End of the Black Panthers

As time passed the the police became stronger. They wanted to exterminate as soon as possible the organization of the Black Panthers. The murder of the two leaders help a lot to the objetive of the authorities. Then of that the FBI with te COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) began to kill, arrest and forced the member of the Black Panthers to get out of the country. This was one of the facts that caused the end of the this important group.

Other thing that help to cause the end of it was the internal discussions.
Eldridge Cleaver was an important organizer of the Black Panthers, he began to be part of the group in February of 1967. When Sealer and Newton were arrested he took the control of the group, he was the director. He was the one that organized the protest and defence of Newton.
In 1972 Cleaver had a discussion with Seale and Newton because he wanted to continue with the weapons and violent acts while the other two were in favor of getting what they want in a pacific way. This caused a division in the group, which help with the end of the Black Panthers.

The organization disappeared, but it managed to impact physically the society and cause inspiration. They could show the situation and problems of the black people and the abuse of power by the police. They gave breakfast dialy to 200.000 children with their program of free food. But the most importat thing that they achieved was prove that this kind of movements can make the difference, it doesn't matter if the government try to impose their will, this kind of organization can tick the difference.

Answer of the government

The Black Panthers, as a symbolic act, started to carry guns that everyone can see to all places. This act was legal in California, but the racist police and the FBI interpreted it as a threat so they began to act against them. The government never taken into account the good action of this group, such as the fact that they gave free food to people in need and also education. They only attack them as a terrorist organization.

Ending the 60´s the government created a campaingagainst the Black Panthers. They acussed them ofmurdering, other terrorist acts and of having relation with abroad people, enemies of the country, that can affect the interests of the United States.

In many cases the government acussed much of the members, including the creators Newton and Seale and the propaganda chief Eldridge Cleaver, of killing people. They went to prision a lot of times and then became free again.

Precisely what the picture shows is a protest that many of the members did because the arrest of Newton. They were going to the Justice Palace of Alameda, there was the protest to take place.

The confrontations between Black Panthers and the police increased to the point of a shooting provoke in Oakland in 1968 and in 1969 the police of Chicago kill two of the leaders of the organization. This murder still being a mystery, anyone knows what really happened.

Creation of the Black Panthers

The Black Panthers were a political group created in Oakland, California in october of 1966 by Huey Percy Newton and Bobby Seale. This group was formed with the propose of defending all people that were oppressed from any minority group, but specially the black people, that explain it name. They were an important part of the groups that follow the civil rights, but also equality in education, housing and employment. Their thougths were similar to the Martin Luther King ones, but with the diference that they don't believe in the non-violent campaign. They were in disposition of doing what ever they can to get what they want.

They use violence only as a way of deffending their self. When they attacked police they only wanted to fight against the abuse and injustice from the government and other racist people. As the members of the group explain: "It is not part of the nature of the Panther attack first, but when she is attacked and besieged, she reacts violently and ends with her attacker." this show us that they didn´t pretend to attacked first, only defend their self.
The two creators, Newton and Seale, got their ideas and ideals from Malcom X, they want to follow his steps and they learned a lot from him.

Their time of "glory" was between 1967 and 1968, in this time the organization reach the 5.000 members. In may of 1967 they do the fist public act that consisted in invade the Legislative Chamber of the State of California, because they were against a new law that try to control the use un weapons, after this they began to be a reinforced group. This was the event that let all people know about this organization, both: common people and the government.