The Black Power and
the Rise and Fall of the
Black Panther Party
I.
The Decline of the Civil Rights Movement and the Rise of Black Power
II.
Black Power and the Black Panther Party
III.
COINTELPRO and the Demise of Black Power
This lecture was prepared and delivered by Julian Manyoni in October 2006.
Mr. Manyoni is a Phd Candidate in English.
Black Power
It is about taking care of business – the business of
and for Black people…If we succeed we will exercise
control over our lives, politically, economically and
psychically. We will also contribute to the
development of a viable larger society; in terms of
ultimate social benefit there is nothing unilateral
about the movement to free Black people.
Kwame Toure & Charles Hamilton Black Power,
1967
The 10 Point Platform of the Black Panther Party
1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black and oppressed
communities.
We believe that Black and oppressed people will not be free until we are able to determine our
destinies in our own communities ourselves, by fully controlling all the institutions which exist in
our communities.
2. We want full employment for our people.
We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every person
employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the American businessmen will not give full
employment, then the technology and means of production should be taken from the businessmen
and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its
people and give a high standard of living.
3. We want an end to the robbery by the capitalist of our Black and oppressed communities.
We believe that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt
of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution
for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency which
will be distributed to our many communities. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of
over fifty million Black people. Therefore, we feel this is a modest demand that we make.
4. We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.
We believe that if the landlords will not give decent housing to our Black and oppressed
communities, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that the people in
our communities, with government aid, can build and make decent housing and the land should be
made into cooperatives so that the people in our communities, with government aid, can build and
make decent housing for the people.
The 10 Point Platform of the Black Panther Party
5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American
society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day
society.
We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If you do not
have knowledge of yourself and your position in the society and the world, then you will have
little chance to know anything else.
6. We want completely free health care for all Black and oppressed people.
We believe that the government must provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which
will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but
which will also develop preventative medical programs to guarantee our future survival. We
believe that mass health education and research programs must be developed to give all Black and
oppressed people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide
ourselves with proper medical attention and care.
7. We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people, other people
of color, all oppressed people inside the United States.
We believe that the racist and fascist government of the United States uses its domestic
enforcement agencies to carry out its program of oppression against Black people, other people of
color and poor people inside the United States. We believe it is our right, therefore, to defend
ourselves against such armed forces, and that all Black and oppressed people should be armed for
self-defense of our homes and communities against these fascist police forces.
The 10 Point Platform of the Black Panther Party
8. We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.
We believe that the various conflicts which exist around the world stem directly from the
aggressive desires of the U.S. ruling circle and government to force its domination upon the
oppressed people of the world. We believe that if the U.S. government or its lackeys do not cease
these aggressive wars that it is the right of the people to defend themselves by any means
necessary against their aggressors.
9. We want freedom for all Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. federal, state,
county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons
charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.
We believe that the many Black and poor oppressed people now held in U.S. prisons and jails have
not received fair and impartial trials under a racist and fascist judicial system and should be free
from incarceration. We believe in the ultimate elimination of all wretched, inhuman penal
institutions, because the masses of men and women imprisoned inside the United States or by the
U.S. military are the victims of oppressive conditions which are the real cause of their
imprisonment. We believe that when persons are brought to trial that they must be guaranteed, by
the United States, juries of their peers, attorneys of their choice and freedom from imprisonment
while awaiting trials.
10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people's
community control of modern technology.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them
to the separation.
On Civil Rights and Black Liberation
Black people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated, and
everything else to get the racist power structure of America to
right the wrongs which have historically been perpetrated against
black people. All of these efforts have been answered by more
repression, deceit, and hypocrisy. As the aggression of the racist
American government escalates in Vietnam, the police agencies of
America escalate the repression of black people throughout the
ghettoes of America. Vicious police dogs, cattle prods, and
increased patrols have become familiar sights in black
communities. City Hall turns a deaf ear to the pleas of black
people for relief from this increasing terror.
The Black Panther Party for Self-defense believes that the time
has come for black people to arm themselves against this terror
before it is too late.
Huey Newton, (Executive Mandate #1, Oct 1967).
Resistance
Those who profess to favour freedom yet deprecate agitation are
men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want
rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without
the awful roar of its many waters…Power concedes nothing
without demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what
any people will quietly submit to and you have just found out the
exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be inflicted upon
them, and these will continue until they are resisted with either
words or blows or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed
by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass, 1857
On Race, Class, and Revolution
You know, a lot of people have hang-ups with the Party because the Party talks about a
class struggle. We say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx
and Lenin and Che Guevara and Mao Tse-tung and anybody else that has ever said or
knew or practiced anything about revolution always said that a revolution is a class
struggle. It was one class - the oppressed, and that other class - the oppressor. And it's
got to be a universal fact. Those that don't admit to that are those that don't want to get
involved in a revolution, because they know as long as they're dealing with a race
thing, they'll never be involved in a revolution.
