The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a black nationalist and marxist-leninist organisation active in the USA, UK and Algeria from 1966 to 1982. They organised armed patrols that monitored police officers as well as a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, to address issues like food injustice, and community health clinics for education and treatment of diseases including sickle cell anemia, tuberculosis, and later HIV/AIDS. The organisation went into decline as members became disillusioned with its marxist-leninst politics, repression by the FBI through COINTELPRO and involvement in the drug trade.
History
Background
The USA had witnessed large migrations of its black population from the south into cities during World War II as people sought to escape poverty and racism for high-paying factory jobs in the 1940s. These jobs weren't really there, and state-enforced discrimination pushed many black people into ghettos with bad housing, bad schools and almost no opportunity to escape. Additionally, the civil rights movement led to legal gains for equality but failed to fairly distribute political and economic power to the black population, leading many to become disillusioned with nonviolent activism as a new generation of black revolutionaries began to figure out new forms of activism.
Inspirations
The Black Panther Party inspired numerous other groups across the world, including:
- 1966: Black Guerilla Family (USA)
- 1968: Black Liberators (USA)
- 1968: American Indian Movement (USA)
- 1968: British Black Panthers (UK)
- 1968: White Panther Party (USA)
- 1968: Young Lords (USA)
- 1969: Red Guard Party (USA)
- 1970: Gray Panthers (USA)
- 1970: Black Liberation Army (USA)
- 1971: Black Panthers (Israel)
- 1971: Polynesian Panthers (New Zealand)
- 1972: Dalit Panthers (India)
- 1975: George Jackson Brigade (USA)
- 1989: New Black Panther Party (USA}
- 1992: Revolutionary Black Panther Party (USA)
- 1994: New Panther Vanguard Movement (USA)
- 2014: Huey P. Newton Gun Club (USA)
- 2005: New Afrikan Black Panther Party (USA)
- 2015: Assata's Daughters (USA)
- 2015: Black Women's Defense League (USA)