New Discoveries Withing My Research

For this assignment I wanted to choose a topic which I was pretty familiar with.  Although I know much about the Black Panther Party, there is still much that I do not know.  I pretty much knew about the missions, ideologies and story of the party, however, I was unfamiliar with the specifiic events that made the group what it was. 

For example, I knew the group was built on a set of doctrines called the 10 Point Plan by which they drove the group on.  This plan was what the group sought to achieve for Blacks and all minorities.  In summation, they wanted equality in education, housing, employment, and civil rights.

 

1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE.
3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALISTS OF OUR BLACK AND OPPRESSED COMMUNITIES.
4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS.
5. WE WANT DECENT 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 COMPLETELY FREE HEALTH CARE FOR All BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE.
7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE, OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR, All OPPRESSED PEOPLE INSIDE THE UNITED STATES.
8. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO ALL WARS OF AGGRESSION.
9. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U. S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR All PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.
10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE, PEACE AND PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY CONTROL OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY.

I also did not know that they were based on Maoism, the philosophy created by Mao Zedong and his associates in the Chinese Communist Party.  Closely related to Marxism, Maoism is the philosophy which believes that the proletarian class of society naturally has a well developed skill for violent activity and thus maintains the potential to create a revolution in which the oppressing government bureaucrats will be overthrown.  This is what the Black Panther Party sought to achieve.  They wanted the poor minorities to start a revolution against the government and bring about change that will benefit them.

Mao Zedong, creator of Maoism