Black Panthers: The Rise And Fall Of The Black Panther Party

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Of course, members of the Party rapidly caught on to the Police’s ideals. As a result of this, by the end of 1972 at least four African Americans were killed. H. Rap Brown, who iscurrently serving life in prison, was a prominent Black Panther Party member. He murdered aGeorgian’s Sheriff Deputy and wounded another officer, both sheriff and officer being of AfricanAmerican decent. Police harassment and internal problems took a massive toll on the Black Panthers and it indeed restrained them from achieving their goals.At this point the Black Panther Party was at a critical stage having lost four importantmembers within three years of the party’s lifetime. The party desperately needed a meeting place;somewhere they could gather and communicate…show more content…
“The party aimed to gain complete control of the institutions in thecommunity.” (Van Peebles 75) The Black Panthers were aiming to achieve the total control of allthe institutions in the community.By late 1968 the Black Panthers were armed with members who were eager to applyvarious points of their 10-Point Program. The Black Panthers hoped their programs would have athreefold effect. “Meet the immediate needs of the citizens the pledged to serve; inspire theAfrican American community to take up guns to defend the programs; and demonstrate that the party did so much with so little while the government did so little with so much” (Van Peebles99). The first program, which was to meet the immediate needs of the citizens pledged to serve,means that the people who are willing to serve the Panthers were given their needs first. Thesecond program was used to inspire African Americans to pick up guns to defend the programssent out a message to the African Americans to try and defend the programs so that they can last.The final program was just a demonstration of how the white government had everything theyneeded and more, but only did so little with it, while the Black Panther Party had so little, but didso much with that little that they had. These programs also untied the party from criticism of novalid actions.After the turbulent 1960s, the Panthers lost much of their popular support, and their power waned. Some members turned to more conformist methods of political action, whileothers longed for the combative days. Bobby Seale resigned his place in the Black Panther Party.In 1990 Newton was killed in Oakland while buying crack cocaine. In 1992 former panther Bobby Rush won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the first IllinoisCongressional District. The Black Panthers never achieved their goals.Rodriguez

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