Frederick Douglas
Douglas Monthly, November 1859
Captain John Brown Not Insane

The John Brown Attack on Harpers Ferry Armory October 16, 1859

54 years ago on October 15, 1966, the Black Panther Party for​ Self-Defense was founded in Oakland, California​. The primary intent of the co-founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale was to bring some measure of justice to people of color who were until then completely absent of any form of American justice.​ It was a movement that would sweep across the urban and rural black communities primarily attracting the young blacks who were simply tired of being considered chattels of oppression.

Even though the 1964 Civil Rights Bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Bill has passed by Congress and signed into law by Lyndon Johnson to provide some measure of constitutional protection to people of color. These two measures hardly provided comprehensive solutions necessary for the seismic change called for if white institutional power structures were hellbent on ignoring these measures. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense who were deemed heroes in many of our urban communities especially among the black urban youths. They however were deemed enemies of the state by federal, state, and municipal government law enforcement agencies. The war that was waged by our nation's law enforcement agencies against the leaders of the Black Panther Party was relentless, systematic, cold, calculated, and indeed in many instances terroristic.

So today to honor the of the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and in memory of one of the co-founder's, Dr. Huey P. Newton, I will in my voice his words recite the 10 Founding Principles of The Black Panther Party For Self-Defense as well reading an essay named The Genius of Huey P. Newton. Today, I bring honor to the 54th birthday of "The Black Panther Party For Self-Defense" as well as honor two incredible black leaders, Bobby Seale, ​and Huey Newton.