The Black Panther Party was a political organization that stood up for one of the most powerful movements in America during the sixties. The Black Panther Party was the only organization in the entire US history that opposed the oppression of the black community composed of black people only. The Black Panthers fought against the slavery and the oppression, they fought for equality, justice and freedom of the black community.
The Black Panther Party was created due to the violent way many people and groups acted during the sixties. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the blind eye the congress turned toward the black community. The Black Panthers were born because lynching was an ordinary thing among blacks and because blacks where denied the right to vote, the right to worship, and the right to use public facilities. The Black Panther Party was an organization that was created by the visions of one man, Huey P. Newton, the son of a Louisiana family that lived in Oakland, California. In 1966, after the assassination of Malcolm X and the rise of Martin Luther King Newton gathered Bobby Seale and David Hilliard, among other friends, and thus the Black Panther Party came to be. Originally, the Black Panther Party was named the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and the black panther was used as its image due to the strong image this animal created. The phrase “self defense” was used to set apart the organization belief.
Shortly after their birth the Black Panther Party created the Ten Point Program. This Ten Point Program stated the organization fundamental wants and needs of the black community. The Ten Point Program was created for the purpose to readdress and change of the pain suffered by the black community in America, who despised the end of slavery during the Civil War, where still being oppressed and separated from the America community. The Ten Point Program demanded the freedom for blacks to have the right to defend themselves and the end of oppression.
The Black Panther Party not only fought for the rights of the black community, it also inspired the start of other organizations. These organizations fought for the rights of not only blacks but also for the rights of Mexican Americans, Chinese, Puerto Ricans and elderly people. As a result the Black Panther Party grew from a small organization in Oakland to a national organization that extended to forty-eight states. The Black Panthers also received international support from different groups in Japan, China, France, England, Germany, Sweden, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uruguay, Israel, and other countries.
The Black Panthers ideas and actions were so drastic that the chief of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, announced that the Black Panthers where a threat to the security of the United States. In July 1977 due to a combination of reasons the Black Panthers came to and end. However, all their hard work played an important part in the history of America and even after the Black Panther Party came to an end their struggle and achievement will forever be remembered.