Panthers Move In New Direction
Oakland Survival Week food giveaway, Courtesy of Stamford University Special Collections
Beginning in 1972, other Black Panther Party (BPP) chapters organized similar survival events. Some calling them survival weeks, conferences, and rallies. Each of these survival events had in common the distribution of large amounts of free food and other essentials. The Oakland Panthers gave away 10,000 bags of groceries and leveraged the opportunity to organize a voter registration drive with the goal of registering 10,000 new voters. The voter registration drive symbolized a new party initiative, the decision to elect BPP members to work within dominant caste controlled political institutions such as city councils and executive offices such as mayors to empower poor people. This new direction is closely related to our ongoing series stumping and eating, the role of food in electoral campaigns.
