October 1966: Founding of Black Panther Party for Self-Defense

The Black Panther Party was created October 15, 1966, in Oakland, California, by Merritt Junior College students Huey P. Newton (right in undated photo above) and Bobby Seale. The BPP offered a revolutionary alternative to traditional civil rights tactics, strategies, and goals, inspired by the revolutionary nationalist theory of Malcolm X, the BPP spiritual and intellectual father. Newton and Seal intended to extend his legacy to its next logical step -- revolution.

     -- From "Encyclopedia of African American History" (2010): @

Saturday, October 15
* Platform text (The Sixties Project, University of Virginia): @

     -- Note: The book "Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party" (Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr., 2013) calls into question this date: @

Saturday, October 29
     BERKELEY, Calif. (UPI) -- "Black power" advocate Stokely Carmichael bitterly condemned America as a racist nation Saturday before a cheering throng of 12,000 on the University of California campus.
     He scorned the United States' role in Viet Nam and urged the white students and young Negroes in the audience to say "hell no" to their draft boards.
     Carmichael flew here to participate in the all-day campus "black power" meeting after defying his own draft board in New York to take him into the Army. The crowd in the outdoor Greek theater were mostly white students, but there were many Negroes, some from off-campus.
* Text/audio of Carmichael speech (American Rhetoric): @

* "Stokely Carmichael, 'Black Power' " (Kalen M.A. Churcher, Niagra University, 2009): @

Resources
* Chronology and audio/video (UC Berkeley Library): @

* Summary from www.marxists.org: @

* Summary from Amistad Digital Resource: @

* "On the Ideology of the Black Panther Party" (Eldridge Cleaver): @
* "In Defense of 'Black Power' " (David Danzig, Commentary magazine, September 1, 1966): @

* Negro Digest (October 1966): @

* Negro Digest (November 1966): @

* Negro Digest (December 1966): @

* Website of Bobby Seale: @
* Related publications (Michigan State University): @
* More resources (art-of-protest.net): @
* More resources (Freedom Archives): @
* More resources (SNCC Legacy Project): @

* Earlier post on Lowndes County Freedom Organization (December 1965): @ 

---