Black Panther Party

Episode S0080, Recorded on January 23, 1973

Guests: Huey P. Newton, Lanny Sinkin, Patricia Holland, Gary Mounce

For more information about this program, see: http://digitalcollections.hoover.org/objects/6257

For more information about the Firing Line broadcast records at the Hoover Institution Archives, see:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6m3nc88c/dsc/#c01-1.2.11.1

This how the FBI used to describe the Black Panthers. "The Black Panther Party is a black extremist organization founded in Oakland, California in 1966. It advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government. In 1969, the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office opened an investigative file on the BPP to track its militant activities, income, and expenses."

With a focus on racial pride and self-determination, leaders of the Black Power movement argued that civil rights activism did not go far enough.

In the 1960s civil rights movement, some concluded that non-violence and the focus on integration had failed — their cry was “Black Power” rather than “We Shall Overcome.” One of the most prominent of these groups was the Black Panther Party, and it was also perhaps one of the most misunderstood and vilified by the white establishment. We take a closer look for our “Hidden Histories” series.

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Huey P. Newton, at 28 years old, was the leader of the Black Panther Party, one of the most influential social movements of the 1960s. When he’d been arrested in 1967, charged with killing a police officer, the group had only a few dozen members. His fellow Panthers eagerly took up his cause, insisting that Huey had been wrongly accused. The slogan “Free Huey” became a rallying cry, emblazoned on posters and buttons. Before long, Black Panther Party offices popped up all over the United States, and Huey became a revolutionary icon like Malcolm X and Che Guevara.

The Black Panther Party’s co-founder, Bobby Seale, once said that the group “came right out of Huey Newton’s head.” The two men met in 1961 as students at Merritt College in Oakland. Huey was eccentric, sometimes walking into class barefoot and soaked with rain. On the street with his drinking buddies, he’d deliver lectures on Plato’s cave allegory—the prisoners staring at shadows on the wall, afraid to go out into the sunlight. “The allegory seemed very appropriate to our own situation in society,” Huey later wrote in his 1973 autobiography. But no one around him knew quite what to make of it. “The dudes on the block still thought I was ‘out of sight’ and sometimes just plain crazy.”

Huey and Seale spent hours unpacking what had happened and discussing how no existing movement seemed to have the solution. They admired Malcolm X, but he’d been killed in February 1965 without leaving any clear plan of action. As for the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., he’d come to Watts and tried to talk to the people, but the encounter left him grappling with the limits of his own nonviolent philosophy. “Urban riots are a special form of violence,” King explained at a 1967 conference of the American Psychological Association. “They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. … Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking.”

“The Panthers were incredibly media-conscious,” says Shames, who recently published two photo books about the group. He notes that their leather jackets projected toughness but also hipness. Their berets were inspired by the French resistance during World War II. Above all, the Panthers’ style conveyed power. At the time, white flower children were running away from their parents’ conventions and expectations, dressing in rags and wandering the streets of San Francisco. But the Black Panthers were responding to the chaos and helplessness that plagued their own community. They wanted to create a new Black stereotype that projected confidence and discipline.

The Panthers’ most visible effort was the Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren program, which served free hot breakfasts to as many as 20,000 students in 1969. The program caught the attention of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who complained in a memo. “The resulting publicity tends to portray the BPP in a favorable light,” Hoover wrote, using the bureau’s typical shorthand for the group’s name, “and clouds the violent nature of the group and its ultimate aim of insurrection.”

Edit: updated yt link

A life-changing story based on true events. Watch the beginnings of the Rainbow Coalition in Judas and the Black Messiah...

Offered a plea deal by the FBI, William O'Neal infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton.

[Rated: R | IMDb 7.4 | 126 min]

• Country:United States
• Genre: Drama, History, Biography
• Release: Feb 12, 2021
• Director: Shaka King
• Production: BRON Studios, MACRO, Bron Creative
• Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Jesse Plemons, Lakeith Stanfield

About

Judas and the Black Messiah is based on the true story of Fred Hampton, who at the age of 21 was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever.

I am a revolutionary!

In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.

Fred Hampton was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.

Now a comrade in arms to Fred Hampton, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks of the Black Panthers. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.

Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education. And it was Fred Hampton and his Chicago Chapter of the Black Panthers who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in Chicago to fight for equality and political empowerment.

“Judas and the Black Messiah” stars Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out,” “Widows,” “Black Panther”) as Fred Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield (“Atlanta,” “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”) as William O’Neal. The film also stars Jesse Plemons (“Vice,” “Game Night,” “The Post”), Dominique Fishback (“The Hate U Give,” “The Deuce”), Ashton Sanders (“The Equalizer 2,” “Moonlight”) and Martin Sheen (“The Departed,” TV’s “The West Wing,” TV’s “Grace & Frankie”).

“Judas and the Black Messiah” is directed by Shaka King, marking his studio feature film directorial debut. The project originated with King and his writing partner, Will Berson, who co-wrote the screenplay, story by Berson & King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas. King, who has a long relationship with filmmaker Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther,” “Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”), pitched the film to Coogler and Charles D. King (“Just Mercy,” “Fences”), who are producing the film. The executive producers are Sev Ohanian, Zinzi Evans, Kim Roth, Poppy Hanks, Ravi Mehta, Jeff Skoll, Anikah McLaren, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth, Ted Gidlow, and Niija Kuykendall.

