The party fought police brutalities aimed
at Blacks in the US.

The Black Panthers, also known as the Black Panther Party, was a political organisation that challenged the police brutality against the African Americans in the United States. The American society was fighting an internal war against racism then. The leading voices against racism were of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. However, they were not alone. Multiple struggles, one of such battles was laid by the party mentioned before, sprang up to put a final nail in the coffin of racism that was plaguing the American society.

Originally dubbed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the organisation in October 1966. The Black Panthers’ early activities primarily involved monitoring police activities in black communities in Oakland and other cities.

Newton and Seale drew on Marxist ideology for the party platform. They outlined the organisation’s philosophical views and political objectives in a Ten-Point Program. The Ten-Point Program called for an immediate end to police brutality; employment for African Americans; and land, housing and justice for all. The Black Panthers were part of the larger Black Power movement, which emphasised black pride, community control and unification for civil rights.

Though the movement is non-existent in the US today, different agitating groups uphold their legacy across the globe. Even in the US, the party has survived the public imagination till this day, thanks to the publication of some memoirs by its members and the use of its rhetoric in rap music.