Social Movements Criticism of The Black Panther Party

Outgroup Status:

• Original Formation 

  • Initially, the Black Panther Party began as surveillance of African American neighborhoods and eventually shifted into a Marxist revolutionary group (Duncan, 2022). 

  • In the 1960s civil rights legislation and the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), Black Americans continued suffering economic and social inequality (Duncan, 2022). 

    • In turn, the Black Panther Party sought to protect and stand up for Black Americans. 

• African American Cultural Nationalist Organizations Comparison 

  • The Panthers were often compared to other African American nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam (Duncan, 2022). 

    • While they may have shared certain philosophical ideals and actions, the Black Panther Party had a few unique perspectives.

      • They are uniquely distinguished between racist and nonracist white people. 

      • Black Panther Party believed that African American capitalists and elites exploited and oppressed others, particularly the working class. 

  • Due to the party's Marxist political philosophy, the organization often battled the FBI and its counterintelligence program (Duncan, 2022). 

    • In 1969 the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, considered the Black Panther Party the greatest threat to national security. 

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Collective Initiative:

• The Black Panther Party challenged police brutality often. 

• The group launched more than 35 survival programs and paved the way for mutual-aid activism (Duncan, 2022).

  • Survival programs 

    • Party chapters opened offices, provided free health care clinics and breakfast programs to schoolchildren, and published newspapers. 

  • Education 

  • Tuberculosis testing 

  • Legal aid 

  • Transportation assistance 

  • Ambulance service 

  • Manufacture and distribution of free shoes to poor people 

  • Free Breakfast for Children Program 

  • Prison reform 

  • Voter registration drives 

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Confrontations with Existing Institutions & Beliefs:

• Black Panther Goals (Duncan, 2022)

  • The arming of all Black Americans

  • Exemption of Black Americans from the draft 

  • The release of all African Americans from jail

  • Reparations for centuries of African American exploitation 

• FBI v. Black Panther Party (Duncan, 2022)

  • FBI labeled the party as a communist organization and an enemy of the US government.

  • COINTELPRO (Duncan, 2022)

    • FBI agents used provocateurs, sabotage, misinformation, and lethal force to eviscerate the Black Panthers.

    • It ended in a five-hour police shoot-out at the California headquarters of the group in 1969, while an Illinois state police raid killed the Chicago Black leader Fred Hampton. 

      • The FBI's measures were so extreme that the director of the agency public apologized for the abuse of power. 

 

Timeframe & Long-standing Impact:

• Active from 1966-1980 (Duncan, 2022).

• The Black Panther's Influence Went Beyond the US (Duncan, 2022).

  • The oppressed Dalits in India emulated the rhetoric of the Black Panthers.

  • The Vietnamese National liberations followed the Black Panther's organizational model.

• Black Panther rhetoric still exists in rap music (Chow, 2021).

• There are worries that the Black Panthers Party's legacy and rhetoric is not being adequately shared with students compared to other (Chow, 2021). 

• Concept of Mutual Aid (Chow, 2021).

  • In the past few years, particularly during the pandemic, mutual aid became common for activists and community volunteers to help vulnerable populations. 

• Values in Socialism (Morrison,2021).

  • The Panthers incorporated many socialist ideas that today many politicians have co-opted as there is a rise in socialist ideals in the states. 

    • I.e., Universal Healthcare 

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My Opinion on Social Movements Criticism:

• First, the analysis of the social movements of the Black Panther Party is a valuable method to study the organization's impact since it offers context of the group's purpose and efforts and subsequent legacy. 

  • It becomes clear that the Panther's ideology and work in black activism prevail today. 

• Second, The analysis could also be beneficial in a comparison element, explicitly examining the similarities between the Panther's works and the work of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

  • This would help illustrate the direct impacts the panthers had on modern-day US Black activism, as well as what rhetoric withstood the test of time and what did not. 

• Third, the analysis helps understand the Panthers' institutional alliances or oppositions, illustrating how activist groups often work against national ideologies. 

  • Ultimately, activism performed in harmony but a rejection and purposeful attack on institutional structures.

• Thus, utilizing social movement analysis was beneficial to understand the purpose, efforts, and legacy of the Black Panthers Party in the US activism field. 

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References

Chow, A. R. (2021, February 12). The Black Panther Party's impact on modern-day activism. 

Time. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://time.com/5938058/black-panthers-activism/ 

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Duncan, G. A. (2022, August 25). Black Panther Party. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 

October 30, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Panther-Party 

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Morrison, A. (2021, October 31). Decades later, a new look at Black Panthers and their legacy. 

AP NEWS. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/black-panther-party-huey-newton-race-and-ethnicity-d3cafbc0f7c0f83103f8a5ffaa66faff