Renown member of the Black Panther Party Huey Newton said, “Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their own destiny.” This quote describes the power that radical African Americans were seeking going into this movement. During the late forties, Harry Truman sparked the fight for civil rights as he issued an executive order in 1948 to end the segregation in armed forces, and after this order was executed and Americans failed to implement the order set in place, minorities started to fight back. With the unjustified murder of Emmett Till, and the defiant stances of African Americans such as Rosa Parks, the nonviolent protests started to form. These included sit-ins and peaceful marches that brought an initial view into the resilience that African Americans and other minority groups would eventually have towards the racially oppressed system. The original tactic of nonviolence had been echoing around the nation with questionability of whether it was effective in stopping the racism in the system, after the sit ins and marches made little impact on stopping the police brutality. Developments of a new idea by the Black Panther Party of grassroots activism forced police officials into an immediate solution to the brutality. The idea of these radical motives moved towards forcing the police into following the law, and stopping the unjustified arrests and murders of minority groups. As members and supporters of The Black Panther Party brought attention to police brutality through self defense, observation of police, and memorizing the laws, they were able to lessen the issue by using radical grassroots tactics, but could not ultimately end it. The Black Panthers, founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale (Abu-Jamal 3) was an organization that above all wanted equality in society and specifically worked towards equality in the police force. They were created to take a more radical approach with grassroots tactics, that helped them gain support and power from their followers. Within Heaths collection of literature from the Black "The new "serve the people" theme was represented as being in harmony with Panther expectations to achieve "power to the people" in an eventual showdown with the "racist power structure." When the theme was sounded by Chairman Bobby Seale in The Black Panther of November 16, 1968, it reflected little of the customary Panther militancy. The program appeared to have little in common with Panther study of guerilla warfare tactics—the subject of a publication distributed to members gathered at a "national retreat" in Berkley on the very same date—or with Panther predictions of armed struggles in a future revolutionary situation." (Heath 83)These programs strengthened the minorities within their own communities, so they could better fight against the brutality of police officers using grassroot tactics. The ten-point program was written in October 1966 to spread the word to supporters with statements on what they want and believe. (Heath 248) The program brought attention to the nation that these were goals they would work towards until they got the justice they felt they deserved after the centuries of oppression. Included in the ten-point program were ideals that they wanted and believed police brutality and murder needed to end immediately. These publications of their motives publicly challenged the unfair brutality. Programs such as these made a statement to not only supporters but the government and white majorities, that what they wanted and were fighting for were basic human rights. This program was included in various issues of The During the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party moved away from nonviolent activism to bring attention and end police brutality. Through tactics such as self defense, observation, and memorizing laws, they made a difference in bringing some immediate changes to issues that African Americans had been fighting passively for centuries. It is through making an uprise with supporters that people became aware that minorities were being targeted, and that problem would not change if attention was not brought to a national level. The Black Panthers today have continued to make a contribution to the long lasting fight that our nation has been contending with since the start of our country. Members of groups that are not facing the harsh consequences of police brutality are joining with modern groups likewise to the Black Panthers such as Black Lives Matter, to end the racial systems flaws. Just as the Black Panthers were able to go against the social status quo and bring scruntity to real issues in the system, today we must focus on what really matters to make needed socal change. It is only by looking back into history and learning from past mistakes that we can progress; move forward as a society free of brutality in the police system.
