nice fairy tale
In the late 1960's and early '70's posters of the Black Panther Party's co-founder, Huey P. Newton were plastered on walls of college dorm rooms across the country. Wearing a black beret and a leather jacket, sitting on a wicker chair, a spear in one hand and a rifle in the other, the poster depicted Huey Newton as a symbol of his generation's anger and courage in the face of racism and classism. He is the man whose intellectual capacity and community leadership abilities helped to found the Black Panther Party (BPP). Newton played an instrumental role in refocusing civil rights activists to the problems of urban Black communities. He also tapped the rage and frustration of urban Blacks in order to address social injustice. However, the FBI's significant fear of the Party's aggressive actions would not only drive the party apart but also perpetuated false information regarding the Panther's programs and accomplishments. In recent years, historians have devoted much attention of the early 1960's, to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and have ignored the Black Panthers. The Panthers and Huey P. Newton's leadership of the Party are as significant to the Black freedom struggle as more widely known leaders of the Civil Rights Moveme
nt. A typical American history high school textbook not only neglects to mention Huey Newton but also disregards the existence of the Black Panthers altogether. Huey's experiences growing up were central in his conception of the Black Panthers. Unlike King and many other civil rights leaders who were religious Southerners, from middle class and well-educated families, Huey P. Newton was a working class man from a poor urban black neighborhood. At Merrit College Huey met Bobby Seale who would soon become Huey's co-founder of the BPP. The initial friendship between Huey and Bobby proved quite productive, as they both shared the frustrations of social injustices towards the Oakland Black community. Together, they initiated a drive to organize the African American students on campus by creating the Soul Students Advisory Council (SSAC). This new organization soon fell apart when they wouldn't agree on a common agenda. Some favored lobbying and protesting to bring Black Studies into the college curriculum while others (including Huey and Bobby) proposed the SSAC's organize an event dubbed "Brothers On the Block" that would bring an armed squad of urban youths onto campus, in commemoration of Malcolm X's birthday, the year after his assassination. The death of Malcolm X was yet another event which led Black youth to question the traditional leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and its philosophy of nonviolence. It is out of this change of the movement's focus where Huey arrives at the idea for Black youth to openly display weapons. This action would be soon to serve as a founding principal within the Panthers. Eventually serving as a founding principal of the Panthers, Huey's suggestion for a demonstration of armed protest was inspired by Malcolm X's philosophy for self-defense. The SSAC's rejection of "Brothers On the Block", eventually led to Huey and Bobby's resignation from the Campus Organization. Fed up with the increasing police brutality towards African Americans and the SSAC rejection of "Brothers On the Block", Huey and Bobby decided to form an organization to monitor police behavior in Black neighborhoods and protect the rights of African Americans. This organization was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP). James Kirby Martin et. All, America and Its Peoples (New York:Longman, 1997) Huey P Newton,. Revolutionary Suicide (Harcourt Brace: Jovanich, 1979), 115. Pearson, Hugh. The Shadow of The Panther. Addison Wesley: Massachusetts. 1994 Huey P. Newton, To Die for the People, (New York: Writers and Readers Publishing, 1973), 53 Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. Kiene, "All Power to the People," in The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones ( Black Classic Press: Baltimore, 1998,) 159. Huey P Newton,. Revolutionary Suicide (Harcourt Brace: Jovanich, 1979), 110 Hugh Pearson,. The Shadow of The Panther (Addison Wesley: Massachusetts. 1994),234. "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense: Party Platform" available from: www.blackpanther.org/platform.html; Internet; accessed 10 April 1999. Hugh Pearson,. The Shadow of The Panther (Addison Wesley: Massachusetts. 1994),75. Sundiata Acoli,. A Brief History of the Black Panther Party. Available at: www.cs.oberlin.edu/students/pjagues/etext/acloi-hist-bpp.html; Internet; accessed 11 April 1999. Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. Kiene, "All Power to the People," in The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones ( Black Classic Press: Baltimore, 1998,) 159 Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. Kiene, "All Power to the People," in The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones ( Black Classic Press: Baltimore, 1998,) 159 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1963). 129-230. Huey drew upon political theorist Frantz Fanon's book entitled The Wretched of the Earth. Fanon looks at Marx's concern that the "lumpen proletariat", (prostitutes, criminals and gamblers) would threaten a revolution to overthrow the capitalist so
Some common words found in the essay are:
Huey Newton, Panther Party, Black Panthers, Sundiata Acoli, Rights Movement, Panthers Carrying, BPP Newton, Herbert Haines, Earth Fanon, Huey Bobby, black panther, panther party, black panther party, huey newton, black panthers, civil rights, rights movement, civil rights movement, survival programs, urban black, shadow panther, american history, floyd hayes francis, hayes francis kiene, jones black classic,
Approximate Word count = 3107
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
