In 1996, Bobby Seale alongside Huey Newton became one of two co-founders of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) in Oakland, California. The FBI presented the group as a terrorist or hate group, and made part of the mission of the organization to destroy the BPP, even though the BPP was nowhere near being as violent a threat. In his book Seize the Time, Seale wrote of the group’s victories and downfalls, including how the FBI exaggerated the nefariousness of the group and deceived the public into believing it. Seale wrote:
The power structure is trying to stop and smash the Black Panther Party, because the Party is ready to show and expose the racist power structure for what it is; to expose what Eldridge Cleaver identifies as the …show more content…
The leaders, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, believed in using two main tactics to further advance Black people in the United States. Not only did the organization patrol black neighborhoods with “shotguns, cameras, and law books” , in hopes of alleviating police brutality against African-Americans. The Children's Breakfast Program made the group extremely progressive, by not only providing free breakfast for children and families, but also presenting the Black Panther Party with an opportunity to educate black people. Influenced greatly by the ideals of the late Malcolm X, Seale and Newton sought to uplift Black Americans through education, as the two felt that the reason Black Americans still were not nearly as successful as White Americans was due to the aftermath of slavery, and didn't know how to overcome it. These breakfast programs eventually became centers where African-Americans could go to receive education, and is what served as one of the biggest threats to the power that many White Americans held over Black Americans in America at the …show more content…
Black Panther members had never used the guns in an unlawful way, and would “listen to police calls on a short wave radio, rush to the scene of the arrest with law books in hand and inform the person being arrested of their constitutional rights. BPP members also happened to carry loaded weapons… careful to stand no closer than ten feet from the arrest so as not to interfere with the arrest.” Despite all of this, the Government still wanted to limit the group, thus inventing the Mulford Bill, which repealed a law that allowed one to carry firearms out in the open. The BPP responded with protest against the bill that “would essentially end the Panther Police Patrol” , and law officials responded to these protests by passing the law. Nationally, the protest acted as publicity for the BPP, as it displayed the BPP’s bravery and courage in fighting against unlawful legislation that was being used to oppress
The power structure is trying to stop and smash the Black Panther Party, because the Party is ready to show and expose the racist power structure for what it is; to expose what Eldridge Cleaver identifies as the …show more content…
The leaders, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, believed in using two main tactics to further advance Black people in the United States. Not only did the organization patrol black neighborhoods with “shotguns, cameras, and law books” , in hopes of alleviating police brutality against African-Americans. The Children's Breakfast Program made the group extremely progressive, by not only providing free breakfast for children and families, but also presenting the Black Panther Party with an opportunity to educate black people. Influenced greatly by the ideals of the late Malcolm X, Seale and Newton sought to uplift Black Americans through education, as the two felt that the reason Black Americans still were not nearly as successful as White Americans was due to the aftermath of slavery, and didn't know how to overcome it. These breakfast programs eventually became centers where African-Americans could go to receive education, and is what served as one of the biggest threats to the power that many White Americans held over Black Americans in America at the …show more content…
Black Panther members had never used the guns in an unlawful way, and would “listen to police calls on a short wave radio, rush to the scene of the arrest with law books in hand and inform the person being arrested of their constitutional rights. BPP members also happened to carry loaded weapons… careful to stand no closer than ten feet from the arrest so as not to interfere with the arrest.” Despite all of this, the Government still wanted to limit the group, thus inventing the Mulford Bill, which repealed a law that allowed one to carry firearms out in the open. The BPP responded with protest against the bill that “would essentially end the Panther Police Patrol” , and law officials responded to these protests by passing the law. Nationally, the protest acted as publicity for the BPP, as it displayed the BPP’s bravery and courage in fighting against unlawful legislation that was being used to oppress