The Black Panther Party was started in Oakland, 1966 by students Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale. The group soon gained root and spread across several black neighborhoods, especially in the ghettos. The Black Panther Party believed in more violent and harsh ways of fighting for civil rights. The message was the important power of self-defense, preferring violent protests to non-violent means and civil disobedience. They preferred to fight violently for their rights. Their belief was based on ending police brutality in the black community by organizing black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending the black community from racist police oppression and cruelty.

Martin Luther King is probably the most famous civil rights activists in the history of the United States and the world at large. He is best known for his methods of calling for civil equality through non-violent means such as civil disobedience, for instance when he led the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery. In this speech, “I Have a Dream” King called for economic and civil rights and insisted on an end to racism. King insisted that “one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Negro still is not free” this showed that he still believed that the black people were yet to gain total freedom. It is towards the end of the speech that he talks about his dream of an equal and free nation, where both white and Black Americans would live as equals. Unlike Martin Luther King, the Black Panther Party believed in more violent and harsh ways of fighting for civil rights. They stressed the power of self-defense, preferring violent protests to non-violent means and civil disobedience

Despite some visible differences, there was a common unifying factor between the two ideologies, and that was their intention, or goal in the aftermath. Just like Martin Luther King, the Black Panther wanted equal rights and freedoms for African Americans. Both agreed on the need for black people to have the right to own decent housing, get a good education, an end to police brutality, racial segregation and fair trial for black people in the courts. They all wanted to live in a world where all people were treated equally regardless of their race or religion. Black Panther Party and “I Have a Dream” did possess some common ideas and others not. The Black Panther Party had radical ideas against some of the values King was trying to pass. Some people wanted a quicker way to get their freedom, and that’s what the Black Panther Party promised them. King had already made his intentions of achieving his goal peacefully through his speech “I have a dream” which some didn’t buy. Despite some visible differences, there was a common unifying factor. We can, therefore, say that both Martin Luther King and the Black Panther wanted the same results, in the long run, they just had diverse methods on how to reach there.

The Black Panther Party was an obstacle to King’s dream of a racially integrated society since they embraced more violent and harsh ways of fighting for civil rights. They stressed on the importance and power of self-defense, preferring violent protests to non-violent means and civil disobedience. This group was often linked to armed attacks which were carried out at night, as well as acts of corruption. This group gained support from those who felt that the King’s soft methods were taking too long and failing to change how the black people were treated. They preferred to fight violently for their rights. They believed that they could end police brutality in the black community by organizing black self-defense groups that were dedicated to defending the black community from racist police oppression and brutality.

References

Carson, C. (1970). The black panthers speak. P. S. Foner (Ed.). Da Capo Press.

Moses, G. (1997). Revolution of Conscience Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Philosophy of Nonviolence.