We never negated the fact that there was racism in America, but we said that the byproduct, what comes off of capitalism, that happens to be racism. That capitalism
comes first and next is racism. That when they brought slaves over here, it was to make
money. So first the idea came that we want to make money, then the slaves came in
order to make that money. That means that racism came from capitalism. It had to be
capitalism first and racism was a byproduct of that.
Fred Hampton (1968)
Black Child's Pledge
I pledge allegiance to my Black People.
I pledge to develop my mind and body to the greatest extent possible.
I will learn all that I can in order to give my best to my People in their struggle for liberation.
I will keep myself physically fit, building a strong body free from drugs and other substances
which weaken me and make me less capable of protecting myself, my family and my Black
brothers and sisters.
I will unselfishly share my knowledge and understanding with them in order to bring about
change more quickly.
I will discipline myself to direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting
them in idle hatred.
I will train myself never to hurt or allow others to harm my Black brothers and sisters for I
recognize that we need every Black Man, Woman, and Child to be physically, mentally and
psychologically strong.
These principles I pledge to practice daily and to teach them to others in order to unite my
People.
The Black Panther Newspaper, October 26, 1968
Black Panther Party Community Programs
1. Alameda County Volunteer Bureau Work Site
2. Benefit Counseling
3. Black Student Alliance
4. Child Development Center
5. Consumer Education Classes
6. Community Facility Use
7. Community Health Classes
8. East Oakland Center for Independent Living Branch
9. Community Pantry (Free Food Program)
10. Drug/Alcohol Abuse Awareness Program
11. Drama Classes
12. Disabled Persons Services/Transportation and
Attendant
13. Drill Team
14. Employment Referral Service
15. Free Ambulance Program
16. Free Breakfast for Children Programs
17. Free Busing to Prisons Program
18. Free Clothing Program
19. Free Commissary for Prisoners Program
20. Free Dental Program
21. Free Employment Program
22. Free Food Program
23. Free Film Series
24. Free Furniture Program
25. Free Health Clinics
26. Free Housing Cooperative Program
27. Food Cooperative Program
28. Free Optometry Program
29. Community Forum
30. Free Pest Control Program
31. Free Plumbing and Maintenance Program
32. Free Shoe Program
33. GED Classes
34. Geriatric Health Center
35. GYN Clinic
36. Home SAFE Visits
37. Intercommunal Youth Institute (becomes OCS
by 1975)
38. Junior and High School Tutorial Program
39. Legal Aid and Education
40. Legal Clinic/Workshops
41. Laney Experimental College Extension Site
42. Legal Referral Service(s)
43. Liberation Schools
44. Martial Arts Program
45. Nutrition Classes
46. Oakland Community Learning Center
47. Outreach Preventative Care
48. Program Development
49. Pediatric Clinic
50. police patrols
51. Seniors Against a Fearful Environment
52. SAFE Club
53. Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation
54. Senior Switchboard
55. The Black Panther Newspaper
56. Teen Council
57. Teen Program
58. U.C. Berkeley Students Health Program
59. V.D. Preventative Screening & Counseling
60. Visiting Nurses Program
61. WIC (Women Infants, and Children) Program
62. Youth Diversion and Probation Site
63. Youth Training and Development
On Coalition Building
We have not said much about homosexuals at all, but we must
relate to the homosexual movement because it is a real thing. And
I know…that homosexuals are not given freedom or liberty by
anyone in this society. They might be the most oppressed in the
society…We should be careful about using these terms that might
turn our allies off. The terms “faggot” and “punk” should be
deleted from our vocabulary…Homosexuals are not enemies of the
people. We should try to form a working coalition with the gay
liberation and women’s liberation groups. We must always handle
social forces in the most appropriate manner.
Huey P. Newton, 1970
COINTELPRO
Predictably, the most serious of the FBI's disruption programs
[between 1956 and 1971] were those directed at "Black
Nationalists." These programs ... initiated under liberal
Democratic administrations, had as their purpose "to expose,
disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities
of black nationalist, hate-type organizations and groupings, their
leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters"...Agents
were instructed to "inspire action in instances where
circumstances warrant." Specifically, they were to undertake
actions to discredit these groups both within the "responsible
Negro community" and to "Negro radicals," and also "to the
white community, both the responsible community and liberals'
who have vestiges of sympathy for militant black nationalists..."
Noam Chomsky COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret
War on Political Freedom
The Enemy Within
The Black Panthers are greatest threat to the internal security of
the country. Schooled in the Marxist-Leninist ideology and the
teaching of Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung, its members
have perpetrated numerous assaults on police officers and have
engaged in violent confrontations with police throughout the
country. Leaders and representatives of the Black Panther Party
travel extensively all over the United States preaching their gospel
of hate and violence not only to ghetto residents, but to students in
colleges, universities and high schools as well.
J. Edgar Hoover, F.B.I. Director (NY Times, Sept 9, 1968)