Foundation of the Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party (BPP) was founded in Oakland in October of 1966 as a reaction to police brutality, racism, and local questions of income inequality. Founding members Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were previously engaged in black activism around the campuses of Berkeley and Merritt College. They had been involved with the radical Black Studies movement at Merritt College and there they forged a network of allies, many of whom radicalized by the State of California’s sweeping arrests following the Watts rebellions in 1965. The BPP was originally founded as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and, armed with guns and law books they engaged in acts of “policing the police” throughout Oakland, undermining the notion of police action by performing it.

Policing the police exposed the credibility gap between American ideals and reality in Oakland. It was such an effective performance, especially since the American intervention in Vietnam was being spun as "police action", making it too easy to find similarities between American imperialism at home and in Vietnam. Pictured above is a political cartoon by Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas making that exact connection.

The introduction of the Mulford Act in the California state legislature in April of 1967 prohibited the carrying of loaded firearms in public, and was seen as a direct response to the increasingly militant activities of the BPP. So, on May 2, 1967 a group of 30 Black Panthers marched on the State Capitol in Sacramento, carrying loaded weapons, and protested against the legislation “aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless.” (Malloy, 2017, 68.) This demonstration brought the BPP to the national spotlight, but also wreaked havoc on the Party. As all 30 Panthers got arrested following the demonstration at a time where 30 included a considerable portion of their leadership, the remaining Panthers were faced with a decision: continue the theatrical challenge to the state power, go underground and engage in guerrilla warfare, or steer the party in a new direction. The Party thus shifted away from direct confrontation with the state and turned to new forms of party-building and anti-colonial activism.

The Party's ten-point platform was published in the first issue of The Black Panther on April 25, 1967 and included in every issue since. Notice the highlighted portions which quote the declaration of independence, thereby comparing the situation of African Americans to the American revolutionaries chafing under British Imperial authority.