During the twentieth century we have witnessed many different types of social movements, many of which have had numerous effects on our lives and have brought a clearer understanding to us what exactly it means to be a citizen in the United States of America. There is one such movement that is of great interest to me. This is the Black Panther Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Our cognition of the various movements of this century have been falsified by the mass media and its interpretations of the different events associated with such movements. In other words, as citizens we can only interpret events of any type with the information, or misinformation as it may be, that is given to us by the media. The only other way to obtain accurate or mostly factual information is to either be a part of the event or to have some direct connection with a person or persons from the event.

The goal of this paper is to present to the reader as much factual information as possible about the movement of the Black Panthers. I will rely less on the "white man’s" interpretation, and more heavily on the interpretation of the movement from the point-of-view of former members of the Black Panther Party. Even within the movement there are still biases as to what actually took place and why things were done the way they were. In order to address this problem, I will attempt to note the source or perspective I am coming from when I am discussing a certain aspect of the movement of the Black Panthers. The first part of my paper will explain the movement and different events that took place during the movement. This part of the paper will mostly be written from the perspective of Bobby Seale, the Chairman of the Black Panther Party. The second part of the paper will discuss the different social movement theories and what theory, if any, the Black Panther Movement can most closely be identified with. For this part of the paper I will compare and contrast Marxian Theory, Resource Mobilization Theory, and some aspects of New Social Movement Theory. This part of the paper is intended to provide a brief overview of my opinions of how the different theories of social movement relate to the Black Panther movement. It is not intended to provide a detailed analysis of all the social movement theories and their relation to the Black Panther movement.

The most important relationship in the movement began when Huey Newton and Bobby Seale met one another at Merritt College. They were both very interested in Black issues and were the main forces in constructing a Black curriculum at the college. They worked to create a student group on campus that would be attractive to not only students, but also non-students. The name of this group became "Soul Students Advisory Council." Their first issue of concern was black men being drafted into the military to fight in the Vietnam War. Since Merritt College was over fifty percent black, the issue gained wide support rapidly.

At their first gathering in an auditorium Bobby Seale recited a poem titled "Uncle Sammy called me fulla Lucifer." With this powerful poem the membership of the student group swelled to over one hundred people. Then one night Huey, Bobby and a guy by the name of Weasel were walking down a street by the Cal Campus and Huey asked Bobby to recite the same poem so Weasel could see that people would stop to listen. Many people did stop to listen and eventually Bobby was standing on top of a chair reciting the poem with a great deal of passion. The cops came and tried to arrest Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Huey stated that they had done nothing wrong and that they had no right to arrest them. A fight broke out between the police, Bobby, Weasel, and Huey. The three of them were eventually contained and arrested.

A few nights after being bailed from jail, Bobby and Huey were walking down the street and noticed a black man being arrested. They observed the arrest and were threatened with being arrested themselves if they did not move along. However, they chose not to move along, but were not arrested. Bobby and Huey used some money of the Soul Students Advisory Council to bail him out. A couple of the people in the S.S.A.C. were angered by this and spread negative rumors about Bobby and Huey. They felt that these rumors were spread so the two people who started the rumors could take over the S.S.A.C.. This was the decisive moment in time when Bobby and Huey made an important decision which would not only affect their lives forever, but the lives of thousands of others as well.

In October of 1966, Bobby Seale and Huey Newton came to the conclusion that they needed to get some community-based organization going. All they needed, according to Huey, was a law book, tape recorder, and a gun. At the poverty program office, the place of employment for Huey and Bobby, they drew up a ten-point platform and program for the new organization. They both agreed to name it the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Huey Newton would be the Minister of Defense of the newly created Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and Bobby Seale would be the Chairman. For several days they discussed many details of how they would go about patrolling the police. One of the main things they had to remember was to always keep their guns in plain sight so they would not be disobeying the law by carrying a concealed weapon. A third person, by the name of Bobby Hutton, soon joined the two of them. He became the treasurer for the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and was nick-named Little Bobby.

