"We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace." This statement was the rallying call for Blacks across the nation to stand up and take what was owed to them. Armed with sincerity, the knowledge of such greats as Mao Tse-Tung and Malcolm X, law books, and rifles, the Black Panther Party fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police, and presented a new theoretical perspective of Black political and social activism. Through this new perspective we gain knowledge of a group which rose out of the classical theoretical explanation of the political process theory. Throughout this paper the political process theory will be used to explain the goals, emergence, and tactics of the Black Panther Party.

Founded in October of 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, Ca., the Black Panther Party was formed in response to the growing problem of police brutality towards blacks. The Black Panthers originally felt that violent revolution was the only means of achieving black liberation. In order to achieve liberation, the party called on all blacks to arm themselves for the struggle. The Black Panther Party was formed in order to free all people,

In the late 1960's and early 70's, the United States was embroiled in an atmosphere of constant change on both the political and social stage. It was at this time that the issue of police brutality of blacks became an issue that caused many blacks to be deeply concerned. This very issue became the rallying cry that fueled the Panther's movement. With this issue and a stance against police brutality the Panther's called upon all Blacks to use their Constitutional rights to arm themselves in defense against the police.

The second idea the political process theory sets forth is the idea that a movement's emergence and decline must be a somewhat continuous series of events. In the Black Panther's case, their emergence was brought on by events that effected the black population, a somewhat powerless group at the time. The Panthers set out to educate blacks of their rights, and more importantly, their right to defend themselves. This quote from the notes is an example of the political process theory at work in the emergence stage. "The range of collective action open to a relatively powerless group is normally very small. Its program, its form of action, its very existence is likely to be illegal, hence subject to violent repression. As a consequence, such a group chooses between taking actions which have a high probability of bringing on a violent response (but which have some chance of reaching the group's goals) and taking no action at all (thereby assuring the defeat of the groups goals)(C Tilly, L Tilly, 1975,283)." As the Black Panthers found out, although groups such as their own possess the capacity to exert political leverage, sometimes the force of environmental constraints inhibit action.

Now that a general sense of this movement has been established we need to look at how the political process

Some common words found in the essay are:
Black Panther's, Panther Party, Black Panther, Black Panthers, Blacks Constitutional, Process Theory, Black America, political process theory, political process, process theory, Eldridge Cleaver, black panther, panther party, black panther party, Tse-Tung Malcolm, black panthers, Founded October, police brutality, panther party formed, called blacks, arm themselves, theory black panther, black panther's, panther movement, black panther movement,
Approximate Word count = 1229
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)