Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in October 1966, in Oakland, California. The name was shortened to the Black Panther Party later. Stokely Carmicheal, the leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) also joined the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party's main goals were to end police brutality, and strengthen Black communities through organization and education. There was only one problem in their plan. The problem was J. Edgar Hoover. J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the FBI, and he got the Federal Bureau of Investigation involved. He wanted to make America safer. While J. Edgar Hoover was destroying the Black Panther Party for the safety of white Americans, and was destroying the lives of black Americans.
In October 1966, the Black Panther Party made their rules and regulations known to everyone. They were called the ten-point platform. The main points of the platform were that the Black Panther Party believed that they should be able to choose their own destiny, that every man should be employed by the government to be able to support himself and his family, and that no black man should serve in any military branch.
English: 40th Reunion of the Black Panther Party i...
Original six members of the Black Panther Party (N...
English: Black Panther Convention, Lincoln Memoria...The Black Panther Party refused to fight for a government that does not treat them as full citizens of the United States of America. This would reduce the military number of men drastically. The Black Panther Party may have seemed like they were revolting against America, but were only doing what they felt was right. A major difference between the Black Panther Party and other black nationalist groups of the day can be seen in the plan for a communist America: to them, the mother country was America, not Africa. The Black Panthers felt like they belonged in America, but...