CIAO DATE: 9/07
Culture and Conflict: Volume 55 (Fall 2004)
The Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, in October 1966. Two black militants, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, wrote a ten points initial manifest. Point n°8 stipulated that the Black Panthers request that all Blacks detained in federal or state jails be freed. Quite rapidly, the BPP was at the heart of the American security agencies’ attention, and several leaders were imprisoned. The BPP’s objective was to use the reclusion as a means to develop propaganda. Huey P. Newton, sentenced in 1968, is the author of the text we chose to present. He was the thinking head of the group. This short text deals directly with prison and is extracted from a compendium of texts first edited by Philip S. Foner in 1970. The Black Panthers Speak was indeed the first book assembling a certain number of declarations, instructions and discourses by the Black Panthers themselves.