50 years ago, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was founded in the East Bay. Come discover how a few committed students at Oakland's Merritt College founded an organization that grew into a powerful social movement that came to have profound influences, nationwide.
Facing off with the established political authority of the day, the Panthers were early targeted by police and the FBI, and many were jailed. But even during their most turbulent times, Black Panther Party (BPP) leaders were masters of the power of image and publicity in the news-saturated decade of the 1960s.
The BPP even managed to turn the negative publicity it garnered in the mainstream media into a way to call attention to the positive social programs they sponsored to help the black community, including a Free Breakfast Program for Children, and educational efforts that drew attention to Sickle Cell Anemia.
Come by the Library to discover the fascinating history of this radical revolutionary group from five decades back - you'll never accept simple stereotypes and facile judgments about the Panthers again.
Producers: Richard Apple, Diana Wakimoto, Gr Keer, Jared Mariconi
Concept and Content Development: Diana Wakimoto, Gr Keer, Jared Mariconi, Richard Apple, Andrew Carlos
Text and Research: Richard Apple, Diana Wakimoto, Jared Mariconi
Posters and Graphic Design: Diana Wakimoto, Gr Keer, Richard Apple
Archival Support: Diana Wakimoto, Anna Graves
Copyright 2016 by the CSUEB University Libraries
The Exhibits Committee of the CSUEB Libraries began discussing possible topics for our annual Fall Exhibit last May. It took all of 15 minutes to agree that the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party would be a fabulous topic.
We were aware that other institutions would also be addressing the anniversary of the Panthers - notably the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) - nevertheless, we hoped we might be able to also contribute our own perspective to the BPP's history, and hopefully inform our students, staff, and faculty who daily use the library here on campus.
To that end, we choose sub-topics that made sense to us, and chose to portray them in a newspaper-style format, inspired by the underground and mainstream newspapers of the 1960s-'70s (including the BPP's own Black Panther Black Community News Service, as well as other Bay Area papers like the Berkeley Barb).
In attempting an historical treatment of the Panthers' complex and controversial history, we felt a responsibility to present what we could in a straightforward manner, with no editorializing.
Additionally, only so much information could be presented on 10 posters, so the purpose of this library exhibit is simply to provide our students and campus community with a basic primer on the BPP's founding and its turbulent history as a revolutionary group for social change.
Image Credits: Black Panther Party, 50th Anniversary Exhibit
Title Poster:
The Black Panther Black Community News Service: Vol. 1-6 November 23, 1967.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Call No. BANC MSS 86/157 c: Filename: brk00004248_24a.tif
Title: Black Liberation on Trial: The Case of Huey Newton, cover.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Call No. BANC MSS 86/157 c: Filename: brk00004251_24a.tif
Title: Ministry of Information Bulletin, No. 9, cover.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Oakland Birthplace Poster:
Call No. BANC MSS 86/157 c: Filename: brk00004245_24a.tif
Title: Black Panther Party Platform and Program.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
The Black Panther Black Community News Service: Vol. 1-6 November 23, 1967.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Prominent Panthers Poster:
Bobby Seale, Huey Newton image, Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0.
Eldridge Cleaver portrait, 19 October 1968, Library of Congress. public domain
Assata Shakur portrait: FBI mugshot. public domain
Angela Davis portrait: FBI mugshot. public domain
Militancy & Violence Poster:
The Black Panther Black Community News Service: Vol. 2-19 January 4, 1969.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Call No. BANC MSS 86/157 c: Filename: brk00004244_24a.tif
Title: It's All the Same, flier.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Community Programs Poster:
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service: Vol. 6-9 March 27, 1971.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
BPP Free Breakfast photo – Associated Press
In Their Own Words Poster - BPP 10-Point Program
The Black Panther Black Community News Service: Vol 5-30 January 23, 1971.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Arrests & Killings Poster:
H95.18.802 - Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968.
Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California,
Gift of ANG Newspapers. Call No. BANC MSS 86/157 c: Filename: brk00004243_24a.tif.
