks to what Bobby Seale and
Huey Newton learned from Malcom X and when they needed to they needed to they
were able to protest without the need for violence. The message of wanting to
end oppression is what is still fought for today by people all over like it was
in the 60’s and every generation afterwards. Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton
had not gotten into a war of words and could have racked brought their heads
together, there is no telling what they could have done. The fact that people
still talk about them and protest in honor of them fifty years later shows
exactly the type of impact they had and continue to have to this day.
1. “1968
Olympics The Black Power Salute.” YouTube, YouTube, 2012,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvCiKUlLAw.
2. “The
Black Panther Party.” Socialist Alternative, www.socialistalternative.org/life-legacy-malcolm-x/black-panther-party/.
3. “Malcolm
X - Ballot or Bullet.” YouTube, YouTube, 2006,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRNciryImqg.
4.
"The
Black Panther Ten-Point Program." The North American Review 253.4
(1968): 16-17. Web.
5. "Quentin
Young on the Black Panther Party Free Clinic in Chicago." American
Journal of Public Health 106.10 (2016): 754-755. Web.
6. Brown,
Theodore M. "Working With the Panthers to Transform Health Care for Poor
Black Communities." American Journal of Public Health 106.10
(2016): 756-757. Web.
7. “CNN.”
James Montague, CNN, Cable News
Network, www.cnn.com/2012/04/24/sport/olympics-norman-black-power/.
8. David
Oppenheimer, 2016, University of California Press
9. “Milwaukee
County Sherriff David Clarke Sounds off on Beyonce.” WFLD. N. Web 11 Nov. 2016
10. “Colin
Kaepernick Just Started A Black Panther Inspired Youth Group” N.P Web 11 Nov.
2016
11. Boyer,
Dave. “Obama Praises Ex-Olympians Tommie Smith, John Carlos for ‘68 ‘Black
Power’ Salute.” The Washington Times, The Washington Times,
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/sep/29/obama-praises-ex-olympians-smith-carlos-68-black-p/.
12. Schapiro,
Rich. “Colin Kaepernick Praised by 'Black Power' Olympians Smith, Carlos.” NY
Daily News, 2016, www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/colin-kaepernick-praised-black-power-olympians-smith-carlos-article-1.2771795.
13. History.com
Staff. “Ku Klux Klan.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009,
www.history.com/topics/ku-klux-klan.
