Black Panther Party Members
Courtesy of the University of Michigan Library
Black Panther Party (BPP) members had been male and female between the ages 16 to 22. Most worked for full-time with their salaries coming directly from BPP revenue generating opportunities such as paid speeches, fundraisers, and panther party businesses. They all participated in the free breakfast program. Many members had a personal connection to the free breakfast program because they remember the difficulty of goings to school hungry as children in trying to concentrate on learning new material in completing exercises in class. Party members and multiethnic party allies arrived at 5 AM in preparation for feeding the children and stayed another hour to the cleanup thereafter. Children of all ethnicities enjoy the free breakfast program. According to party cofounder Bobby Seale, across the United States party members fed 1000 children every single school day from January to June of 1969 in BPP headquarters or donated spaces in local churches.
