Circa 2007— Freshman year of College there was this crazy popular new wave going around called “Facebook.” Couldn’t go a day without hearing all about it and I for damn sure wasn’t going to be left in the dark.
There wasn’t much to it but to fill out a few standard things which outlines the person I am and what I’d like to make public. One thing that stuck out however was the section which asked me what political party did I associate with. I had never even thought about it up until that point. After all I was just then even becoming of age to vote!
It didn’t take me long to make a choice and that choice I’ve never strayed from to this day.
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My first introduction to the Black Panther party was on television when the movie special based on the group was airing on late night re-run. The movie moved me beyond measure and the real life story always stuck with me.
The demise of the party is one of legend and surrounded by conspiracy, but the innocent and humble direction the party originally started with is still very much so alive not only within myself but many groups or people still in the fight of equality, race equity and social advocacy.
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Black Powerpolitical organization founded by college students Bobby Seale (Chairman) and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California.[6][7] The party was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982, with chapters in numerous major cities, and international chapters in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s,[8] and in Algeria from 1969 to 1972.[9]At its inception on October 15, 1966,[10] the Black Panther Party’s core practice was its open carryarmed citizens’ patrols (“copwatching”) to monitor the behavior of officers of the Oakland Police Department and challenge police brutality in the city.
In 1969, a variety of community social programs became a core activity.[11] The Party instituted the Free Breakfast for Children Programs to address food injustice, and community health clinics for education and treatment of diseases including sickle cell anemia, tuberculosis, and later HIV/AIDS.It advocated for class struggle, with the party representing the proletarianvanguard
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