What are your thoughts on the Black Panther Party?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

Were they good for the cause or detrimental?

[skooooo]

1. They fed a lot of children..

...and spoke the truth. You can see where it got them.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. Yeah - Fred Hampton shot while he slept!

Unconscionable!

[soupkitchen]

2. The black panther paper printed articles about police killings and corrupt

That diddn't make it to the main street press for five years.
But that they did make it to the press, proved the Panther's articles were on the money.

[ugarte]

4. They did a lot of good, awoke much pride in the black community

The fact that that they were so effective explains why Hoover's FBI infiltrated them and set them up to be murdered.

The Panthers themselves made some mistakes and perhaps tried to do too much too soon, but their hearts were in the right place. Read about George Jackson and the Soledad Brothers...courageous guys who died for what they believed.

Check out 'Blood in My Eye', George Jackson's political autobiography, if you can find it.

Whether they were good for the 'cause' is an interesting question. They definitely scared white people, liberals included, and may have polarized in some way. But they definitely got the the power structure's attention.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. Blood in My Eye on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0933121237/102-2936081-7862507?v=glance

[seventhson]

6. I think it depends on what you mean and how you define it

the Pamthers were SMASHED by COINTELPRO and were heavily infiltrated by provocateurs so that their mission becane a shambles.

By attempting to use guns (and the 2nd amendment) to fight oppression they created a backlash that was arguably terrible for the human rights movements and the antiwar movement of the sixties and early seventies.

On the other hand their courage and fortitude and ideals educated millions of people, both African- and European-American, on the injustices of the "system": i.e. that it is/was virulently racist from top to bottom (although in many instances it is subtel and unacknowledged) - especially the "justice" and prison systems and the antipoverty and educational systems.

They raised some wonderful children in their schools and fed the hungry and fought injustice bravely.

But they were unable to bring about the change we needed through the methods they used which were too simplistic and to vulnerable to disruption by a corrupt and murderous elite (they likes of Hoover etc.)

I loved the Panthers in many ways and became friends with several of them (one was a lawschool classmate and housemate) and I even was involved in some of the cases on the legal end. I spent an evening drinking whiskey and reminiscing with Bobby Seale once in DC where he was promoting his Barbecue book (and complaining about Jesse Jackson really being a corporate tool).

I guess a good retrospective question would be "where did the Panthers fail?" They succeeded in many ways and were destoyed. Could that have been avoided? Would not tailing the police with guns have gotten less of them killed and made them more effective advocates.

We must remember that they were destroyed BECAUSE they were effective at organizing the masses of disenfranchised African American youth and elders too, many vietnam vets, giving them discipline and purpose and having their eyes on a prize: human rights and justice.

But they also were destroyed because they were human beings who were disrupted by agent-provovateurs and who fell victim to their own weaknesses and human frailties.

Bobby Seale is a great guy and worth seeing if he ever speaks nearby.

His trial after the Chicago 68 convention was mind-blowing (he was gagged and tied to his chair during his trial because he insisted the trial was a kangaroo court and he wanted to represent himself.)

I also got to meet Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, and I used to go and watch the trials in New Haven of Bobby and Erika Huggins.

Power to the People!