The Debate & Diplomacy
The debate surrounding the Black Panther Party resulted between them, the government, police, and white america. When addressing the diplomacy, there was a lack of it between the government and Black Panther Party.
The FBI & COINTELPRO
The government intervention through the FBI and their COINTELPRO Program was ultimately what lead to the Black Panther Party's past and present-day bad image as well as their complete dissemble by the early 1970s.
In this issue from the Chicago Tribune in 1969, it confirms J. Edgar Hoover in saying that he called the black panther the greatest threat to the internal security of the U.S in a report.
Hoover's condemning declaration displays the endorsement of any negative notions that the BPP were already receiving.
Targeted By The FBI
J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI had decided after observing the Black Panther Party, to declare them the one of the nations' threat due to their militant approach. As one of the FBI's new targets, Hoover ordered the use of the COINTELPRO program which was an government propaganda machine that went through illegal means to shut down organizations they saw as a threat.
Hoover used this program to discredit them, cause internal conflict, and assassination in some cases to make their demise. COINTELPRO, confrontations with the police, and poor portrayal in white media is what caused them to have the image they have today. Simply described as a violent black group of black men and women with guns, they have gone down in history books portrayed as such.
“In a protracted program against the Black Panther Party, COINTELPRO used agent provocateurs, sabotage, misinformation, and lethal force to eviscerate the national organization.” - Britannica, The Black Panther Party
In a series of letters/documents from the FBI, you can see the immoral lengths the COINTELPRO program went through to cause the downfall of the Black Panther Party by in- FBI Records: The Vault, COINTELPRO Black Extremist Part 06 of 23
“It was not until years later that the Senate’s Church Committee would show how pervasively the F.B.I. worked against the Panthers and how much it influenced press coverage. It encouraged urban police forces to confront Black Panthers; planted informants and agents provocateurs; and intimidated local community members who were sympathetic to the group. ” - New York Times Fascination and Fear: Covering the Black Panthers
This excerpt from a BPP newspaper article shows the police shutting down a peaceful rally in support for the only free breakfast/food program in the black Des Moines community - The Black Panther, VOL. III - NO. 1
With this newspaper excerpt you can see the debate between the police and black panther party as the police wanted to shut down a community program in fear of them gaining more support from people.
“A former Panther claimed that, the night before the Chicago free breakfast program was supposed to begin, “the Chicago police broke into the church where [the Panthers] had the food and mashed up all the food and urinated on it.” The program’s opening was delayed, but the vandalism inspired support from the community.” - Britannica, Fred Hampton
“In Richmond, Virginia, FBI agents warned parents that the Panthers were using the breakfasts to teach racial divisiveness; in San Francisco, California, a rumour spread that the food was contaminated by venereal disease.” - Britanica, Fred Hampton
“The article, “Black Panthers Growing, but Their Troubles Rise,” suggested that as the party grew, it was intimidating residents and struggling to formulate a coherent direction. When it did mention the breakfast program, the article called it merely “a means of improving its image.” ” - New York Times, Fascination and Fear: Covering the Black Panthers
Eventually more police raids/interference, FBI inference, and poor reputation accumulated on top of them, the party stayed focused but was soon to fall apart from all of the external forces going after them.
“By 1969, the party was being torn asunder, its East and West Coast factions rived by distrust, largely because of the F.B.I. And in the court of public opinion, the Panthers had already lost. A Harris Survey showed that in April 1970, just 10 percent of Americans thought that “a fairly sizable number of Black Panthers have been shot and killed by law enforcement officers” because law enforcement officers were trying to wipe out the Panthers — exactly what Hoover privately said his mission was. Three-quarters of the country said that police shootings of Panthers were due to violence started by the Panthers themselves. Just 16 percent perceived the Panthers as doing good work for disadvantaged youth.” - New York Times, Fascination and Fear: Covering the Black Panthers
The majority of the country believed the Black Panthers exactly as the COINTELPRO program had construed them as. A violent, black, anti-white group.
The Assassination of Fred Hampton
“The violence culminated on December 4, 1969 a 14-man team of police officers raided Hampton’s apartment on the West Side of Chicago Provided with the floor plan by the FBI, courtesy of the informant O’Neal, the police believed that the apartment—which often served as a de facto headquarters for the Panthers—would reveal a stockpile of weapons, including illegal firearms. When the raid was over, Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark were dead. The survivors of the raid, including Hampton’s pregnant common-law wife, Deborah Johnson (later called Akua Njeri), were arrested for attempted murder, aggravated battery, and unlawful use of weapons. Later it was revealed that, of the nearly 100 shots fired during the raid, all except perhaps one were fired by the police. Njeri recounted in interviews that, by the time the police arrived, she had tried and failed to shake Hampton awake, and, though others tried repeatedly to waken him during the raid, he remained asleep…an independent autopsy subsequently revealed a dangerous amount of barbiturates in his bloodstream.” - Britannica, Fred Hampton
Photo of Fred Hampton at a Rally
Police smile as they carry Hampton's body after his assassination
Hampton's parents mourning at his funeral
“According to Njeri, after the police removed her from the bedroom she shared with Hampton, she heard one police officer tell another that Hampton was “barely alive”; she then heard two shots followed by the second officer’s saying, “He’s good and dead now.” Though Hampton and Clark’s families and the raid’s survivors eventually received a settlement payment of $1.85 million from the city of Chicago, Cook county, and the federal government, none of the officers, agents, or officials involved in the raid were ever convicted of a crime.” - Britannica, Fred Hampton
All in all, it is apparent that there was an abundance of debate in the events that occured with the Black Panther Party as there was a failure of diplomacy from the government in addressing them properly. The government's methods used to shut down the party along with the lack of negotiations were inexcusable. Even more apparently with many of the law enforcement, agents, or officials never facing repercussions.