50 Years Later, Black Panthers Look Back At Party's Founding

By JANIE HAR, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle
Fri, 10/21/2016 - 1:08am

(AP) — The Black Panthers emerged from this gritty Northern California city 50 years ago, declaring to a nation in turmoil a new party dedicated to defending African-Americans against police brutality and protecting the right of a downtrodden people to determine their own future. In the group's short life, it launched an ambitious breakfast program for children and opened free health clinics to screen for sickle-cell anemia. [...] party members scared mainstream America with their calls for revolution that were at odds with Martin Luther King Jr.'s insistence on peaceful protest. The anniversary comes as new tensions between black communities and law enforcement have given rise to another social-justice movement with Oakland ties — Black Lives Matter. [...] Oakland, once a heavily black city, is losing its African-American population as soaring home prices propelled by the technology boom drive out poorer residents. In response, California lawmakers in 1967 repealed the law that allowed people to carry loaded weapons in public. The party's decline included Nixon administration efforts to undermine the group with informants and misinformation. There was a general campaign to portray them as a negative, violent organization, said Rene de Guzman, the museum's director of exhibition strategies and senior curator of art. Seale would like to see Black Lives Matter organize people to seek political office and create an environmental jobs program for youth.

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