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Black Panther Party Facts & Worksheets

The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale.

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The Black Panther Party (or Self-Defense Party, as it was originally called) was the most powerful militant organization at the time of its founding in 1966. It promoted Black Power as if it were a global revolution. Its influence was evident as its members engaged in actions that most people at the time would avoid, such as confronting politicians, challenging the police, and protecting Black citizens from physical brutality. They were also well-known for their “survival programs,” which were their party’s community service program that provided food, clothing, and transportation.

See the fact file below for more information on the Black Panther Party, or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Black Panther Party worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

Black Panther Party

  • Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded it primarily to provide patrols and protection for residents of Oakland, California, from police brutality.
  • The party fought for political and economic equality while providing children access to medical clinics and complimentary breakfasts.
  • Aside from Black nationalism, it also held ideals of socialism and armed self-defense.
  • Its prominence peaked in the late 1960s, when it established chapters in several major American cities, attracting over 2000 members such as Elaine Brown, Fred Hampton, Angela Davis, and Eldridge Cleaver.
  • The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) saw the party as a threat to the US government, particularly to the country’s internal security, and launched a counterintelligence program to combat it (COINTELPRO). COINTELPRO was misused because it allowed the FBI to sabotage the party with false information.
  • The impact of its campaign was felt even in later years, including the 2013 international movement Black Lives Matter.

History

Origins

  • In 1940, thousands of South-dwelling Blacks relocated to Oakland and other cities around the Bay Area in an event marked as the Second Great Migration one year after World War II broke out.
  • They dominated the Bay Area, but as a new generation of Black youths grew up in these cities, they faced new forms of poverty and racism. Because their parents were unfamiliar with it, they wanted to learn how to address them.
  • The Civil Rights Movement dismantled the Jim Crow system, which enforced racial segregation in the Southern States, in the early 1960s, but it had little effect in the North and West.
  • Blacks’ suburban migration barred them from political representation and admission to prestigious universities.
  • Civil rights were unable to resolve these issues.
  • By 1966, a group of urban Black youth had formed the “Black Power ferment,” which questioned the Civil Rights Movement about how non-white people could gain formal citizenship rights as well as economic and political power in America.
  • This ferment developed study groups and political organizations and gave birth to the Black Panther Party.

Newton and Seale

  • In 1962, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale first met as students at Merritt College.
  • They joined the Afro-American Association, led by Donald Warden, and were exposed to a variety of readings and debates.
  • Dissatisfied with Warden’s concept of a beneficial relationship between church and government, they developed a revolutionary anti-imperialist viewpoint.
  • They collaborated with militant organizations such as the Soul Students Advisory Council and the Revolutionary Action Movement.
  • They developed a revolutionary nationalist approach to community service that was supported by their paid jobs at the North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center, where they ran youth service programs.
  • Organizations failed to speak out against police brutality.
  • Newton had an idea for organizing political power. He thought of standing up against the police after observing the rebel movement with raging anger following the death of an unarmed Black youth named Matthew Johnson in the hands of police in San Francisco.
  • He thoroughly studied California gun laws and decided to organize patrols with loaded guns to monitor potential incidents of police brutality.
  • He and Seale raised enough funds to purchase two shotguns after buying and reselling Mao’s Little Red Book to leftists and liberals on the Berkeley campus for three times the original price.

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense

Founding

  • On October 29, 1966, they witnessed Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power conference, which advocated for the widespread use of the Black Panther symbol, which is linked to protection and inner power.
  • Newton and Seale participated in adopting the logo and founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense with Bobby Hutton as their first recruit.
  • The Black Panther Party (BPP) set up its first official office in Oakland in January 1967. In addition, they released the first publication of The Black Panther: Black Community News Service.

Patrols of Police in Oakland

  • They used open-carry gun laws to protect their members while monitoring the police for possible police brutality.
  • Members of the party studied laws that they cited when confronted by police officers to defend themselves from the violations of the constitutional rights that police officers accused them of.
  • The Party grew in size until the beginning of 1967, when they provided an armed escort for Betty Shabazz at the San Francisco airport.
  • When the Party was founded, it worked primarily to promote social issues and the legal right to carry firearms, but its militancy soon earned it a reputation for violence.

