The Black Panther Party

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The Black Panther Party for Self Defense started as an organization to address racially-motivated police violence. They patrolled the streets in groups and carrying loaded weapons to interfere if they witnessed instances of police brutality. The organization quickly grew to include a wide variety of social safety programs, like free school lunches, free health clinics, and voter registration drives. 

The formation of the Party was triggered by the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965. Founded in 1966 and led by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the Black Panther Party was active until the late 1970s.

The Party created a Ten Point Program that outlined their goals for the party and vision for their influence. Included among these Ten points were demands for housing, education, free health care, and an end to police brutality of Black people. Seale and Newton believed that the government would not help them reach these goals, so they organized the social programs themselves. They ran a program for free school breakfasts, offered social work resources, and educated the public about common health problems.

In 1967, the government targeted the Black Panther Party with a gun control law called the Mulford Act, named for Republican assemblyman Don Mulford and supported by the NRA, making it a felony to open carry without a license. California governor Ronald Reagan said he didn’t believe it was a “gun control law” because it “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.” Mulford added a line making it illegal to carry loaded guns in the Capitol, clearly defining the law as a response to the dozens of Black Panthers who entered the California Capitol to protest the gun legislation.

Note: In 2022, a bipartisan gun control law passed which NRA claimed was “opening the door to unnecessary burdens on the exercise of Second Amendment freedom by law-abiding gun owners.”

The FBI founded COINTELPRO (led by J. Edgar Hoover) to go after the Black Panthers, believing them to be a threat to the federal government. Members of the Black Panther party were increasingly investigated by COINTELPRO, and media propaganda was disseminated to infer connections between the Black activists and illegal activities, so as to undermine their impact and end their influence. In 1969, the FBI raided leader Fred Hampton’s home while he slept and shot him in the head. 

After Hampton’s death and the reveal of FBI informants among the Party (including Hampton’s own bodyguard, William O’Neil), the Party grew increasingly divided and distrustful of each other, finally disbanding sometime in the late 1970s. 

In 2026, responding to ICE terrorism in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a new wave of the Black Panthers has been seen marching with the people. Members report they are being mentored by original members of the 1960s group. Besides protecting the people during rallies, it seems they are also resuming their social outreach programs, including food drives funded by the members themselves.

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