When the people move for liberation, they must have the basic tool of liberation: the gun. Only with the power of the gun can the black masses halt the terror and brutality perpetrated against them by the armed racist power structure black people were forced to build America and if forced to we will tear it down" , these are the words of Huey P. Newton, co founder of the Black Panther Party. This essay will look at the origins of the Black Panther Party within America, taking in depth its ideologies and the leaders who saw to the creation of a black initiative during the late 1960's and early 1970's.
The Black Panther Party grew from a seed in Huey Newton's heart during his life on this planet. Along with Bobby Seale they created a party which shocked all of America, blacks and whites, and its sole purpose was to overthrow the oppression the black people had suffered under the United States government through history.
Huey P. Newton was born the youngest of seven children on February 17, 1942 in Oak Grove, Louisiana. At just three years of age his family moved to Oakland, California, where his father a minister took up a role with a local church. His livelihood was confined to the ghetto life that black America offered to its children. In this ghetto life he was destined for trouble. During his teen years he was found guilty of assault and sentenced to juvenile detention before release. It was here he would acquire the know how to pursue a college lifestyle. A smart child, who took the wrong path as a youth, soon grew into an active student who looked to the law as his passion. It was through this passion for law that he would become influenced by the black voice in the community. People like Elijah Muhammad and more predominantly Malcolm X became advocates for a lifestyle that he agreed, should be the Black peoples right. Bobby Seale, born Robert G. Seale was born 22 October 1936 in Dallas Texas.
