Sarah Byrne 4/18

After today's discussion in class on the Black Panthers and after reading Black Power, I learned things that I never knew about them. When I was taught about the Black Panther Party in high school the basis was it was a bunch of African American men who went around killing white people for Black advancement. Their movement was based on violence. I was ignorant to the fact that this was not their only goal. I had no idea they created educational programs, health clinics, as well as other things to help the black community. I did not know that the official name was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, or that they were advocating for self-defense at all. After examining the document of the basic wants and needs of the party, most of the demands did not seem as radical as I expected. The things they were demanding were basic rights all people should have (there were some radical demands though). This movement was completely different than the other movements of the time period but I believe it is still important to be taught. Categorizing all African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement as passive or non-violent is wrong because not all were. High schools need to teach this information, if I was not taking a class like this I probably would have never learned the true history of the Black Panther party.

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