During the height of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Black Panther Party emerged as an alternative for those frustrated with southern Civil Rights organizations’ nonviolent philosophy and seemingly slow progress. Founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seal created the Black Panthers as an organization of action, not words, with a core ideology of community survival programs and armed protection against police brutality and white privilege. The Black Panther Party provided African American communities with a visible image, bold message, and a call to action.

Members donned black leather clothing, matching berets, and often carried firearms as the uniform reflecting party dogma.  Food service programs, coordinated transportation, education and health initiatives are characteristic of the Black Panthers’ self-reliant, anti-establishment approach to survival. Throughout the 1960s, the Black Panthernewspaper became an additional vehicle for communicating party ideals with strong symbols and rhetoric, such as the terms swine and pigsin reference to police officers.

In 1967 the Federal Bureau of Investigation formalized a program of covert actions to disrupt and “neutralize” Black Power organizations.  Known as COINTELPRO—Counter Intelligence Program—the bureau targeted groups for clandestine harassment, intimidation and even assassination.

Following the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., many black Americans became suspicious of white institutions and America’s political system. The ranks of the Black Panther Party and other Black Power groups surged.

Credits and Sources:

2012.86.5 - Children cutting bread which was brought to the Free Huey Rally by the Diggers, De Fremery Park, Oakland, CA, No. 35, July 28, 1968; printed 2012. Photograph by Ruth-Marion Baruch. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Pirkle Jones Foundation, ©2011 Pirkle Jones Foundation

2012.86.6 - Black Panthers from Sacramento, Free Huey Rally, Bobby Hutton Memorial Park, Oakland, CA, No. 62, August 25, 1968; printed 2010. Photography by: Pirkle Jones. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Pirkle Jones Foundation, ©2011 Pirkle Jones Foundation

“Four Radical Groups.” University of Virginia. Accessed January 8, 2016. https://explore.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/show/sixties/walkthrough/four-radical-groups.

“Panther Patrols: Publicity and Performance ‘It's About Gettin' the Man's Attention’.” Accessed January 8, 2016. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG01/barillari/pantherchap1.html.

“Seattle Black Panther Party History and Memory Project.” University of Washington. Accessed January 8, 2016. http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/BPP.htm.