On October 15, 1966, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale launched the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, later dropping for Self Defense (BPP), in Oakland, California. Their aim was to build a Revolutionary Black Political Party to give voice to the conditions in the Black community and take direct action to address them. The foundation of the BPP was based in the Declaration of Independence of the United States, which states, “That 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 new Government,” and the creation of the BPP 10 Point Platform and Program which in essence outlined the efforts that the BPP would undertake. The first program launched by the Party was the Police Alert Patrols which were designed to halt the murder of unarmed Black citizens as stated in point number 7 of the 10 Point Program. Two years later, on April 20, 1968, the Seattle Chapter of the BPP was founded by a small group of men and women from Seattle.
This page is dedicated to the history and legacy of the national party and its local chapter in Seattle. Gathered together here are all the entries on BlackPast.org related to the Panthers. The first section features the Seattle chapter. Section two focuses on the national organization. As with all BlackPast.org pages, please write us at [email protected] if you have ideas about improving this page.
Founder Profiles:
Welton Armistead Rashad “T” Birdsong Henry Boyer Willie Brazier Mark Cook Leonard Dawson Jr. Asali Dickson Melvin Dickson Gwen Dixon Michael Dixon Carolyn Downs Larry Gossett Ronald Jackson Lewis “Lewjack” Jackson Earl Jennings Kathi Halley Bobby Harding Arthur Harris |
Curtis Harris Valentine Hobbs Rosita Holland Wayne Jenkins Kathy Jones Vanetta Molson Joanne Motin Warren (Na’eem Shareef) Myers Chester Northington Garry Owens Joyce Redmon Linda Richardson Steve Phillips Mike Tagawa Anthony Ware (Frank Muhammad) Bobby White Clifton Wyatt |
- Carolyn Downs Profile
- Larry Gossett Profile
- Interviews of the Founders and Early Black Panther Party Members
- Other Information on the Seattle Panthers Appears at The Seattle Black Panthers History and Memory Project
downtown Seattle, 1969
Films and Documentaries:
Relevant Media:
- Shaun Scott, “In Defense of Call-Out Culture“, City Arts Magazine, February 1, 2018
- Marcus Harrison Green, “Black Carpet Roll Out for the Black Panther,” South Seattle Emerald, February 13, 2018,
- Matthew Gulick, Louder Than Words—The University of Puget Sound Acknowledges the Black Panthers, Trail, Puget Sound University
- Dave Davison, “UPS Observes Black History Month with treasures from Black Panther Party archive, Tacoma Weekly, February 8, 2018,
- Ashley Archibald, “Black Panther Party brings history, lessons to new generation,” Real Change News, September 7, 2016, .
- Patricia Murphy, “The bunker is gone but the Black Panthers’ work lives on in Seattle“, KUOW, April 6, 2018,
- Patricia Murphy, “These Black Panthers marched on Seattle Streets 50 years ago,” KUOW, March 30, 2018,
- “The injustices MLK fought are still present in Seattle today,” The Seattle Times, April 4, 2018
- Donald Amble, “Former Black Panther Party captain discusses crack cocaine epidemic,” Daily Lobo, April 4, 2018
Ideas and Institutions Inspired by the Seattle Panthers
- Aaron Dixon, My People are Rising: Memoir of a Black Party Captain (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012)
The National Black Panther Party
Washington state capitol building,
Olympia, WA. 1969
- Huey P. Newton
- Bobby Seale
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Little Bobby Hutton
- Elaine Brown
- Kathleen Cleaver
- Fred Hampton
- Bobby Rush
- Emory Douglas
- Geronimo Pratt
- Assata Shakur
- The Campaign Against the Panthers – COINTELPRO
- Beverley Bryan
- British Black Panther Party
- Dalit Panther Movement
- Israeli Black Panther Party
- Mangrove Nine Trial
of federal courthouse,
Seattle, 1969
- The New Black Panther Party
- The Lowndes County Freedom Organization
- Angela Davis
- Malcolm X
- Stokely Carmichael
- H. Rap Brown
- W.E.B. DuBois
- Frantz Fanon
- The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- E. Franklin Frazier
- James Baldwin
- Tupac Shakur
- The Prison Abolition Movement
Speeches and Documents:
- “To Feed Our Children,” Editorial in the Black Panther Party Newspaper, April 27, 1969,
- Fred Hampton, “History is a Weapon: Anywhere There’s People, There’s Power” Speech Delivered at Olivet Church, Chicago, Illinois, 1969
- Huey P. Newton, “The Women’s Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements,” Speech Delivered in New York City, August 1970
- Stanley Nelson, The Black Panthers, Vanguard of the Revolution (2016)
- Mario Van Peebles, Panther, (1995)
- The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 by Swedish Director Goran Hugh Olsson (2011)
- Le Lew Lee, All Power to the People! (1996)
- Spike Lee, A Huey P. Newton Story, (2001)
Panther Party
Bibliography: Major Books on The Black Panther Party
- Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin, Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2016)
- Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story (New York: Anchor, 1993)
- Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice (New York: Delta, 1999)
- Angela Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography (New York: International Publishers, 1974)
- George L. Jackson, Blood in My Eye (Baltimore: Black Classic Press 1996)
- George L. Jackson, Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George L. Jackson (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1994)
- Jeffrey Haas, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered A Black Panther (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2001)
- Donna Jean Murch, Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010)
- Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973)
- Huey P. Newton, To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton (New York: Writers and Readers, 1995)
- Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1970)
- Bobby Seale, Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2016)
- Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (Boston: Lawrence Hill Books, 2001)
- Robyn C. Spencer, The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016)