Document 4: The Black Panthers' ten point platform

The ten point platform is the Black Panthers delcleration of what they need from the government. As summarized in the tenth point they wanted " We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace".  They wanted to see what the Constitiution (and other documents) had promised realted to them and their needs. Just like Sam Cook said in his song A change gonna' come  it was the time for change and black power , the time for a differnece to be made in the lives of black people.  In the last pargaraph the text taken directly from the Decleration of Indepence was interpreted by the men to mean that they could change the government, and in fact had the right to.

whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to

alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such

principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to

effect their safety and happiness

Document 3: The origins of the Black Panther party for self defense

The speaker and main person explained in this article is Heuy Newton, who along with Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther party in 1966. In the article Newton decribes his town, and others around the nation being controled not by institutions in the community but by the police. Newton said " The police...throught the black communities in the country, were really the government" (139).  By saying this Newton suggested that the only way to bring change into the community was to change the force of the police. The community did not have control. Newton and Seale decided the solution was to create the Black Panther party for self defense. Semi following the black muslim ideas of Malcom X (without the muslim religion) the men aimed to drive out police and regain control of instituitons.  Newton explained " So we were trying to increase the conflict that was already happening and that was between the white racism, the police forces in the various

communities, and the black communities in the country. And we felt that we would take

the conflict to so high a level that some change had to come". Just like Martin Luther King Jr. focused attention on Selma, AL with his march the Black Panthers felt their action would futrther increase tension among the community and eventually other similar communites. The thighter the struggle became, the closer it was to an end (in their opinion) . His strategy was to overcome the police force,  and get to the community, and to do so self defense and a strong will power was necessary.