Importance of the Black Panthers

Black Panthers is the name by which the Black Panther Party founded in 1966 in California, United States, is unofficially known. This party represented the ideals and values ​​of the Afro-American minorities in that country who still suffered numerous discriminations and segregations at that time. He is considered the continuator and political arm of the ideals of Malcolm X, a great figure who fought for the rights of African-Americans in North America. The importance of this party, although its life was brief (it was dissolved in 1982) lies in the visibility of the problems characteristics of one society in which forms of racial discrimination still exist today.

The 1960s was a revolutionary decade for a large part of the West, which meant the start of struggles for the recognition of the rights of some minorities. In the United States, this fight was carried out mainly by important figures such as Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, who advocated a more just society. In this sense, when several of them were assassinated by white leaders who did not tolerate questioning of the status quo, expressions arose more violent and radicalized like the Black Panthers, the armed party that emerges to deepen the struggle and carry out changes much more significant.

Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panthers party takes its name from the animal whose color partly represents the identity of African-American communities. In their struggle, the party established a ten-point program among which the request for freedom, employment, dignity, housing, health care, an end to police brutality, etc., many of them still unfulfilled today.

One of the particularities of this party is that it incited its members and the entire Afro-American community to own weapons, right constitutional in the United States, but up to now reserved almost exclusively for whites. Racial segregation, violence and discrimination of all kinds meant that black Americans had to seek ways of self-protection and defense against the abuses they suffered daily. Coincidentally, this attitude gave the party an even more negative image than it had among white groups and in general society, which represented more aggressiveness towards the Afro-American community even though the fight was dignified and a necessity in the face of situations of invisibility widespread.

Eventually, in the 1980s, the party suffered numerous conflicts and divisions that ended in its dissolution and the creation of new forms of struggle. policy. The importance of this party was undoubtedly to clarify the needs of an isolated community and victim of attacks of all kinds.