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When you hear about or see the “Black Panthers”, what do you think of? Innovators, activists, or even terrorists maybe? The Black Panther Party was a political organization that based it’s principals off of fighting to end police brutality against African Americans in America. Founded in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, this political party had goals to advance colored people in America against all of the racism and discrimination they faced in the 1960’s.The organization was originally called the “Black Panther Party for Self-Defense” in 1966. They wanted to destroy white oppression, the ultimate downfall of African Americans. Seale and Newton were tired of seeing the mistreatment of their people, and they had the courage to stand up for what’s right and build their community up from its current state. They were like the community police, there would be panthers present during the arrest of African Americans to make sure that no police brutality was occurring during the process. They were very popular among urban communities such as Philadelphia and Los Angeles as they started to get more recognition for their work.
Not only did the Black Panther’s protect the members of its community, they also reaffirmed black beauty in a time that lacked the representation of it. This is another reason why they had a lot of attraction toward them from major cities, the affirmation of the beauty of black people was very important and rare in that time period. Black women embraced their natural afros and wore leather jackets and berets to represent their membership in the organization.
While some looked at the Black Panther Party as a terrorist group, others saw them as heroes, saving their community one step at a time. Happy Black History Month, and take this time to research your history!