The Black Panther Party (BPP)

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Throughout American history men and women all over have had to fight for their rights that have been denied whether it is due to their religion, where they live, how they look, or their race. These groups would go to any extent to gain back these rights that they deserved. Some simply would protest, and vocally expressed their thoughts and arguments on the cause. Other more radical and extreme groups would begin to use violent tactics and harm themselves and others around them to express how they felt. The Black Panther Party (BPP) brought every one of those tactics to the table. The Panthers were a well organized, committed, and passionate group. Any tactic that could be used toward gaining a step closer to obtaining rights for African Americans…show more content…
In the early days of the party, the group had trouble gaining popularity and support from African Americans around them. However, The Pathers began printing out their own newspaper to inform everyone around them what the Black Panther Party was about and how they planned on reaching their goals. In one of the first newspapers that the panthers had produced, the outline and constitution for a party member was printed and called the “Ten Point Program”. The Ten Point Program was an outline of the B.P.P’s goals for African American rights. The program was based directly off of the American constitiuion and simply stated what The Panthers wanted. The ten points were to obtainthe freedom and power to determine the destiny of the black and opressed communities, full employement for their people, an end to the robbery by the capitalist of the black communities, housing, equal education, free health care for all black people, an end to police brutality, an immediate end to all wars of aggression, and all blacks to be let out of jail or containment. After the publication of the groups constiution in the newspaper, despite their local origin, the Black Panther Party spread across the nation. The parties leadership saw their newspapers as one of the best weapons they had. Newton and Seale knew that the Black…show more content…
In 1967 Newton, one of the parties most influential members, was convicted of manslaughter for the shooting of Oakland Police officer John Frey, when Frey attempted to disarm and put down the Panthers Patrol. Shots were fired when backup arrived to assist the police officers. Officer Frey was shot four times and died within the hour, while three others were seriously wounded. However, in May of 1970, the California Appellate court overturned the conviction and demanded a new trial. After two mistrials the California Supreme Court released the case. In another instance two days after the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. , Bobby Hutton, a Black Panther minister, was involved in a police ambush when police opened fire on Hutton and another Panther. Two police officers were wounded and Bobby Hutton was killed. This time it was different though, the Panthers were not blamed for the shooting or the shots fired, the public sided with the B.P.P. and held the police resonsible for the

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