Courtesy of Oakland Museum of California
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service: Vol. 6-18 May 29, 1971.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Angela Davis Wanted by the FBI poster. public domain
Government Surveillance Poster:
J. Edgar Hoover portrait. public domain
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service: Vol. 2-20 January 15, 1969.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Political Participation Poster:
Title: Huey Newton for U.S. Congress, Bobby Seale for State Assembly, flier.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service: Vol. 9-30 May 12, 1973.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Present Day Legacy Poster:
The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service: Vol. 8-25 September 9, 1972.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Black Lives Matter photo. The All-Nite Images
In Their Own Words Poster: BPP Chronology – Black Panther Party Rules
The Black Panther Black Community News Service: Vol. May 1969.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Local Celebrations Poster:
H95.18.1030 - Howard Erker, Bobby Seale Checks Food Bags, March 31, 1972. Gelatin silver photograph, 10 x 8 in.
The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of ANG Newspapers.
Courtesy of Oakland Museum of California
2010.54.2917 - Emory Douglas, untitled (On the Bones of the Oppressors), 1969. Poster, 20 x 13.5 in.
Collection of the Oakland Museum of California. All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family.
Courtesy of Oakland Museum of California
2010.54.2920 - Emory Douglas, Afro-American Solidarity with the Oppressed People of the World, 1969.
Poster, 22.75 x 14.875 in. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California. All Of Us Or None Archive.
Gift of the Rossman Family.
Courtesy of Oakland Museum of California
In Their Own Words Poster: BPP Chronology – First Two Years
The Black Panther Black Community News Service: Vol. 1 January 4, 1968: Review of Panther Growth & Harassment.
Courtesy of the African American Museum and Library, Oakland, CA
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
[TITLE POSTER]
An Exhibit in the Library September 2016 – March 2017
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
OAKLAND BIRTHPLACE
Like many northern industrial cities, Oakland had attracted a large migration of black families from the South during World War II to fill jobs in wartime factories.
At the end of World War II in 1945, the white male workforce returned stateside, and the wartime jobs were gone, leaving American inner cities - where whites no longer lived - as de facto black ghettos with high unemployment, poor housing, police brutality, and inadequate political representation.
[Image: "Seize the Time" Black Panther graphic]
As students at North Oakland’s Merritt College, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton wanted to organize the black community to meet its social problems head-on. In 1966 they formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, inspired by the militant black nationalism of the late Malcolm X.
In 1967 they published a specific set of 10 demands and party objectives.
[Image: "What We Want - What We Believe"]
[Caption: The Panthers' original 10-point manifesto was published in 1966]
EARLY ACTIONS
Their first focus was on Point No. 7 – an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.
Newton and Seale organized armed patrols of black neighborhoods in Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco, and Berkeley, to monitor police treatment of blacks. They were careful to point out their Constitutional right to bear arms, but their mere presence was enough to provoke a police backlash in many cases. The Panthers quickly came to be perceived a violent threat by the politicians, the white press, and the police, and both Newton and Seale were arrested on various charges, including murder.
To counteract mainstream news coverage, Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver created the Black Panther Community News Service to transmit the BPP’s message to the community.
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Black Community News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Community News Service - November 1967]
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
PROMINENT PANTHERS
EARLY LEADERSHIP
[Image: Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton]
[Caption: Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton]
Bobby Seale and Huey Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966. The two met while attending Oakland's old Merritt College campus on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way) in North Oakland. Both men were unafraid to confront authority, and were inspired by Malcolm X’s militant black empowerment philosophy. Seale styled himself Chairman and Newton became the party's Minister of Defense.
[Image: Eldridge Cleaver]
[Caption: Eldridge Cleaver]
Eldridge Cleaver joined the party, as Minister of Information in December 1966.
WOMEN OF THE PARTY
Kathleen Cleaver was the first female to join the BPP’s decision-making body.
[Image: Kathleen Cleaver]
[Caption: Kathleen Cleaver]
As the party’s Communications Secretary, she ran the successful campaign to free Huey Newton after his incarceration for murder in the late ‘60s.
[Image: Assata Shakur]
[Caption: Assata Shakur - FBI mugshot]
Assata Shakur joined the BPP in 1970, and headed its Harlem chapter. Still living in Cuba after a 1979 prison escape, she is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List.
