Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, Essay Example

Because of the manner in which the Black Panther Party took on a variety of chants and saying, they became to become known as a violent African American organization within the time frame that the organization existed. When barely starting off, individuals were attracted to the idea of the Black Panther Party because of how they stood for what they believed in. These individuals believed that racism was outdated and that something should be done about how African Americans in general were being treated. The reason as to why the organization started to patrol the streets of Oakland was to be able to record the kind of police brutality that was going on in these streets. Ultimately, this proved to be a bad idea because due to the manner in which the organization’s individuals were carrying around weapons following the police, this was often seen as a sign of oppression. Because of that, the Black Panther Party was disapproved by many individuals throughout those times. Once individuals heard rumors of how the Black Panther was getting involved with illegal activities such as crime and drugs, support for the party immediately stopped. Forty acres and and a mule was a term that had a direct correlation to the kind of land distribution between freed slaves. This was directly correlated to agrarian reform; the name correlated to the amount of land and number of mules freedmen were expected to buy after the war.

The Black Panther Party was most known for taking up arms against police brutality in a nonviolent fashion. This illustrates the problem of police brutality that the organization was invariably attempting to address and put an end to. For Huey P. Newton, the Black Panther Party’s official goals were being able to acquire better commodities for African Americans, such as providing them with better kinds kind jobs, housing, and education. This, in itself, was its most fundamental principle.

References

Bush, R. D. (2009). The end of white world supremacy: Black internationalism and the problem of the color line. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

In Edozie, R. K., & In Stokes, C. (2015). Malcolm X’s Michigan worldview: An exemplar for contemporary Black studies.

Robinson, C. J. (2000). Black marxism: The making of the Black radical tradition. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.