Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party was founded in October 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale as an organization dedicated to protecting and uplifting the Black population of Oakland. As the organization grew this focus spread to the rest of the United States and even abroad. The armed militancy and Marxist rhetoric employed by the Black Panthers, along with their philosophy of Black self-government caught the attention of both local law enforcement authorities and the FBI. As a result, many in the Panthers' upper echelons were either arrested or went into exile. After 1971, while efforts to feed and clothe poor people of color continued, the party's major focus was on the legal problems of its leadership. Methods also shifted from armed resistance to working within the system by running candidates for local and national elections.