Black Panther Party: 10-Point Program (1966)

In News by Nicole Crawford

Below is the 10-Point Program, first published in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the founders of the Black Panther Party. Please review the following excerpt and discuss the questions below. As you read, please consider how these points are still relevant today: in our intimate relationships, in the educational system, in the fight towards liberation…

10-Point Program:

  1. We Want Freedom. We Want Power To Determine The Destiny Of Our Black Community.
    • We believe that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.
  2. We Want Full Employment For Our People.
    • We believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man
      employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the White American
      businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be
      taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the
      community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.
  3. We Want An End To The Robbery By The Capitalists Of Our Black Community.
    • We believe that this racist government has robbed us, and now we are demanding the
      overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised
      100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will
      accept the payment in currency which will be distributed to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.
  4. We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter Of Human Beings.
    • We believe that if the White Landlords will not give decent housing to our Black
      community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that
      our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.
  5. We Want Education For Our People That Exposes The True Nature Of This Decadent
    American Society. We Want Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role In The Present-Day Society.
    • We believe in an educational system that will give to our people a knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.
  6. We Want All Black Men To Be Exempt From Military Service.
    • We believe that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to
      defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other
      people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the White
      racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of
      the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.
  7. We Want An Immediate End To Police Brutality And Murder Of Black People.
    • We believe we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black
      self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist
      police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the
      United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all Black people should arm themselves for self- defense.
  8. We Want Freedom For All Black Men Held In Federal, State, County And City Prisons And Jails.
    • We believe that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.
  9. We Want All Black People When Brought To Trial To Be Tried In Court By A Jury Of
    Their Peer Group Or People From Their Black Communities, As Defined By The Constitution Of The United States.
    • We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that Black people will receive fair trials. The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community from which the Black defendant came. We have been, and are being, tried by all-White juries that have no understanding of the “average reasoning man” of the Black community.
  10. We Want Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace.
    • When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve
      the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among
      the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and
      nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect of the opinions of mankind requires that
      they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

Discussion Questions:

How are these demands still relevant today?

Which points are most important for you and your community?

What are your wants and demands for your community?

How can you help your community in meeting these needs? What do you need?

Who is a part of your community? Locally? Globally?