The Role of the Black Panther Party in the Human Rights Movement
The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 and active for only 14 years, but the African-American movement's lasting legacy was to influence the quest for human rights and social justice.
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Short, Controversial History
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Since its Oakland, California, beginnings, through its spread to major U.S. metropolises and beyond its 1980 disbandment, the BPP was associated with militant rhetoric, armed resistance, violent dissent, communist sympathies and even fashion.
Longer View, Longer Reach
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History shows what began as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, to fend off police brutality, evolved into an important catalyst for social change. Only recently have mainstream historians linked the black national movement of 1960s-70s America to the larger human rights struggle worldwide.
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Urban Struggles
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Among the first historians to establish this link was Robert Self, whose award-winning debut book "American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland" (2003) included the party within the broad sweep of Oakland's postwar urban development. The BPP quickly spread to Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and other cities.
Locally Made
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Like "American Babylon," the 2006 book "Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven" examined the BPP in a local setting. But author Yohuru R. Williams, an American Institute for History Education vice president, uses the local example to amplify the party's place in the larger human rights struggle.
Model Citizens
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Despite being known by many for its more divisive and even violent aspects, what remains today from the original Black Panther Party are latter-day versions of many pro-community initiatives. These have served as models to lift the oppressed worldwide.
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- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Adrian
