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Black women with afros in two lines on a grassy field, their arms extending as if clapping.
Women in the Black Panther Party at a rally (1969). (Photo: Pirkle Jones and Ruth Marion-Baruch).

The Black Panther Party is formed.

1966

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Women in the Black Panther Party at a rally (1969). (Photo: Pirkle Jones and Ruth Marion-Baruch).

In 1966, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton found the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California.

They build a Black Power grassroots organizing movement rooted in socialism and Marxism; and a revolutionary political critique of white supremacy, government, colonization, and capitalism as an extension of slavery and colonization.

Some of the party's political projects include: Freedom Schools, Free Breakfast for Children, and mobile health clinics for the Black community. Their work is all founded on the principles of their 10-Point Program to build freedom and the autonomy for Black people to determine their own destiny.