1
Whether they knew it or not, Newton and Seale's list of demands and beliefs were nearly identical to earlier ten point programs proposed by Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad. Their next task was to decide who did what.
With this agreement the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was born on October 15, 1966.
The panther was ready to prowl. With stacks of the Ten Point Program under their arms, Newton and Seale—later joined by Little Bobby Hutton, their first recruit—began passing out the programs in the neighborhoods of Oakland, stopping folks in the streets and arguing their reasons for armed struggle against the “pigs.” In their vernacular, pigs were cops who harassed Black residents without provocation. To them, the Panthers said,
People the trio of Panthers encountered on the streets were stunned by the new group's boldness and wondered why they had chosen a panther as their symbol.
Newton, who was never at a loss for an answer, explained: “The nature of the panther is that he never attacks. But if anyone attacks him or backs him into a corner the panther comes up to wipe the aggressor or that attacker out.”
Newton and Seale decided that these Panthers needed guns.
Residents of the Black community would see the Panthers coming and run for cover. The question on everybody's mind—which nobody had the nerve to ask—was: “Who in the world are those crazy radicals?”
“Power flows from the barrel of a gun,” was one of Mao Tse-Tung's famous quotes, and it was while selling Mao's Little Red Book to earn money to buy the guns that the young Panthers adopted both the Mao's words and became, in their own eyes, revolutionaries..
The Panthers admired the militant philosophy of Malcolm X -- especially his advocacy of armed self-defense.
“WE'RE GOING TO BE THE PERSONIFICATION OF MALCOLM'S DREAMS,”
Newton told his comrades.
Malcolm called for freedom and justice
“BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!”
The Panthers, at rallies and marches, screamed in unison,
“POWER TO THE PEOPLE!”
It all came down to the same thing, didn't it?
2
Inspired by Malcolm's legacy and funded by the sales of Mao's Red Book, the Panthers expanded their activist agenda and stepped up their plan to defend the community.
“We'll protect a mother, protect a brother, and protect the community from racist cops...”
...Seale proclaimed in his autobiography Seize the Time.
“And in turn we get brothers in the organization and they will in turn relate to the Red Book. They will relate to political, economic, and social equality in defense of the community.”
There were only 19 Blacks out of 600 officers on the Oakland police force, so the Panthers, to say the least, had their hands full. They were so balsy that they actually followed the Oakland police around. Whenever they encountered the police harassing or arresting somebody, Newton, Seale, and Li'l Bobby Hutton would jump from their car and approach the officers.
Brandishing a camera, a tape recorder, a law book, and with their guns in full view, they would stand off to the side and make sure the police conducted themselves within the law. “So long as we remain the proper distance from you,” Newton often told the police, “we can observe what you do. This is not interfering or disorderly conduct.”
Their policing the police was quickly the talk of the town. It was also the talk of every law enforcement agency in the country. It was only a matter of time before the Panthers aggressive monitoring provoked a showdown with the nervous, racist police officers... .
AND EVERYBODY ON BOTH SIDES KNEW IT.
The Panthers didn't invent the idea of keeping tabs on cops. A similar plan was started in Los Angeles after the Watts riots in 1965. But the Panthers took the idea a step—a GIANT STEP— further: They used guns! They did it in a perfectly legal way— and their patrols were successful. Too successful: The police stopped harassing the citizens and turned their attention on the Pant...