[Image: Ericka Huggins ]
[Caption: Erika Huggins]
Ericka Huggins joined the party in 1967. She survived political imprisonment, spent 14 years as a leader in the BPP, and was the first black and first woman appointed to the Alameda County Board of Education.
[Image: Angela Davis]
[Caption: Angela Davis - FBI mugshot]
Angela Davis was an academic and an activist. She joined several radical groups, including the Panthers. Arrested by the FBI in 1970. She spent 18 months in prison before being acquitted.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
MILITANCY & VIOLENCE
[Image: Black Panther graphic: "All Power to the People"]
Since their formation as the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, militant self-defense against racism in the police and government was a core principle of the Black Panthers. This stood in opposition to the non-violent resistance that had been used so far in the Civil Rights movement.
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Community News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Community News Service - January 1969]
[Image: BPP cartoon view of 3 identical, armed "pigs" as "Local Police," "National Guard," and "Marines" entitled "It's All the Same"]
[Caption: Panther cartoon view of armed authority]
PATROLLING POLICE
In 1966-1967, the Black Panthers conducted armed “police patrols” in Oakland’s black communities to monitor for incidents of police brutality. Party members would follow police cars at a distance, armed with guns that they had been given or had purchased through sales of Mao Tse-tung’s “Little Red Book” at UC Berkeley. At that time, openly carrying loaded weapons was legal in California as long as they weren’t pointed at anyone and the Black Panthers were quick to point out to the police their legal rights, as citizens, to carry guns.
[Image: BPP members wielding rifles in California State Capitol Building]
[Caption: BPP members openly carry weapons at the California State Capitol Building in 1967]
On May 2nd, 1967, twenty Panthers armed with rifles and shotguns arrived at the California state capitol building to protest the Mulford Bill, which would prohibit carrying loaded firearms in public. After being disarmed on the floor of the State Assembly, Bobby Seale read a statement to the media urging black people to arm themselves. The Mulford Bill was later signed into law by Governor Ronald Reagan.
Displays of militancy such as this helped to publicize the early Panthers, but also created a reputation for violence that would follow party members for years.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
SOCIAL ACTION BASED ON BPP’S 10-POINTS
In 1968, the BPP inaugurated the first of many community-based programs that would directly meet the needs of people in black communities as outlined in the party’s 10-point program.
[Image: Front and back pages of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service - March 1971]
FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM FOR CHILDREN LAUNCHED
[Image: BPP member serves breakfast for schoolchildren]
[Caption: Panther Free Breakfast Program; photo: William Streater, AP
Enlisting the support of black community churches, the BPP announced a Free Breakfast for Children Program (FBCP). By January 1969, the program was underway in BPP chapters throughout the country. Numbers of children served grew rapidly, with the program able to solicit donations through the tax-exempt status of the various participating neighborhood churches. Local police and government agencies claimed the breakfasts were a tool for radical indoctrination, some churches were intimidated into abandoning their support, and cooperating businesses were threatened with IRS audits.
OTHER BPP ‘SURVIVAL’ PROGRAMS
The food program grew to include other disadvantaged people in the black community; the BPP opened a free medical clinic in Berkeley in June 1969; the BPP established a national Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation in 1971. The party also tried to tackle the high rates of black unemployment through a Free Employment Program and Job Identification Network, established a community program designed to protect seniors, and instituted Free Shoes and Clothing programs. The LA Chapter provided free busing so parents of prison inmates could visit.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
IN THEIR OWN WORDS…
BLACK PANTHER 10-POINT PROGRAM
[Image: broadside page of The Black Panther Black Community News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Black Community News Service - January 1971]
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
ARRESTS & KILLINGS
BPP DEFENSIVE STANCE VIEWED AS THREAT BY POLICE & FBI
[Image/Citation/Caption: H95.18.802 - Lonnie Wilson, untitled (Black Panthers at Alameda County Courthouse), July 14, 1968. Gelatin silver photograph, 14 x 9.5 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California, Gift of ANG Newspapers]
BPP members were instructed to strictly obey party rules in order to maintain discipline among their foot soldiers.Though emphasizing their defensive stance, it was clear the very act of standing up to established authority with loaded weapons and incendiary rhetoric was enough to convince local police, as well as the FBI, that the BPP was a serious threat.