Rallies in Richmond

  • The Black people’s neighborhood in Richmond, California, can only be entered and exited via three main streets, making it easy for police to suppress them.
  • Denzil Dowell, a Black construction worker, was shot dead by police in North Richmond on April 1, 1967, even though he was unarmed. His family sought assistance from the BPP after officials ignored their request for an investigation into the case.
  • The BPP held rallies in North Richmond to educate the Black community about armed self-defense after Dowell’s death.
  • The BPP members were not disturbed during their rallies because they broke no laws despite being armed.
  • The Blacks in the community learned about the Party’s ideals and brought their guns to the subsequent rallies.

Protest at the State House

  • On May 2, 1967, the State Assembly Committee of California was gathered to discuss the possibility of passing legislation prohibiting the public handling of loaded firearms.
  • Newton dispatched 26 armed BPP members, led by Seale, to protest the bill.
  • The group marched from Oakland to Sacramento and entered the assembly armed with weapons.
  • Seale and five other members of his party were arrested on charges of disrupting a legislative session. This reduced the number of BPP members, who numbered less than 100 at the time.
  • The Mulford Act arose from a bill designed to counter the BPP’s cop-watching.

COINTELPRO

  • As early as September 1968, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), saw the Black Panthers as a potential danger to the United States’ internal security.
  • In 1969, the counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO), instructed by the FBI in combating what they called the “Black nationalist hate groups” since 1967, primarily targeted the BPP members and their allies.
  • Its goal was to keep militant nationalist groups for Blacks from organizing against the government.
  • It attempted to create a dispute between Black nationalist organizations, especially between the Panthers and their allies.
  • It sought to demolish the BPP’s community programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children.
  • The FBI accused the Party of indoctrination because it taught and cared for children better than the government.

Renaming of the Party

  • In 1968, the party shortened its name and dropped the phrase “for Self-Defense,” retaining the Black Panther Party as a political action organization.
  • It grew to nearly 5,000 members in cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco. Their newspaper had around 250,000 circulations under the editorship of Eldridge Cleaver.
  • They developed a Ten-Point Program reflecting their desires and beliefs regarding economic and political grievances.
  • Cleaver ran for president on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket in 1968.
  • They continued to run programs, but BPP members began to purge due to concerns about law enforcement infiltration and other disagreements, resulting in the organization’s demise in late 1969.
  • The Oakland chapter was involved in a police officer ambush with guns and fragmentation bombs in 1970.
  • In 1971, they focused on demonstrating the importance of education for Black youth while providing children with free food, school supplies, and medical assistance.

Ten-Point Program

  • The Black Panther Party “Ten-Point Program” included the following:
    • Freedom. Power to determine the destiny of the Black Community.
    • Full employment.
    • An end to the robbery by the white men of the Black Community.
    • Decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
    • Education that exposes true history and our role in the present day.
    • Black men are exempt from military service.
    • An immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people.
    • Freedom for Black men held in all levels of jail.
    • Proper and fair trials from members of the Black Community.
    • Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.

Split

  • Significant disagreements among the leaders resulted in a split within the Party in 1971. Some wanted to participate in local government and social services, while others wanted to keep the police at bay.
  • Newton fired Geronimo Pratt and his secretary, Connie Matthews.

Black Panther Party Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about the Black Panther Party across 21 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Black Panther Party worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Black Panther Party, which was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party’s original purpose was to patrol African-American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

  • Black Panther Party Crossword
  • Newton and Seale
  • Opinion Piece
  • Primary Source Analysis
  • Letter to Huey Newton
  • Black Panther Party Wordsearch
  • Panthers Acronym
  • Panthers Across America
  • Quote Analysis
  • Timeline of Events

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some examples of what the Black Panther Party did?

They used open-carry gun laws to protect their members while monitoring the police for possible police brutality.

Members of the party studied laws that they cited when confronted by police officers to defend themselves from the violations of the constitutional rights that police officers accused them of.

What did the Black Panther Party accomplish?

The party fought for political and economic equality while providing children access to medical clinics and complimentary breakfasts.

What was the purpose of the Black Panther Party Ten Point Program?

They developed a Ten-Point Program reflecting their desires and beliefs regarding economic and political grievances.

What were the three beliefs of the Black Panthers?

Aside from Black nationalism, it also held ideals of socialism and armed self-defense.

What does Black Panther represent?

On October 29, 1966, they witnessed Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power conference, which advocated for the widespread use of the Black Panther symbol, which is linked to protection and inner power.

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