Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

Jeanette Nkwate
Nov 1, 2015
3 min read

The rise and fall of controversial The Black Panther Party is captured in a new documentary by Stanley Nelson.

Today, Black Applause and I went to see the a documentary at the Phoenix Cinema about the Black Panthers (BP) movement. And in all honesty, I have to say that my knowledge of the movement was rather limited, so I was excited and open to learn more about these black 'radicals'.

The film tells a sensitive story of the party's rise which was due to the police brutality that African Americans faced at the time: being violently beaten, stripped and even killed in custody (sounds all too familiar, doesn't it?). It really struck me (and this is rather pessimistic) that there were too many parallels between the 1960s and the present. There are still issues with police brutality, housing, unemployment and education with black community. If anyone doesn't know what I mean look up Black Lives Matter and listen to This American Life's podcast: The Problem We All Live With, it explores the issues within the American education system.

In my opinion, as someone who wasn't well-versed with the topic, I found it enticed me to read more about around the subject. And I liked how Nelson touched on the leadership split within the BP, it showed that even the most idealistic can be flawed too.

Here are a few of things I learned from the documentary:

So let's talk about the BP and their big guns.

And I never thought I would say this, but luckily due to the gun laws in America, the BP were able to carry guns. They protected African Americans from hate crimes, especially those being arrested, maintaining a safe distant from arrests and making sure that the process was legally all above board.

The Black Panthers were about more than just racial equalities.

BP not only stood for racial injustices, it also called into question capitalism and its idealisation in the US. The party also reflected what it expect: men were involved with cooking to help change the idea of clear gender roles, it launched a free breakfast scheme for children and researched into sickle-cell anaemia, which particularly affects the black community.

The FBI are scary and the US is frightened of black nationalism.

America has a strong history of disliking socialism – and what is worse than socialism? Black socialism. And so it was deemed that the BP were a direct threat to United States. The FBI/ J Edgar Hoover meant business and it started a covert investigation in efforts to destroy the party – by any means necessary (to read the FBI's investigation goals, click here).

Leaders don't have all the answers.

It doesn't matter how charismatic leaders are, they are still people that can be deeply flawed like anyone else. Key players Huey P Newton and Eldridge Cleaver seem to epitomise this. Cleaver wrote about rape as a insurrectionary act and struggled with addiction. While Newton also struggled with drugs, sexual and physical violence, and what one can only assume were undiagnosed mental health issues.

The Black Panthers' ten-point program is still relevant today.

Almost all of the BP's ten-point program is still applicable today, read the list below and you'll see that a lot of what it was fighting for is what we continue to fight for today.

We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
We want full employment for our people.
We want an end to the robbery by the white men of our Black Community. (later changed to "we want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black and oppressed communities.")
We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.
We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.