what if the black panther party achieved more of thier 10 point program?
  1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.
  2. We want full employment for our people.
  3. We want an end to the robbery by the Capitalists of our Black Community.
  4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.
  5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society.
  6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service.
  7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people.
  8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
  9. We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States.
  10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
i have some ideas for pods but ill hang back for a bit, but basically, how could the panthers of been more successful, and whst would thst mean? for america and the world?
 
Last edited:
I think their biggest weakness was their militarism. Waving shotguns in tbs California state capitol didm't really help them (yeah I know double standard with white open carry activists). In a nation with a repressive/combat capability like ours actually trying to physically fight the power system was never going to work. Frankly they tried to fight in exactly the way their enemies wanted them too.

It also meant that white politicians quickly decided they couldn't work with them which meant that the government grants that funded the Panthers social programs dried up quick.
 
I think their biggest weakness was their militarism. Waving shotguns in tbs California state capitol didm't really help them (yeah I know double standard with white open carry activists). In a nation with a repressive/combat capability like ours actually trying to physically fight the power system was never going to work. Frankly they tried to fight in exactly the way their enemies wanted them too.

It also meant that white politicians quickly decided they couldn't work with them which meant that the government grants that funded the Panthers social programs dried up quick.
it wouldnt BE the panthers without the millitarism tho, thats its genesis
 
they escalated quicker than they could handle, and when the police were out for blood, thet lt the police take the iniative, the police abandonned the law to go after the panthers, maybe if the panthers had a strong potion they could of counter raided, as it was tho that would of been the death of the movement
 
When the draft ended in 1973, point number 6 became moot and activist organizations in general lost steam.

Words of Abbie Hoffman, founder of Youth International Party, the Yippies:

“We are here to make a better world. No amount of rationalization or blaming can preempt the moment of choice each of us brings to our situation here on this planet. The lesson of the 60’s is that people who cared enough to do right could change history. We didn’t end racism but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you could send half-a-million soldiers around the world to fight a war that people do not support. We ended the idea that women are second class citizens. We made the environment an issue that couldn’t be avoided. The big battles that we won cannot be reversed. We were young, self-righteous, reckless, hypocritical, brave, silly, headstrong and scared half to death. And we were right.”
 
Exemption from military service, getting full employment, not being robbed by the Capitalists with an uppercase C.... seems unlikely they would get this, though it could be aimed in a manner to effect all people, degrades of skin color. Though it would probably end up with Blacks and other minorities being in an area lowered the property values due to regulations specifically aimed at them (which meant people wanted hem living far away since the banks and government penalized everyone, as well as sometimes charging people with crimes if they sold to Blacks, claiming it to be an attempt at blockbusting) and refusing minorities loans given to those in lilywhite areas. Or the end of slavery ending up with sharecropping, as well as mass arrests to put Blacks in workgangs to be rented out to plantation largescale farmers and to disfranchise them.

I am thinking that things may need to begin at the state level. If it is at the local level, the state will crush it, if at the national then the Feds and other states would try to put a stop to it. And if we do go with a violence route, then I say maybe getting some sort of John Brown's Army based upon Christian Socialism, bringing down those making their bread with the blood and sweat of the poor, etc. Though I guess a lot of the post WWII social policies and continuation of the New Deal did help pull away a lot of poor and middle class whites from supporting such actions, as they were no longer at risk of starving, had homes, and wanted to have nice comfortable lives while either ignoring or not seeing how so many others were being pushed aside.
 
it wouldnt BE the panthers without the millitarism tho, thats its genesis

I know. And that's the reason they were doomed from the start. They could never conceivably win against the existing power structure. And by trying to do so it gave said power structure the full go ahead to destroy the Panthers. And said power structure arguably had more repressive capability then any other power in history. The more the Panthers fought the more damned they became.

That's really the biggest practical reason for peaceful protest one way or another. You still might get beaten, arrested, tear gassed, and occasionally shot but it makes it a lot harder for those in charge to utterly crush the dissidents.

Also the whole "release all black prisoners and in future all cases with a black defendant would have all black juries". Was even more unlikely.
 
Also the whole "release all black prisoners and in future all cases with a black defendant would have all black juries". Was even more unlikely.
Plus it would increase lynch mobs, I would say. Or people having terrible accidents while in jail while awaiting trial.

Come to think of it, were prisons separated based upon race in most places? This would all make an interesting timeline for semi-Bantustans and Reservations, though I see lots of comparisons being made (fairly or unfairly) to Kapos or Ghetto Police if they have Blacks acting as the police, guards, whatever. Also, were the Black Panthers mostly active in the North? I can see this leading to actual Ghettos.
 
Plus it would increase lynch mobs, I would say. Or people having terrible accidents while in jail while awaiting trial.

Come to think of it, were prisons separated based upon race in most places? This would all make an interesting timeline for semi-Bantustans and Reservations, though I see lots of comparisons being made (fairly or unfairly) to Kapos or Ghetto Police if they have Blacks acting as the police, guards, whatever. Also, were the Black Panthers mostly active in the North? I can see this leading to actual Ghettos.

I think they were more of a west coast thing
They started in Oakland and in one instance had a bunch of guys with rifles and shotguns march into the state legislature while it was in session.
 
Some of this stuff would never happen.

Like not letting black folks join the military - the place where as a veteran, I can tell youbhas more black people in leadership positions as well as the lower ranks than any place in America?

That would harm the black community far more than it would ever help.
 
Some of this stuff would never happen.

Like not letting black folks join the military - the place where as a veteran, I can tell youbhas more black people in leadership positions as well as the lower ranks than any place in America?

That would harm the black community far more than it would ever help.

The youngest people drafted in the U.S. are now 65 years old. Part of the anti-military sentiment in the sixties came from that the concept that conscription was tantamount to slavery if no war was declared.
 
Top