The Rise of the Black Panthers in Chicago

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, California. Newton and Seale thought that the mainstream civil rights movement, with its emphasis on peaceful, nonviolent protest, failed to address problems plaguing Black people outside of the South. As a result, they formed their own community organization, the Black Panther Party; embraced a policy of self-defense; and wrote a Ten-Point Program that focused on political, economic, and social reforms, including health care for all oppressed groups and an end to wars of aggression and capitalistic exploitation of oppressed communities. The Black Panther Party grew, and branches were established in 45 locations around the country.

In 1968, Fred Hampton and Bobby Rush, a former SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) activist, joined and rose to leadership positions in the Illinois Black Panther Party. Hampton had been violently harassed by the police at demonstrations and protest rallies and had grown weary of taking direction from the NAACP to address the injustices in Chicago. The Chicago branch quickly grew and began to organize Black people who were living in Chicago’s West Side.