In order to appear more professional, and in an effort to gain more respect from the people, they came up with an uniform. This uniform consisted of black berets, creased black slacks, black leather jackets, starched powder-blue shirts, black ties or a black silk scarf tucked in around the neck, and shined black shoes. By doing this people would not simply see them as hoodlums with guns, but as respectable people trying to make a positive difference. During the day they would all go to Merritt College to talk to people about the party and hand out copies of the ten-point program. From these visits they were able to recruit several people to join the party. The next step in organizing was to rent a storefront office. They were able to get one around a half block from Merritt College. Bobby Seale painted a professional-looking sign in the window to signify their headquarters. In an effort to raise much needed money they sold Mao Tse Tung’s quotations, The Little Red Book, to students on Cal University’s campus. With this money they were able to buy six 18- and 20-inch-barrel riot shotguns.

Now that they were seen as a bold force to be reckoned with, a man by the name of Ron Ballard came to their office to ask if they would assist in escorting Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s widow, from the San Francisco airport for her appearance at a Death Morning Rally for Malcolm X. Bobby and Huey were concerned with the other people who were escorting Betty Shabazz. They wanted to know how many guns they would have with them. Ron Ballard told them they had around twenty-five brothers with guns. Bobby and Huey did not believe him and told him that if they really had that many guns then they did not need their help in escorting Betty Shabazz. When the time actually came it turned out that only four of them had guns and none of them were even loaded. The Black Panthers were outraged by this and basically felt that the other group of people were a bunch of chicken shits without any guts.

When they were leaving Ramparts Magazine a confrontation with the cameramen and police took place because Betty Shabazz did not want any pictures taken of her. Huey was trying to keep a camera covered when all of a sudden the cameraman hit him. Huey hit him back and told the police to arrest the cameraman. The police told Huey that they should arrest him. Once the police started getting closer, the Black Panthers loaded their guns and told them that they would shoot them in order to defend themselves if they had to. Eventually the police backed up and let them be on their way. By this time the other group of people and Betty Shabazz were long gone.

This incident prompted a California Assemblyman named Mulford to try to get a bill passed that would make it illegal for them to carry guns. The Black Panthers would not let them do this sitting down. They felt that they had to get their message out to more people. Therefore, they decided to go armed to the capitol to read a statement for the press explaining their position. Eldridge Cleaver, the person who interviewed Betty Shabazz at Rampart Magazine and later became a leader in the Black Panther Party, was chosen to write the mandate. The members decided that Huey should not go because of his probation. Before they left Huey gave Bobby Seale specific directions on what to do. He was to go to the top of the steps at the capitol and read the mandate, but was not to go inside. However, after Bobby read the mandate on the stairs he decided to go inside since the Assembly was in session. Bobby was met by even more reporters and was asked to read the mandate a total of three more times after his initia reading on the steps of the capitol. Bobby did so happily.

After this they all stopped at a gas station to go to the bathroom and get some food to eat. The police showed up and surrounded them. Bobby argued that they had done nothing wrong and had no reason to arrest them. One of the officers had his gun out of its holster and was told by Bobby that he has no right to draw a gun on them and that if they draw guns on them or shoot at them they are subject to get killed. He went on to say that if they were going to arrest them to go ahead and do it, they would take an arrest and plead not-guilty to whatever charges would be filed. Bobby was arrested at the gas station and taken to jail. While he was being driven away he noticed that over half of his men were still armed with their guns holding them in the proper upright manner.

From the incident at the capitol the Black Panthers were seen as Black heroes to all the women. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense became a household name in the Bay area. They were asked to appear on every television and radio show imaginable. Unfortunately, the press portrayed them as a bunch of hoodlums. Some of the titles on the newspapers read, "Hoodlums Invade Capitol." Despite all of the negative publicity, the Black Panthers became known internationally. There was even an article in the London Times about the incident at the capitol.

