Black Panther Party members distribute free food in Philadelphia in 1971, Courtesy of Temple University Library.
I’ve been interested in the Black Panther Party food programs for about a decade. it started with one of my children asking questions about the Panthers based on mention of them in school. As a result I started a series about them on this blog. I will be adding to the series over the next couple days based on recent as research using newspaper articles from the late 1960s and early1970s. It part of my ongoing research on the Panthers as food rebels in a chapter on a forthcoming book. I define the Panthers as food rebels and an example of activist that used food to feed revolutionary changes.
Beginning in the late 1960s, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense (BPP) established chapters in urban communities across the United States. Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton said, “the Black Panther Party will not let the malady of hunger keep our children down any longer.” That statement and their programs makes the BPP food rebels. BPP food programs included a free breakfast program for children, free grocery bag giveaways for families, and more. BPP leaders expressed the view that in the process of raising the consciousness of hungry people, one must first meet their basic needs such as the need for food. BPP food programs served as part of a larger process of mobilizing citizens to join a revolutionary struggle against the US racial caste system. Who collaborated with the BPP’s food programs? What are the programs’ takeaways for today?