{"id":2317,"date":"2026-01-18T20:07:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T20:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2026-01-19T01:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:15:55","slug":"black-panther-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/black-panther-party\/","title":{"rendered":"The Black Panther Party"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense started as an organization to\u00a0address 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\u00a0safety programs, like free school lunches, free health clinics, and voter\u00a0registration drives.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"five<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The formation of the\u00a0Party was triggered by the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965. Founded in 1966 and led by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the Black\u00a0Panther Party was active until the late 1970s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Party created a Ten Point Program<\/a> that outlined their goals for the\u00a0party and vision for their influence. Included among these Ten points\u00a0were demands for housing, education, free health care, and an end to\u00a0police brutality of Black people. Seale and Newton believed that the government would not help them\u00a0reach 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>, 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.<\/a>” 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The FBI\u00a0founded COINTELPRO<\/a> (led by J. Edgar Hoover) to go after the Black\u00a0Panthers, believing them to be a threat to the federal government. Members of the Black Panther party were increasingly investigated by\u00a0COINTELPRO, and media propaganda was disseminated to infer\u00a0connections between the Black activists and illegal activities, so as to\u00a0undermine their impact and end their influence. In 1969, the FBI\u00a0raided leader Fred Hampton\u2019s home while he slept and shot him in the\u00a0head.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Hampton\u2019s death and the reveal of FBI\u00a0informants among the Party (including Hampton\u2019s\u00a0own bodyguard, William O\u2019Neil), the Party grew\u00a0increasingly divided and distrustful of each other,\u00a0finally disbanding sometime in the late 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2026, responding to ICE terrorism in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a new wave of the Black Panthers<\/a> 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<\/a>, including food drives funded by the members themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: The Radical Agenda believes in supporting independent bookstores over big box stores, so we share book links using Bookshop.org. Click on the picture to order your copy of the books that catch your eye, and thank you for supporting small businesses around the country!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An<\/a><\/figure>
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The ABCs of the Black Panther Party by Chemay Morales-James and S. Khalilah Brann, illustrated by Uela May<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy it from Bookshop.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History by David F. Walker, illustrated by Marcus Kwame Anderson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy it from Bookshop.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>
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Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy the book from Bookshop.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Body and Soul: The Black Panther Part and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy the book on Bookshop.org.<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Black<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Black<\/a><\/figure>
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Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement by Suzanne Cope<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy the book on Bookshop.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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My People Are Rising: Memoir of a Black Panther Party Captain by Aaron Dixon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy it on Bookshop.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

\"Aaron<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Don<\/a><\/figure>
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Making Revolution: My Life in the Black Panther Party by Field Marshal Don Cox<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Buy it on Bookshop.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Black Panther Party for Self Defense started as an organization to\u00a0address 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\u00a0safety programs, like free school lunches, free health clinics, and voter\u00a0registration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,55,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-about-black-history","category-books-about-activists","category-civil-rights-movement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions\/2327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theradicalagenda.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}