This incident was not without its consequences. Six of the Panthers were threatened that if they didn’t plead guilty to a disturbing the peace charge then all 27 of the people that went to the capitol would be charged. Bobby Seale was one of the six people and at first planned on not appearing in court. However, after some careful thought he decided to go ahead and go for the sake of the party. He served six months in the Greystone prison.

While Bobby was in jail, Huey Newton was involved in an incident where he was shot and also accused of shooting an officer. Huey Newton was jailed for this incident and had little money for any sort of defense. As soon as Bobby was out of prison he started to raise money for the Huey Newton Defense Fund. One of their largest fund raisers was a rally in the Oakland Auditorium where they received ten thousand dollars for the defense fund. Eventually, they were able to raise enough money and hired a lawyer by the name of Charles Garry. Bobby at first felt that Huey should have a black lawyer; however, his mind changed after meeting Charles Garry.

On the date of April 6, 1968, Bobby "Little Bobby" Hutton was killed by "them". He was only sixteen years old and had barely experienced life yet. The funeral was attended by approximately three hundred Black Panthers in full uniform. Just two days before that "they" killed Martin Luther King. Bobby Seale felt bad about this because of all the negative things they had said about him in the Black Panther newspaper. He didn’t say them himself, but knew of what was being said and sanctioned it.

Just a year and a half later, on October 27, 1969, Bobby Seale was in court on trumpeted up charges, along with seven other men, in the Chicago Eight Conspiracy Trial. Bobby wanted to represent himself in the trial and cross-examine witnesses who were testifying against him. The judge in the case would not allow him to and tried to make him shut-up. However, Bobby continued to argue in the courtroom for his constitutional right to represent himself in a court of law. By this point in time the judge was furious and threatened to gag and chain him if he would not cease. Bobby continued to demand that he be allowed to cross-examine the witnesses and ended up being shackled, chained, and gagged to a metal chair for three days while in court. During this time the marshals continually mistreated him. While they were attending to Bobby’s chair they threw their elbows into his mouth and some into his groin. The judge eventually declared a mistrial on Bobby’s case while the other seven would continue on with their trials. The seven people eventually won their court case and Bobby Seale went on to win all other court room political trials trumpeted against him.

In May of 1973, Bobby Seale ran for Mayor of Oakland. His campaign was more of a statement to the people than one that he actually believed was winnable. It started off with the Black Community Survival Conference Day at the Oakland Auditorium where thousands of people showed up for the free concert and to hear different people speak. Bobby Seale was one of the main speakers and announced his bid for Mayor of Oakland at this conference. He started his speech by discussing how he is sick of all the politicians making all of these promises and saying all of these things when they damn well know that they don’t plan on keeping any of the promises they make. Bobby went on to say that when the Black Panthers promise to provide ten thousand free bags of groceries for the poor--they would deliver. At the same time a large curtain is lifted revealing the ten thousand bags of groceries. He also heavily encouraged people to register to vote so they could help make a difference. Although his bid for Mayor was unsuccessful in terms of being elected, many of the goals were accomplished in the campaign.

Despite the fact that his bid for Mayor gained much needed positive publicity for the Black Panther Party, the membership of the Party dropped dramatically over the past few years. It went from over five thousand at one point, to just a few hundred at the time he ran for Mayor. Other things that contributed to the decline in Party membership was the illegal acts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation which included shooting out places where the Black Panthers would be (i.e. their headquarters), as well as blacks not feeling that they could relate to the sometime extreme nature of the Black Panther Party. The most devastating blow for the survival of the Party probably came when Bobby Seale decided to leave the Party to start a life of his own with his girlfriend and two kids. This decision of Bobby’s came from a dream he had early in the morning. At two in the morning, after some careful thought, he woke up his girlfriend and kids and took off in a plane from the San Francisco Airport with his girlfriend, while temporarily leaving his kids with his mother.

