The Black Panthers: A Retrospective

The Black Panthers: A Retrospective

In Memory of Huey Newton (1942-1989)

by Barbara Ransby

  The past couple of years has witnessed a media orgy of 1960s retrospectives, usually short on facts, lacking in analysis, and big on the kind of romantic hype that is safe only 20 years later. The aniversary of the 1964 March on Washington, the Woodstock rock concert, and the murder of the three civil rights workers, Goodman, Chaney and Schwemer, are all thrown in the same pot of a garbled historical memory. One pivotal group from the 1960s which we hear very little about, however, is the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. They were gun-toting Black radicals with black leather jackets and black berets who referred to cops as "pigs." This is the sum total of what many young people today know of the legacy of the Black Panthers. But the Black Panther Party was, in fact, much more than that and has left a very important legacy. The recent death of Huey Newton, founder of the Panthers, provides an opportunity for us to reflect upon what the Panthers were and what impact they had.

   Founded in Oakland, California in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Panthers advocated a 10 point program for Black self -determination which addressed issues of housing, umemployment, racism in education, militarism, corruption in the courts and police brutality. In addition to their political program, the Panthers were powerful symbols for Black youths in urban communities throughout the country. They appealed to the angry, frustrated Black youths who inhabited the streets of cities like Oakland, Detroit, and New York, successfully competing with local drug dealers and crimináis for their loyalty. The Panthers sought to redirect that youthful anger and impatience into constructive political channels. Drugs, racism and capitalism were the enemies of Black people, argued the Panthers, not other Black people and not ourselves. The role of strong, intelligent Black youth was to serve their communities, not to either prey upon them or abandon them. The Panthers started some Creative community service projects consistent with this philosophy including the Free Breakfast Program for school children; escort services to protect senior citizens from criminals; and of course, the infamous "peoples war on drugs," in which local drug houses were raided by armed Panthers. The drugs were destroyed and the money was confiscated to finance community service projects.

   One of the most controversial aspects of the Panther's program was their encouragement of armed self defense against police violence. This, of course, was a reaction to escalating and often unchecked brutality by predominantly white police forces against urban Black communities in the 1960s. These programs and the politics upon which they were based reached thousands of young Black people of the so called "underclass," many of whom were deemed "unreachable" by contemporary teachers and social workers. But the Panthers carried a very different message. Their message was that Black youth had every right to be angry and outraged at the condition of their lives, but that they had the power to change it, not as individuals but collectively through a political movement for "people's power." In describing the political philosophy of the Panthers, Huey said in 1968, "We have respect for all of humanity and we realize that the people should rule and determine their destiny.. ..To have Black Power doesn't humble or subjugate anyone to slavery or oppression. Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny. We advocate and we aid any people who are struggling to determine their destiny. This is regardless of color."

   Although short-lived, largely due to FBI harassment and infiltration, the Panthers impact was significant California Congressman Ron Dellums attributes, in part, the rise of Black elected officials in the 1970s and 1980s to the political organizing of the Panthers. In addition, the Panthers were some of the first forces on the Left to challenge the drug culture of the 1960s as "counter-revolutionary," based upon the havoc drugs had wreaked upon the Black community. They also exposed police brutality and corruption and are likely responsible, in part, for many of the reforms introduced later to abate police violence, desegregate all-white police departments, and insure a minimum of community accountability. Finally, the Panthers urged Black middle class people to fight for the interests, not of the most pri vileged sectors of the Black community, but of the most oppressed. And in contrast to a very narrow nationalist vision, the Black Panther Party urged unity between oppressed people in the U.S. with oppressed people all over the world.

   Since those in power understand the potential threat from an alliance among all of us who are excluded from power, the message of the Black Panther Party, despite some of its weaknesses, was a very dangerous one to them. The counter-intelligence operations of the FBI, termed COINTELPRO, therefore targeted the Panthers for destruction using a wide variety of techniques to manipulate, harass, discredit and divide the organization and its leaders. FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal that the agency's tactics included anonymous death threats, letters to spouses of party members charging infidelity, and the use of infilirators to foment factional splits.

   Huey's former attorney, Charles Garry, observed that the FBI's activities against the Panthers had emotionally killed Huey long before he was shot to death last week in Oakland. Ironically, the drug dealers who he had fought so hard against in the early days, had gotten the best of him. Many other Panthers suffered similar fates. Some were jailed on dubious charges. Dhoruba bin Wahad in New York and Ahmed Abdur-Rahman in Michigan are two former Black Panthers who have been in prison for nearly two decades for crimes that FOIA documents suggest they did not commit. Others were harassed to the point of psychological breakdown, and some were even killed in orchestrated police shoot-outs.

   This memorial to Huey is not in tended to romanticize the Panthers, because they, like every other: political group, had their contradictions and weaknesses, sexism being a big one. Despite misogynist comrnentsby former Panther leader Eldrige Cleaver, and Huey 's own macho stance, the Panthers were as much a symbol of defiance and pride for young Black women as they were for men.

   Women like Elaine Brown, Kathleen Cleaver, Angela Davis and the nine Panther women who were put on trial in New Haven in 1969 and who were all members or supporters of the Black Panther Party at one time, represented an important voice for Black women in that period. They were brave, articulate, serious young people who were not afraid to be beaten, jailed or even to die for what they believed. And many of them paid dearly for such courage but left a powerful and provocative legacy for all of us. They believed as Huey Newton did: "We will not compromise because the issue (of freedom) is so basic. If we compromise one iota we will be selling our freedom out. As far as we 're concemed we would rather be dead than to go on with the slavery we are in."

THE PANTHERS STARTED SOME CREATIVE COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS...INCLUDING THE FREE BREAKFAST PROGRAM FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN; ESCORT SERVICES TO PROTECT SENIOR CITIZENS FROM CRIMINALS; AND OF COURSE, THE INFAMOUS "PEOPLES WAR ON DRUGS," IN WHICH LOCAL DRUG PANTHERS. THE DRUGS WERE CONFISCATED TO FINANCE HOUSES WERE RAIDED BY ARMED DESTROYED AND THE MONEY WAS COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECTS. BARBARA RANSBY