Poetry of the Black Panther Party

Abstract

The Black Panther Party existed as Black America's contemporary revolutionary organization for over a decade. Founded in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby G. Seale, the Black Panther Party directly formed to challenge police brutality against American Blacks. As the antithesis of nonviolence, the original Black Panther Party for Self-Defense advocated weaponry use against police aggression. To bring attention to the organization and to expose injustices against Black people, they began publishing The Black Panther newspaper on April 25, 1967. Along with articles on the American and international political arenas, the newspaper included poetry by Panther members and sympathizers. In this article, I plan to analyze the poetry of the Panther, primarily from the early years. I will determine its relationship to the Black Arts and Black Aesthetics manifestoes and its relationship to the political philosophy of the party itself.