From the Black Panther Party to the Movement for Black Lives: Black Radicals in the Mainstream Media

The Black Panther Party’s (BPP) ten-point program, “What We Want/What We Believe,” is a foundational document for twentieth-century Black radical politics. In many ways, the BPP set the stage for black activists that sought to follow in the group’s footsteps. The Panthers' also pushed moderate civil rights organizations to adopt or denounce the Oakland-based collective’s ideas, offering evidence that even those who did not agree with their message were forced to contend with their presence. Their militant protesting tactics garnered media attention, providing a platform for them to articulate their demands – albeit through a filtered system that often distorted their ideas. Media representations from the 1960s and 70s not only shape the contours of our historical memory of the BPP, but also influence perceptions of contemporary Black activism.

This presentation surveys the Black Panther Party’s 1967 ten-point plan and describe the effects of media attention and its relationship to historical memory in today’s black activism such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Movement. Overall, I examine the development and evolution of Black radical politics beginning with the actions of the Black Panther Party while also exploring the BPP and BLM’s praxis. Important research questions orient the goal of this presentation: how did the BPP convey their ideas through demonstrations and militant rhetoric? How did media outlets – Black and white – articulate the Panthers’ ideas? How did the BPP respond to distortions or misrepresentations of their platform? What can we gain from comparing two groups of Black activists from significantly different eras, and how does historical memory