Lesson by Wayne Au

Sickle cell anemia testing at the Black Community Survival Conference, March 30th, 1972. Bob Fitch Photography Archive, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries

During the Civil Rights Movement,and the Black Power movement in particular, community self-determination was central to many peoples’ struggles. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense sought social justice for African Americans and other oppressed communities through a combination of revolutionary theory, education, and community programs. Their party platform, better known as the 10-Point Program, arose from the Black Panthers’ assessment of the concrete social and economic conditions in their communities. It became part of the philosophical backbone of the party and served as a model for many other community groups, such as the Brown Berets, the Young Lords, and the Red Guard.

I recently taught about the Panthers in the context of an African Studies class in Seattle that focused on African history and the experience of the diaspora.

Of the 30 working- and middle-class students, most of them 10th graders, 25 were African American, four were white, and one was Chicana.

When I teach about the Black Power Movement, I try to connect the movement to today’s issues. One way is by having students review the Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Program and develop their own personal versions of the program. This lesson, of course, must take place within the context of a larger unit on the Panthers and African American history in general.

We studied the Panthers within our quarter-long theme dealing with communities of African resistance over several hundred years. Earlier, for instance, we had studied the communities of escaped slaves in Brazil called quilombos. Through movies like Sankofa, we looked at the spiritual, cultural, and physical resistance of enslaved Africans in other parts of the Americas. For our study of the Black Panther Party, we were fortunate, since a security guard at our school was an actual member of Seattle’s chapter. He spoke to us about his experiences, including their constant battles with the police, their attempts at organizing high school students, and their community programming the free breakfast program in particular. He also shared some original copies of The Black Panther, the party’s newspaper.

Time Required: One class period

Grade Level: Middle School+

Objectives

My objectives for the lesson were twofold. First, for students to understand some of the social conditions the Panthers were attempting to identify and deal with; second, for students to then analyze their world today, roughly 30 years later, and begin to identify social issues they would like to address.

I was not focused so much on critiquing the 10-Point Program as in getting students to use it as a jumping-off point.

Materials

Black Panther Party Platform and Program

Procedure

I began by initiating a class discussion and asking students such questions as: What are the most pressing problems in society, in the world, today? What do you think is “wrong” within society? Your own community? Your school? Your home? At work, or your parents’ work?

I tried to find out what feels important to my students as individuals and as a community of learners and to get a feel for what they are personally invested in. Throughout the discussion, I kept track of comments on the board.

The student responses demonstrated a range of social consciousness. Some students merely wanted to have their parents extend curfew hours, while others wanted to be free from harassment in shopping malls. While these could be serious critiques if framed within a context of youth empowerment and racism, the students seemed to keep these issues on an individual level. Other students did articulate more far-reaching problems, such as more funding for education, citing our crumbling school building and crowded classrooms as evidence.

From there, I passed out copies of the 1972 Panthers’ 10-Point Program. I explained that the founding Panthers looked at the needs of their community and developed a vision of what they thought was necessary to find freedom. This vision of freedom manifested itself as the “platform” of the Black Panther Party, which became better known as “The 10-Point Program.”

We read through the program together as a class, and for each point, I asked the class to identify specific issues the Panthers saw that needed fixing. This can develop into a good list of the problems the Panthers saw in their community, as well as create the opportunity for the class to delve more deeply into the rationale and language of the program. This process also helps students make the connection between the community issues and the creation of a clear set of goals based on those issues thus providing a model for shifting our original brainstorm of individual problems to address broader social issues.

I always make it a point to highlight the 10th point of the program: “We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace, and people’s community control of modern technology.” In their explanation of that point, the Panthers literally inserted the beginning of the original Declaration of Independence. This serves as an excellent discussion prompt around such questions as:

Why would the Panthers include this statement?
How would it apply to the African American community?
How might the inclusion of this portion of the Declaration influence readers’ perception of the 10-Point Program?
What connections to Thomas Jefferson and the so-called “Founding Fathers” are the Panthers trying to make?

Individually or in small groups, I then had students brainstorm their own list of pressing social or global issues and to develop their own “10-Point Program.” I tried to keep this part as student guided as possible. Some students sought self-determination as students within an oppressive school structure. Some sought it in relation to their homes or family structure. Others followed in the footsteps of the Panthers and addressed more communitywide issues.

