28 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
28 lines
1.5 KiB
Markdown
The **Black Panther Party** (**BPP**), originally the **Black Panther
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Party for Self-Defense**, was a black nationalist and marxist-leninist
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organisation active in the USA, UK and Algeria from 1966 to 1982. They
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organised armed patrols that monitored police officers as well as a
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variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free
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Breakfast for Children Programs, to address issues like food injustice,
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and community health clinics for education and treatment of diseases
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including sickle cell anemia, tuberculosis, and later HIV/AIDS. The
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organisation went into decline as members became disillusioned with its
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marxist-leninst politics, repression by the
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[FBI](Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation "wikilink") through COINTELPRO and
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involvement in the drug trade.
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## History
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### Background
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The USA had witnessed large migrations of its black population from the
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south into cities during [World War II](World_War_II "wikilink") as
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people sought to escape poverty and racism for high-paying factory jobs
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in the 1940s. These jobs weren't really there, and state-enforced
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discrimination pushed many black people into ghettos with bad housing,
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bad schools and almost no opportunity to escape. Additionally, the civil
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rights movement led to legal gains for equality but failed to fairly
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distribute political and economic power to the black population, leading
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many to become disillusioned with nonviolent activism as a new
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generation of black revolutionaries began to figure out new forms of
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activism. |