Impact of the Black Panthers on the Civil Rights MovementEssay Preview: Impact of the Black Panthers on the Civil Rights MovementReport this essayThe Civil Rights Movement has been a struggle and fight for equality, freedom and justice in the eyes of African Americans over the past couple of decades. From the earliest years of European settlement on the North American continent, African Americas have been enslaved, mistreated and oppressed by their White masters. Although the American Civil War brought an end to slavery, it certainly did not place African Americans on an equal footing with their White counterparts. They were still very much exposed to the harsh reality of American society where lynchings, beatings and murders could all be justified simply because of the difference in racial ethnicity, ironically this was the same in court where people regardless of race should be treated with equity and justice. However this was not the case, displaying the extent of racism to the point where people can lynch a man simply because hes black and not feel morally disturbed in any way.
The Black Panthers were one group which sought to end the centuries of suffering experienced by African Americans through violence if needs be. The party was one of the first in US history to militantly struggle for working class African Americans. They were a fundamental force in the Civil Rights Movement which “left behind a mixed legacy of triumph and tragedy, garnering support and notoriety through the Black Power movement. Although viewed by many as a racist white hate group who do not want anything to do with white people, one can only make such a judgement without any idea, the sort of hardships African Americans had to face. Huey Newton the founder of the Black Panther Party stated “I suggest that we use the panther as our symbol and call our political vehicle the Black Panther Party. The panther is a vicious animal, he never bothers anything, but when you start pushing him, he moves backwards, backwards, and backwards into his corner, and then he comes out to destroy everything thats before him”. The Black Panther in this situation is a perfect representation of the African American people. They had been pushed into a corner through centuries of ill treatment by Whites, and now it was time for them to strike out through the Civil Rights Movement.
The foundation of the Black Panthers was the direct result of the frustration with the non violent approaches of the civil rights movement. The movement had been based largely in the Southern states and around demands for desegregation of public facilities. However Civil Rights protesters were often met with violence from local white mobs such as the Ku Klux Klan and even local police. Views for Black Revolutions began to emerge and thus the Black Panther Party for self defence was born. Their answer for breaking down the racial barriers which had been embedded deeply into peoples minds over centuries of conflicting relationships was a militant political party. The Panthers desired for
a>an egalitarian, participatory political movement that would see a direct and positive role for the Black community in society. For this reason Panther leaders were formed with the objective of forging a “socialism of the proletariat”, a struggle for the overthrow of the institutions of power as we all know. But the Black Panther Party, rather than focusing on the revolution, instead focused on working with people who had rejected the racial inequalities of everyday life, the structures of capitalism and the social relations that were already so deeply embedded into African American, European and Latin American societies. They were trying to break down existing barriers that were being thrown towards them, and this in turn became a demand for a new and more egalitarian form of society.
As you and you can see in the figure below, the Panthers were able to put forward a new model of “socialism of the proletariat”. The central purpose of this program was to develop a new model of society in which the Black community was a part of the social order in a new context of social development, without the racial inequality, exploitation and violence that are present and inescapable. This was achieved through the formation of an autonomous Black Nationalist Party to lead this new political party.
As you can see in the figure below, the Panther’s new system is built upon building on the foundations of the Black Panther Party of the past – the Workers’ National Committee, Black Power Workers’ Party and Black Nationalist Movement – to fight against new institutional structures that were holding the African American and Latin American communities back. This means resisting the structural forces that were pushing back against black communities throughout history, which included the institutional system, racist criminalization and oppression of the Black community.
We also need to look at the relationship between Black politics and the movement. Black people were at the center of the liberation struggle and that is why when Black people came to power and they became prominent and experienced a real and substantial transformation in politics, they were not only able to fight for their liberation, they were also able to build power on the basis of revolutionary change that brought about a social revolution so that they could become the leaders of and leaders of a movement that would be the basis for a new social revolution of the black people.
Conclusion
This chapter is a part of a discussion that has been carried out on the ground in conjunction with an event this month in Chicago. Since my last post, I am posting what I think are two important points in relation to the present political situation in Chicago. As previously stated, we will be addressing struggles and struggles that occurred in relation to the struggles of the young people in Black America. This post is dedicated to the discussion of the role of organizing and mobilizing Black people to confront the ongoing racism, war, and militarism in Western society which continues to exist in our nation’s history