Power to the People - Thoughts on the Black Panther Party and Black Power Movement. During the civil rights movement, local whites harassed the peaceful and non-violent marchers while the police turned a blind eye and arrested the activists as troublemakers. This trend was becoming too much and what they needed was some form of liberation, that came through the agile activities of Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panther Party. Following the influence of Malcom X towards the end of his life, the Black Panthers Party was formed to protect local communities from police brutality and racism. It was not all about violence as most people relate the group to.
First, they wanted to assist in freeing the slaves in southern states. Second, they wanted the opportunity to have equal rights in the United States. Third, they wanted to demonstrate their patriotism for the United States by fighting for their country. However, prejudice delayed African American from enlisting in the Union Army. Once allowed in the Civil War, African Americans actively supported the Union Army.
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.
When James Meredith, a demonstrator who led a 220-mile "March Against Fear," was shot trying to prove that white violence was not to be feared, Carmichael came to the realization that King’s nonviolence and civil disobedience strategy was not working. Ironically, Carmichael became the Chairman for Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) just as he began to have doubts about nonviolence as a strategy. As the leader of SNCC, Carmichael began to talk about Black Power rather than nonviolent civil disobedience and transformed the group into a more militant organization. (Stewart 432) The Black Power movement represented a completely different approach toward civil rights activism; the movement
The Republicans during the time had done many things to help Blacks. The Freedmen's Bureau was very self-explanatory. The Ku Klux Klan had done whatever it took to oppress Blacks and Black-sympathizers. They would go after their family members and take their heads. That would prove to be a very effective tactic of fear and intimidation.
Some of these groups and people included ‘Malcolm X’, Rosa Parks, and ‘The Black Panthers’. Malcolm X saw King’s campaign as trying to persuade the African American citizens to forget the days of slavery, and forget what the white men had done to their people. His stance was passive/aggressive and wanted equality by any means, including violence. Malcolm X was assassinated by a white supremacist during a speech and died of bullet wounds. Also, ‘The Black Panthers’ were a very violent group and saw King’s campaign as time consuming and feared it being forgotten in the process.
the black people in America suffered from the police interference in their lives and were even imprisoned even though they were not guilty. It is obvious that every human being has dreams. Martin Luther King had a dream too, which was seeing the world in peace and having equality rule the world. He dreamt about having brotherhood and seeing black and whites “sit down together at the tale of brotherhood”. To conclude, black people all over the world, wherever they live were for a long time victim of racism for their skin color.
For many Chicano activists, the Black civil rights struggle was crucial in persuading them to pursue the path that eventually led them to the movimiento. Mexican American youth excitedly discussed the plight of their people, whom they knew had been repressed. Three reasons accounted for activists to take the path to politicization: One, the media and white liberals were not as interested in Mexican American issues as they were in the abhorrent treatment of Blacks. Two, the extent of racism and oppression was either denied or masked over by an overly optimistic appraisal of access to the U.S. opportunity structure in the Mexican American era of civil rights. Three, a common notion was that the Mexican Americans did not suffer from the same racism to which Black Americans did.
This also gives the police the chance to brutalise the blacks which would damage the image of black people as the white citizens wouldn’t want to help the black if they are involved in violence. So Malcolm X use of violence would lose him supporters for his campaign, which will decrease his campaigns popularity and so the federal government would have no reason to support the demands of the black civil rights. Another organisation also worked to introduce the idea of self-defence. The BPP argued that black people needed an organised defence as they could not trust the police or the US justice system. According to Huey Newton a leader of the BPP the police ‘occupied’ the black ghettos, so the BPP organised its own peoples’ army who patrolled black neighbourhoods
s violence on behalf of political cause ever justified ? In a simple word YES. As an minority in this country I am well aware of the many injustices that have and continue to plague my community. I also understand why many would say violence is never the answer, and I would counterclaim, I come from a neighborhood where we have been asking for help for many years and while in the beginning it may have been asking for a polite acknowledgment of the conditions and suffering, That dull plead has now become a resounding demand. The perfect example of violence on behalf of a political cause The Black Panthers.