The purpose of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was to provide for the poor, the proletariat. The founders believed that it was their duty to become revolutionaries in order to fight for the poor against the ruling class. One of their first activities was police patrolling. They did this in order to protect the poor people from police brutality. The Black Panthers also started social welfare programs to help the poor community who usually couldn’t help themselves. These programs included free breakfast for kids, free food for families, free medical care, help in covering legal costs, etc. Their fight was heavily centered around the black community; however, their goals were to help all poor people against the system. With these things in mind it is very easy for one to come to the conclusion that the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense had many of the same ideals as Karl Marx did.

The Communist Manifesto³, Karl Marx’s most famous work, discusses the proletariat rising against the evils of the ruling class. Marx states that this will only happen after several years of extreme oppression. In this new classless society, people would be treated fairly and equally. Land would be redistributed equally to all of the people and the rich would be rich no longer. As we can see, the Black Panther Party was a communist party. Communism is, as defined by Friedrich Engels in Principles of Communism⁴, "...the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat."

A question remains of whether or not this revolution needs to be a violent one. In Principles of Communism⁴, Friedrich Engels states, "It would be desirable if this could happen, and the communists would certainly be the last to oppose it." I believe that Bobby Seale and Huey Newton were both for a peaceful revolution, but were ready for a violent one if absolutely necessary. One could say that they were moderate-radicals. On the other hand, Eldridge Cleaver, a leader of the Black Panther Party, was more of a radical-radical who felt that a violent revolution was necessary. In Conversation With Eldridge Cleaver², Eldridge states, "...I feel that the United States as it exists today has to be totally obliterated...rebuilt and restructured...rearranged." He goes on to say, "...it won’t be rearranged peacefully, because it’s clear that those who control the United States have no intention whatsoever of modifying what’s going on..." While making these statements, Eldridge Cleaver was in exile in Cuba escaping possible prosecution in the United States. Consequently, these different perspectives created a great deal of conflict in the leadership and was a contributing factor to the end of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

The movement of the Black Panthers can also be related to Resource Mobilization Theory. In Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements⁵ it states, "...grievances are relatively constant, deriving from structural conflicts of interest built into social institutions, and the movements form because of long-term changes in group resources, organization, and opportunities for collective action." The movement of the nation towards civil rights for all (i.e. Rosa Parks, Brown vs. Board of Education, "real" voting rights, etc.) provided opportunities for people to form organizations to make a difference. With the now available opportunities for collective action came the formation of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. They used available resources (i.e. the law, leadership, supporters) and worked for new ones (i.e. non-black sympathizers, money). While trying to find new resources for their movement, they lost some of the strength of the old ones (i.e. membership numbers, black community support).

One aspect of the Black Panther movement which can be identified with New Social Movement Theory is the concept of cultural identity. I have stated previously that the objective of the Black Panther Party was not to simply help poor black people, but to help all poor people. However, we can’t ignore the structure of the Party and the activities that took place. Most of them were aimed at helping the poor black person who was unable to help him or herself. This may have been intentional or unintentional, but is what occurred nonetheless. We can attribute it to a large degree to the cultural make-up of the leadership and Party. Their first consideration was to help the people in their own community before they could conceive of helping people in other communities. Despite the outcome of many of the activities, Bobby Seale was always working towards unity amongst all people. While in jail he told a fellow inmate, "...Power to the People, all the people, white, black, green, red, brown, yellow. I don’t care what color or ethnic group, even polka dot."¹ Cultural identity was an important factor in what types of activities the Black Panthers would do and where they would do them.

I hope that after reading this paper you more clearly understand the movement of the Black Panthers and what their intentions were. They were not a violent group unless they had to be. All they wanted to do was help the oppressed people and make a positive difference in their lives. The Black Panthers were not completely successful in what they set out to do, but they did help make America take notice of their struggle. This paper wasn’t as clearly written as I would have liked it to have been. This is due in a large part to some of my sources. My main source, A Lonely Rage, was written in a very choppy manner that jumped from subject to subject. Despite that, I hope I was able to provide to you some valuable insight into the lives of the Black Panthers and why they moved for change.