[Image: BPP poster/broadside: "An Attack Against One Is An Attack Against All. The Slaughter of Black People Must Be Stopped! By Any Means Necessary!]
[Caption: Black Panther poster calls for force in the name of defense]
PANTHER LEADERS ARRESTED
In 1967 Bobby Seale was arrested on charges resulting from a BPP demonstration in Sacramento. He received a 6-month sentence. Seale was arrested again in 1968 for conspiring to riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Arrested with 7 others, Seale did not go to trial quietly, and was convicted on of numerous counts of contempt of court.
In 1967, Huey Newton was arrested for killing Oakland police officer John Frey. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1968, but many in the Black Power movement believed he was unable to receive a fair trial.
A campaign was launched to “Free Huey.” A re-trial was ordered and, after three attempts to get a verdict, charges were eventually dropped - though Newton continued to be implicated in other crimes into the 1970s.
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service - May 1971]
In 1970, the leader of the New Haven, Connecticut Chapter of the BPP, Ericka Huggins, was charged with the torture-murder of a suspected BPP informant. After much publicity around whether she could receive a fair trial, she was freed when a jury deadlocked heavily toward acquittal.
[Image: FBI Wanted Poster: Angela Yvonne Davis]
In 1970, activist Angela Davis was arrested after an attempt to free the so-called Soledad Brothers from a Marin County courtroom, leaving four people dead, a nationwide campaign led to her eventual acquittal in 1972.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
U.S. GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE OF BPP
Almost from the very beginning of the Black Panther Party, the FBI, under director J. Edgar Hoover, began a program of aggressive surveillance against the BPP, including the use of undercover informants.
[Image: J. Edgar Hoover]
[Caption: FBI Director Hoover; photo Marion S. Trikoso]
According to documents released by the FBI in 2012, BPP Field Marshal Richard Aoki - one of the earliest members of the party and the person who supplied the first guns for Black Panther police patrols - allegedly worked as FBI informant.
[Image: Richard Aoki]
[Caption: Richard Aoki]
FBI PROGRAM TO DESTROY THE PANTHERS
COINTELPRO FBI PROGRAM
COINTELPRO was the FBI’s secret Counterintelligence Program, begun in 1956 to disrupt Communist Party activities in the U.S. In the 1960s, it grew to include other domestic groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Socialist Workers Party, and anti-war groups.
BPP TARGETED
Beginning in 1967, the FBI directed its secret COINTELPRO resources to neutralize the Black Panther Party through police harassment and secret (often illegal) sabotage and disruption, particularly targeting the social and community programs created by the Black Panthers. In 1968, J. Edgar Hoover publicly stated that “…the Black Panther party, without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.”
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Black Community News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Black Community News Service - December 1970]
BPP LEADERSHIP UNDER ATTACK
By 1969, the Black Panther Party had become COINTELPRO’s number one target. That year, the FBI engaged in 233 documented operations against the party, and other Black Nationalist groups, culminating in the murder of BPP leader, Fred Hampton in 1969.
Other FBI actions that year involved covert activities to promote animosity between the BPP and Chicago street gangs. thus inducing violence and killings among the groups in order to “disrupt and neutralize” the BPP.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
BPP MEMBERS ON THE BALLOT AS EARLY AS 1968
In spite of its early revolutionary stance and rhetoric, the BPP was willing to utilize the electoral process, as evidenced in their voter registration drives, and their candidacies for various local and state offices.
In 1968 - the first national election since their founding, the BPP worked with the Bay Area’s New-Left Peace and Freedom Party (PFP), which fielded numerous candidates for State Assembly and U.S. Congressional Districts, as well as for national offices, such as president.
[Image: Election poster: Huey Newton / Bobby Seale - Black Panther Candidates on Peace & Freedom Party ticket, 1968]
[Caption: Election flyer for 1968 BPP candidates]
The PFP had 36 candidates in the 1968 election, including Kathleen Cleaver (AD-18), Huey Newton (CS-07), and Bobby Seale (AD-17). Kathleen Cleaver took 4.7% of the vote, Newton had 7.5%, and Seale recorded 8.2%. In spite of the BPP losses, their showings were significantly stronger than the remaining Peace & Freedom Party candidates.
