My People Are Rising (49 page)

Cover of
The Black Panther
, January 1971 (courtesy of Bill Jennings)

Appendix 4

Black Panther Party book list, 1968 (courtesy of Bill Jennings)

Appendix 5

Information packet issued to all members of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party, 1968 (contents reproduced as in original)

 

BLACK PANTHER PARTY

CENTRAL HEADQUARTERS

P.O. BOX 8641 EMERYVILLE BRANCH OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

845-0103 845-0106 621-1663 921-3860

POLITICAL EDUCATION KIT

for Black Panther Party Members

Primary Objective of Our Party

To Establish Revolutionary Political Power

for Black People

The Black Panther Party is an armed body for carrying out the political tasks of the revolution. Especially at the present, the Black Panther Party should certainly not confine itself to only fighting; besides fighting to destroy the enemy's military strength our Party must also shoulder such important tasks as doing propaganda among the masses, organizing the masses, arming Black people, helping them to establish revolutionary political power and setting up party organizations. The Black Panther Party defends itself with guns and force not merely for the sake of fighting but in order to conduct propaganda among the masses, organize them, arm them and help them to establish revolutionary political power. Without these objectives, fighting loses its meaning and the Black Panther Party loses the reason for its existence.

CARDINAL RULE: Have Faith in the People and Faith in the Party

MOTTO: We Do Not Want War. We Are the Advocates of the Abolition of War, But War Can Only Be Abolished through War, and in order to Get Rid of the Gun, It Is Necessary to Pick Up the Gun.

Power to the People

Black Power to Black People

PANTHER POWER

NATIONAL FUNCTIONAL

STRUCTURE OF THE BLACK PANTHER

PARTY LEADERSHIP

1. Minister of Defense Huey P. Newton

2. Chairman Bobby Seale

3. Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver

4. National Headquarters Captain David Hilliard

5. Minister of Education George Murray

6. Field Marshalls Don Cox

Chico Deblin

George Ware

7. Minister of Black Culture Emory Douglas

8. Minister of Finance Melvin Newton

9. Prime Minister Stokely Carmichael

10. Minister of Justice Rap Brown

Communications Secretary Kathleen Cleaver

Minister of Foreign Affairs James Forman

Minister of Black Religion Father Neil

National Captain of Women

Asst. National Captain of Women Betty Carter

BLACK PANTHER OFFICERS OF SEATTLE

AARON DIXON CAPTAIN

CURTIS HARRIS LT. OF DEFENSE

WILLIE BRAZIER LT. OF EDUCATION

BOBBY WHITE LT. OF INFORMATION

ELMER DIXON CAPT. OF MILITARY

BOBBY HARDING HEAD OF CENTRAL STAFF

NAFASI HALLEY LT. OF FINANCE

KATHY JONES CAPT. OF WOMEN

JOYCE BRUCE LT. OF WOMEN

UNIT LEADERS

UNIT COORDINATOR ELMER DIXON

#1 – Elmer Dixon

#2 – Aaron Dixon

#3 – Richard Noble

#4 – Billy Connar

#5 – Chester Northington

#6 – Joe Atkins

#7 – Curtis Harris

#8 – Gary Owens

#9 – Artis Parker

#10 – Lawrence Smith

#11

#12

SECTION LEADERS

Steve Phillips #1 Yesler to Day

Bobby Harding #2 Union to Yesler

Buddy Yates #3 Union to Madison

Richard Noble #4 Projects

CENTRAL BOARD

SEATTLE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

Aaron Dixon EA 5 8794

Willie Brazier EA 4 4091

Joyce Bruce EA 4 4817

Elmer Dixon EA 5 8794

Nafasi Halley EA 2 7291

Bobby Harding EA 2 8817

Curtis Harris EA 5 9018

Kathy Jones EA 3 7304

Richard Noble PA 5 7461

Steve Phillips EA 5 8563

Bobby White EA 4 4817

Buddy Yates EA 5 5127

Other Important Phone Numbers

Dr. John Greene EA 9 8105; home: EA 5 3456

ACLU MA 4 2180

County Jail MA 2 5124

City Jail 583-2376

Bail Bonds MA 2 6633

Model Cities 583-5700

Lawyers:

Mike Rosen EA 5 6230

Gary Gayton EA 2 1960

Chris Young EA 4 5492

BLACK PANTHER PARTY PLATFORM AND PROGRAM

1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black community.

WE BELIEVE that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. We want full employment for our people.

WE BELIEVE that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessman will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. We want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black Community.

WE BELIEVE that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules was promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of black people. We will accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.

4. We want decent housing for shelter of human beings.

WE BELIEVE that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

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.

WE BELIEVE in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.

6. We want all black men to be exempt from military service.

WE BELIEVE that black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and military, by whatever means necessary.

7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of black people.

WE BELIEVE we can end police brutality in our black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all black people should arm themselves for self-defense.

8. We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.

WE BELIEVE that all black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

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.

WE BELIEVE that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the black community from which the black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the “average reasoning man” of the black community.

10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to be help throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate, for the purpose of determining the will of black people as to their national destiny.

When, in the course of human events, if becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

RULES OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

CENTRAL HEADQUARTERS

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

Every member of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY throughout this country of racist AMERICA must abide by these rules as functional members of this party. CENTRAL COMMITTEE members, CENTRAL STAFFS, and LOCAL STAFFS, including all captains subordinate to either national, state and local leadership of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY will enforce these rules. Length of suspension or other disciplinary action necessary for violation of these rules will depend upon decisions by national, state or state area, and local committees and staffs where said rule or rules of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY were violated.

Every member of the party must know these verbatum [
sic
] by heart. And apply them daily. Each member must report any violation of these rules to their leadership or they are counter-revolutionary and are also subjected to suspension by the BLACK PANTHER PARTY.

THE FOLLOWING RULES ARE:

1. No party member can have narcotics or weed in his possession while doing party work.

2. Any party member found shooting narcotics will be expelled from this party.

3. No party member can be drunk while doing daily party work.

4. No party member will violate rules relating to office work and general meetings of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY, and meeting of the BLACK PANTHER PARTY, ANYWHERE.