Another Look at the Black Panthers

The biggest movie out right now is Marvel’s Black Panther. I have not seen it yet, but it’s good to see positive black representation doing well critically and commercially. Rather, the success and reading Angela Davis is making my mind turn to the actual Black Panthers from which the superhero shares his name.

I lived in a very liberal part of a blue state, in the best school district of my county, and to say the Black Panthers were misrepresented would be an understatement. While not overtly referred to as terrorists, the Black Panthers were framed as being too much in the violent resistance direction for civil rights. In retrospect, we learned very little about them outside of armed resistance and criminal records. And this had a long-term effect on how many of my colleagues perceived the Black Panthers, violent resistance, and even Malcom X. So, I think it’s time we take another look at the Black Panthers, the full picture.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the Black Panthers. Some view them as a Black Supremacy movement (often equating Black power with White power). They’re often labeled as hyper-masculine madmen with guns, often forgetting about women and queer folx or being antagonistic towards them. One liberal narrative is that they did more harm than good for Black Americans. Another liberal narrative says the only reason the government intervened was because of their ‘violent’ tactics.

The Black Panthers were an anti-capitalist, civil rights movement that started as a response to police brutality. As the movement expanded, so did its politics. The Black Panthers help start the ‘Black is Beautiful’ and womanist movement. They also instituted a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast forChildren Programs, and community health clinics to address issues like food injustice. They tried to establish solidarity with the woman’s movement and gay liberation. Founder Huey Newton said in 1970, “We should try to form a working coalition with the gay liberation and women’s liberation groups. We must always handle social forces in the most appropriate manner.”

My reason for writing this is not because the Black Panthers are perfect, but they were more than just a group of Black men with guns. Scholars have characterized the Black Panther Party as the most influential black movement organization of the late 1960s, and the strongest link between the domestic Black Liberation Struggle and global opponents of American imperialism. My reason for writing is because our perception of the movement has been demented by liberal narratives and government censorship.

Nowadays, many of the living members have gone on to become professors, scholars, and politicians. Yet, the struggle continues. Angela Davis, a hugely influential member of the party, now fights against the prison system, calling for new abolition. State Representative Earline Parmone declared The Black Panther Party, “dared to stand up and say, ‘We'r efed up and we’re not taking it anymore’ [...] Because they had courage, today I stand as […] the first African American ever to represent Forsyth County in the state Senate.” The effects of their fight remain, but the struggle continues. However, that means we should stop the fight.