ELDRIDGE CLEAVER FOR PRESIDENT
In early 1968, BPP Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver published his prison memoir, Soul on Ice, gaining notoriety. By summer, he had become the PFP candidate for the presidency.
[Image: Election poster: Eldridge Cleaver for president, 1968]
[Caption: Election flyer for 1968 Cleaver presidential candidacy]
POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT NETS 1970s BPP GAINS
In the early 1970s, Bobby Seale and fellow BPP officer Elaine Brown set their sights on a 5-year plan to wrest control of Oakland’s city government.
Seale ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign, and Brown ran for city council and lost. Brown’s subsequent elevation to BPP’s first Chairwoman in 1974, however, led to more radical electoral campaigns, as well as the BPP’s support for Lionel Wilson in a successful bid to become Oakland’s first black mayor.
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service - May 1973]
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
PRESENT-DAY LEGACY
ADDRESSING STRUCTURAL RACISM
[Image: Black Lives Matter street protest]
[Caption: Black Lives Matter protest in 2014; photo: The All-Nite Images]
While the Black Panther Party had dissolved by the early 1980s, its legacy lives on in current movements such as Black Lives Matter (#blacklivesmatter).
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service - September 1972]
Both began in reaction to the killing of unarmed Black people by police.
[Image: Front page of The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service - November 1976]
Black Lives Matter, like the original Black Panther Party, has made visible - and called for the dismantling, on a national and international stage, the structural racism and inequality that perpetuate violence against Black people.
Further connections can be found through the work of Assata Shakur, a former Black Panther, who is an inspiration for Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. For a closer look at comparing the Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter, check out the PBS quiz available at: http://goo.gl/8u9y0b
ORIGINAL BPP AND NEW BLACK PANTHERS NOT RELATED
The original Black Panther Party should not be confused with the New Black Panther Party, with which it has no affiliation.
Members of the original Black Panther Party have criticized the New Black Panther Party for its hateful, racist and anti-Semitic speech. The Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes the New Black Panther Party as a hate group within the United States following black
separatist ideology.
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
IN THEIR OWN WORDS… BLACK PANTHER PARTY RULES
[Image: broadside page 17 of The Black Panther Black Community News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Black Community News Service - May 1969]
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
LOCAL CELEBRATIONS
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, there will be a number of local events and exhibits. These celebrations, like this library’s exhibit, share the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party.
HOST COMMITTEE FOR THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION
The Host Committee for the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the founding of the Black Panther Party will be presenting a commemoration and conference held October 20th to the 23rd in Oakland. Panels, workshops, films, exhibits, vendors, and more will be part of the conference. More information can be found at www.bpp50th.com.
[Image: Black Panther Party logo of Host Committee].
OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA
All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50, an exhibit at the Oakland Museum of CA, opens on October 8 and runs through February 12, 2017. It features many artifacts from the museum’s collection and provides a rich look at the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party.
[Image/Citation/Caption: H95.18.1030 - Howard Erker, Bobby Seale Checks Food Bags, March 31, 1972. Gelatin silver photograph, 10 x 8 in. The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of ANG Newspapers].
[Image/Citation/Caption: 2010.54.2917 - Emory Douglas, untitled (On the Bones of the Oppressors), 1969. Poster, 20 x 13.5 in. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California. All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family].
[Image/Citation/Caption: 2010.54.2920 - Emory Douglas, Afro-American Solidarity with the Oppressed People of the World, 1969. Poster, 22.75 x 14.875 in. Collection of the Oakland Museum of California. All Of Us Or None Archive. Gift of the Rossman Family].
BPP ALUMNI MARK 50TH CELEBRATION
The National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party (NAABPP) will hold 50th anniversary BPP celebrations throughout the coming months. Check their website at http://www.naabpp.org
Black Panther Party
50th Anniversary 1966 – 2016
IN THEIR OWN WORDS…
BPP CHRONOLOGY - FIRST TWO YEARS
[Image: broadside page 14 of The Black Panther Black Community News Service]
[Caption: The Black Panther Black Community News Service - January 1968]