The ensemble cast also includes Algee Smith (“The Hate U Give,” “Detroit”), Darrell Britt-Gibson (“Just Mercy,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Dominique Thorne (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Amari Cheatom (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.,” “Django Unchained”), Caleb Eberhardt (“The Post”), and Lil Rel Howery (“Get Out”). The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Sean Bobbitt (“12 Years a Slave,” “Widows”), production designer Sam Lisenco (“Shades of Blue”), editor Kristan Sprague (“Random Acts of Flyness”) and costume designer Charlese Antoinette Jones (“Raising Dion”)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9784798/

Short Summary

1. The Black Panther Party was started by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966 as a response to police brutality and injustices faced by African Americans in urban ghettos.
2. They organized armed patrols to monitor police officers and gained national attention after a protest in 1967.
3. The party issued a list of ten beliefs and values, including full employment, decent housing, and an end to police brutality.
4. By 1968, the party had a presence in over twenty major American cities with membership numbers as high as 10,000.
5. They also started community-friendly programs such as the Free Breakfast for Children Program, providing services like free medical care and drug rehabilitation.
6. However, the FBI viewed them as a threat and targeted them for investigation, leading to a decline in their influence by the 1970s.

Many organizations have made it their mission to expand the rights of Black Americans. The NAACP and the Urban League are examples of influential organizations with long histories. But a long history or extensive membership isn't always necessary to have an impact. Today, we'll learn about the Black Panthers. They were a relatively small, relatively short-lived political party that had an outsized impact on US history.

Short Summary

1. Clint Smith discusses the importance of Black political organizations in the fight for Black liberation.
2. Organizations like the NAACP and the National Urban League have been instrumental in bringing about policy changes for the civil and political rights of Black Americans.
3. The Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, aimed to address racial and class inequalities.
4. The Panthers outlined their objectives in a Ten-Point Program, including demands for freedom, full employment, an end to police brutality, and community control of resources.
5. The Panthers were actively engaged in their community through social programs like free health clinics to support the Black community and address centuries of oppression.
6. The Panthers' activism and social change efforts led to their popularity in urban centers with large minority communities.
7. The organization faced internal turmoil, leadership changes, and ideological shifts towards revolutionary violence.
8. The FBI's COINTELPRO program targeted the Panthers as a threat to national security, leading to controversy, armed confrontations, legal issues, and external pressures.
9. Despite challenges, the organization continued its activities, with figures like Elaine Brown holding leadership roles.
10. The Black Panther Party played a significant role in bringing Black power to national and international prominence, raising important questions about Black people's rights to fair treatment, equality, and self-defense.

It's been 50 years since the birth of the Black Panther Party. They fought against police brutality and fed poor kids. So why did the FBI hate them so much?

Reckon is an award-winning national news org covering reckonings in America

Many American schools usually keep their Black History curriculum on the Civil Rights Movement narrow down to just a handful of people. Most grade students never learned about Fred Hampton in the classroom. He was the chairman of the Black Panther Party in Illinois—a Chicagoland native with Southern roots who built a coalition of Black Chicagoans, white Southerners who had moved up north from Appalachia, Latino immigrants and even Chicago street gang members.

Chairman Hampton worked to successfully form and lead this rainbow coalition until he was killed by police on December 4, 1969.

Some argue that’s why he was killed.

This is the story of how Chairman Fred Hampton Sr.—a Windy City native with Southern roots—united a city for a common cause, and how the government unraveled it.

Newly unearthed documents have shed new light on the FBI’s role in the murder of the 21-year-old Black Panther leader Fred Hampton on December 4, 1969, when Chicago police raided Hampton’s apartment and shot and killed him in his bed, along with fellow Black Panther leader Mark Clark. Authorities initially claimed the Panthers had opened fire on the police who were there to serve a search warrant for weapons, but evidence later emerged that told a very different story: The FBI, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Chicago police had conspired to assassinate Fred Hampton. FBI memos and reports obtained by historian and writer Aaron Leonard now show that senior FBI officials played key roles in planning the raid and the subsequent cover-up. “It was approved at the highest level,” says attorney Jeff Haas. We also speak with attorney Flint Taylor. Both are with the People’s Law Office and were the lead lawyers in a landmark civil rights case over the deaths of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.

This how the FBI used to describe the Black Panthers. "The Black Panther Party is a black extremist organization founded in Oakland, California in 1966. It advocated the use of violence and guerilla tactics to overthrow the U.S. government. In 1969, the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office opened an investigative file on the BPP to track its militant activities, income, and expenses."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13197273

What we aren't taught about the Black Panther Party.

On December 4th, 1969, the Black Panther Party’s Illinois Chairman Fred Hampton was murdered by police. But his story is about much more than the raid that took his life. The movement Hampton helped create was unique, and revolutionary.

In the late 1960s, Fred Hampton helped lead a coalition of activists, working across racial lines against a corrupt city government that threatened their communities. At the core of their work were social programs, including free breakfasts, health clinics, and legal aid. Hampton named the group the Rainbow Coalition. And because of their impact, it wasn’t long before they got the attention of the police and the FBI. What followed was an assassination, and a coverup.