Student Programs

Nathan offered the following straightforward, powerful platform:

We want free housing for the homeless people in the United States.
We want equal pay for both genders.
We want all the drugs off the street.
We want more people of color working in the schools.
We want an end to discrimination.
We want less police brutality.
We want educated people in the workforce.
We want everyone’s voice to be heard.
We want nonracist presidents.
We want free healthcare for low-income people.

Yanker Poster Collection, Library of Congress, 2015649390

Nathan uses some of the Panthers’ ideas and adds some of his own, such as an incorporation of gender issues by asking for “equal pay for both genders.” What I find most striking is his request that “everyone’s voice be heard,” which speaks to students’ sense of powerlessness and lack of voice in this world.

Marcus created a 10-point program that challenges capitalism and corporate control of the United States one that reflects the ongoing legacy of the 1999 protests in Seattle against the World Trade Organization.

We want the mask of capitalism lifted and economic classes disbanded.
We want an end to the solitary control of mass media by corporations.
We want an end to the use of Third World labor as a way to circumvent the American minimum wage.
We want a clear separation of corporations and government. We want an end to bribery in the political system.
We want an end to the health insurance system in America. It is time to end corporate control of Americans’ health.
We want fair treatment of all criminals. Rich money launderers and tax fraud offenders should receive the same punishment as armed robbers and drug dealers.
We want an end to all uses of military force to obtain resources for corporations. We want an end to the war against Iraq to protect U.S. oil prices.
We want an immediate payment of all debts and damages owed to the Native American community. It has been too long, and the promises made years ago need to be fulfilled.
We want an end to all corporate funding of education. The public education system is being used by corporations as a training ground for future employees.
We demand an end to the growing separation of the economic classes of America. The enslavement of the middle and lower classes by the bourgeoisie must be put to a stop.

I find Marcus’s piece notable for its relentless attack on corporate America; it demonstrates a growing consciousness among students about issues such as sweatshops, media bias, campaign financing, and the encroachment of private industry on public education. In class, students were most impressed by Marcus’s articulation of political ideas.

The 10-point programs that students generated varied greatly, and I was bothered by what I perceived as a lack of “seriousness” in some programs. For instance, with a class that was predominantly African American, I had hoped there to be a stronger, more personal connection to the injustices experienced by the Black community, and that this identification would come out in the programs of those students. For that matter, I expected all the students to be extremely frustrated with the world, ready to let loose their seething resentment and alienation.

But for all my expectations, some students still came up with blanks for this part of the exercise; the anger and passion I was waiting for didn’t manifest itself in all of their programs. It wasn’t for lack of problems in their own lives — quite the contrary. Many of the students who had difficulty analyzing themselves were working-class, didn’t like school, and were even having troubles at home.

At first this surprised me. I took for granted that there is a very long list of things to improve in the world. I think that I had forgotten, however, that in our society we are generally not taught to critically analyze our own life situations. Further, students’ sense of personal powerlessness is generally reinforced on a regular basis within our school system. Instead of proactively dealing with problems in our lives, disengaging often becomes the primary response to life’s struggles.

Which brings us back to the Panthers’ 10-Point Program. The Panthers were also struggling against cynicism, powerlessness, and resignation.

My hope is that the lesson laid a groundwork so that in the future the students will have some tools with which they can assess issues they see in their own communities and their lives, and perhaps develop 10-point programs of their own. The 10-point program may be a place where students are able to find their voice and speak out about the problems they see in this world and (more difficultly) begin to organize to put their program into practice.

Making the Connection to Other Movements

As a follow-up to this lesson, students can examine the platforms of other social justice movements. Visit civilrightsteaching.org for demands from groups ranging from inmates at Attica Prison, public school students in Albuquerque, the National Coalition of Gay Organizations, the American Indian Movement, the Bloods and Crips Program to Rebuild Los Angeles, and the disability rights movement.

Ask students to consider: What do these platforms have in common? Can you identify common themes? What are the implications of these demands, and what kind of impact could they have on their respective communities?

Download Lesson at Zinn Education Project

What We Want, What We Believe: Teaching with the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Program