The importance of the Black Panther Party for the emancipation of Afro-Americans in the 1960/70ies

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Duisburg-Essen, course: A Survey of American History, language: English, abstract: America in the sixties was above all a time of protest in which the minorities including Afro- Americans as well as women began to plead for equal rights. Many organizations were founded during this time and every movement applied its own methods in order to achieve its goal. The Black Panther Party was one of these organizations which developed out of the Black Power Movement, a radicalised development in the Civil Right Movement, which was until then famous to use nonviolent methods of resistance in order to achieve their aims. This essay will deal with the importance of the Black Panther Party for the emancipation of Afro-Americans during the time of the Civil Rights Movement, which success the Party could achieve to end the discrimination of blacks and which impact the party or their leaders still might have today. In the first part the social situation of Afro-Americans in the sixties will be described in detail and in which areas racism became obvious. Next there will be a historical overview of main events during the Civil Right Movement and especially of the different positions that began to develop within the movement. In particular, the importance of Malcolm X for the Black Power will be mentioned. Black Power is famous as a slogan and an idea but also resulted in a movement. The second part of this essay will deal with the development of the Black Panther Party. Here it is important to know from which social background the founders came from and which kind of people they wanted to address with their ideology. Furthermore, I will focus on the theories on which the ideologies and strategies of the Black Panther Party are based on. While the second part concentrates mainly on the theory behind the party's activities the third part gives an idea of their actions and campaigns and as well as of important events that marked the history of the Party and demonstrated the great impact of the Black Panther Party on Afro-Americans. The last chapter describes the loss of the party's influence, their division and the dissolution of the party in the beginning of the 1980ies. Finally, I will give a comment on the importance and lasting impact of the Black Panther Party for the present situation of Afro- Americans. [...]