Black Panther Party: Difference between revisions

The pair worked at the North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center, where they also served on the advisory board. To combat police brutality, the advisory board obtained five thousand signatures in support of the City Council's setting up a police review board to review complaints. Newton was also taking classes at the City College and at [[San Francisco Law School]]. Both institutions were active in the North Oakland Center. Thus the pair had numerous connections with whom they talked about a new organization. Inspired by the success of the [[Lowndes County, Alabama#history |Lowndes County Freedom Organization]] and [[Stokely Carmichael|Stokely Carmichael's]], calls for separate black political organizations,<ref>[http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/lowndes-county-freedom-organization Lowndes County Freedom Organization | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> they wrote their initial platform statement, the ten-point program. With the help of Huey's brother Melvin, they decided on a uniform of blue shirts, black pants, black leather jackets, black berets, and openly displayed loaded shotguns.<ref>In his studies, Newton had discovered a California law that allowed carrying a loaded rifle or shotgun, as long as it was publicly displayed and pointed at no one. For more on this, see Pearson 1994, page 109</ref>

 

The [[Watts Riots]] occurred in 1965. According to Huey P. Newton, the riots were the result of police brutality. The Oakland Police and the [[California Highway Patrol]] carried shotguns in full view, to scare the community. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] attempted to calm the situation, but his philosophy of nonviolence was seen as useless. The rising consciousness of black people convinced them that their time had come to rise up. The Black Panther party saw its purpose to further the African-American civil rights movement and to find solutions to the growing problems caused by the oppression of black people.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Huey P. Newton Reader |last=Newton |first=Huey P. |authorlink= |coauthors= |year=2002 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |location= |isbn=158322467X |pages=49-50 }} </ref>