Assuming that everyone knows, in relation to the US civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party, it's come to my realization that not a lot of people know about the other important groups who worked alongside the Black Panther Party or in their own separate movements, highly influenced by the black panthers.
White Panther Party
Started off of a question, "What can White people do to support the Black Panthers?", the American anti-racist group was eventually founded, known as the White Panther Party.
They strived to fight racism from inside the white community. The party was formed after Huey P. Newton answered that question from earlier, suggesting that white people could start their own White Panther Party to combat racism.
The White Panther Party worked alongside the Black Panther Party, the Rainbow Coalition, and minority groups as a whole.
Some of the things they stood for included
environmentalism
freeing political prisoners
sexual freedom
abolishing capitalism
decriminalization of weed
countercultural pop culture, such as rock n' roll
antiwar
and of course, fighting racism
They had close to ties to the YIP (The Yippies) a radical American youth countercultural group.
The White Panther Party worked primarily in the Michigan and Chicago areas, and eventually disbanded in 1973 after the arrest of several members in a CIA conspiracy.
Brown Berets
The Brown Berets have a much longer history, primarily because chapters still exist to this day, but also because how important the movement was to Hispanic American culture, largely being related to the Chicano Movement (El Movimiento)
The Chicano Movement happened alongside the American Civil Rights movement, fighting against assimilation and systemic discrimination, advocating for people to embrace their Chicano identity. The Chicano Movement was also heavily intertwined with the Black Power Movement, hence that when the Brown Berets came to be, they were fairly influenced by the Black Panther Party.
The Chicano Movement also was related to the Labor Movement, many of their strategies and wants being one and the same.
While Black Americans had the NAACP, Mexican-Americans had the Mexican American Youth Organization known as MAYO.
Now back to the Brown Berets...
David Sanchez and Carlos Montes founded the Brown Berets together, modeling it after the Black Panther Party, meaning that they worked for high visibility and also maintained a militant status quo.
In fact, similarly to the Black Panthers, the Brown Berets often had to deal with the FBI, working under harassment and sabotage.
Some of the things that the Brown Berets stood for include
Abolishment of capitalism
Anti-Racism
Pro unions
Education reform
Farmworker's rights
Anti police brutality
Antiwar
Anti-Imperialism
Antifa
Chicanismo
Not everything was perfect though. There was an issue of sexism early on in the Brown Berets, leading Chicanas to often start their own institutions. Eventually women became more widely accepted in the Brown Berets, and feminism became part of the group's goals as well. Chicana Feminism became an important sub-movement of the Chicano Movement, fighting against the severe sexism Chicana women faced in their own culture.
The Brown Berets were active all over the United States of America, participating in core protests ran by Martin Luther King Jr. and several others as well.
Young Lords
Developing off of a Chicago street gang, the Young Lord Organization (YLO) was a far-right political organization inspired by the Black Panthers, that fought for the Puerto Rican community.
What once was a criminal gang transitioned into the activist group largely due to police brutality against Puerto Ricans in Chicago, as well as undeserved shootings during celebrations of Puerto Rican Week. In the aftermath of riots and protests following, it became well known among north urban Puerto Ricans the severity of police brutality as a problem and threat towards their community.
José Jiménez, nicknamed Cha Cha, a member of the gang, and while in prison, became fascinated and influenced by speakers such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, as well as the efforts of the Black Panther Party.
The gang merge with artists community organizations, and worked quickly to establish other chapters, especially in New York City. Quickly the Young Lords came to be.
The Young Lords stood for many things, including...
Better healthcare
Against lead poisoning
Antiwar
Right to shelter, food, and education
Communism
Anti Police Brutality
Pro gun ownership & self defense
Education about Creole culture and the Spanish language
Freedom for political prisoners
Self-determination similarly to the Chicano Movement
Anti-Capitalist
Pro working class
Similarly to the Brown Berets, there was a problem of sexism within the community, although not as terribly, due to the existence of The Lordettes. There was also mixed messaging in whether or not the Young Lords supported the LGBTQ+ community.
The founder of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), Sylvia Rivera, was also a member of the Young Lords, but there was major taboo surrounding this factoid. Through her the Young Lords did attempt to build better connections with the Queer community, the YLP often assist Rivera, even acting as her body guards at one point.
There is some argument about the impact that the Young Lords played on the Nuyorican Movement.
Rainbow Coalition
The Rainbow Coalition is just as important to know about as the Black Panther Party, primarily because the two are so closely related. Formed by Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, the Rainbow Coalition was made to address alliance between other left-leaning activists groups, including the Young Lords Organization and the Young Patriots Organization.
Rainbow Coalition focused on class solidarity, with the hopes that uniting people of impoverished and working classes, would bring about a positive atmosphere that is ripe for great change, including fighting against racism, countering gentrification, and improving social services.
The Rainbow Coalition, just like the Black Panthers, was basically everywhere and worked with all the other groups on this list, and including the American Indian Movement, and so so many others.
Rainbow Coalition was one of the very things that made the Black Panther Party so unique, showing not only their drive to fight for black power, but also change the community as whole.
Some of the things they stood for include
Better education
Reducing homelessness
Reducing unemployment
Uniting the working class
Better sanitations
More accessibility to transportation
More accessibility to healthcare
Anti-racism
Anti police brutality
The first Rainbow Coalition was founded by Fred Hampton, who was yes, a young black activist who was later assassinated via gunshot. He condemned sexism greatly, and managed to make nonaggression pacts with the gangs of Chicago. He was a fantastic talker with a brilliant charisma, and great organizational skills.
Police would later raid Hampton's apartment, shooting him dead at the age of 21, and I'd elaborate on the events of his assassination, but it was both tragic, gruesome, and needless. It's best to note that Hamptom was unarmed, unconsciousness, and also with his pregnant partner, before being shot once in the shoulder and twice point-blank in the head.
I wholly believe that if Hampton wasn't assassinated so early in his life he would be well renowned, if not even more renowned than Martin Luther King Jr.
And if you're thinking, wait where's the fbi in this story, they were with the cops who shot him dead, of course.
American Indian Movement (AIM)
Finally, and for the sake of brevity, even though there were even more factions busy and moving about at this time, I'll discuss the American Indian Movement (AIM).
Founded in Minneapolis, the AIM was formed to combat against discrimination and violence towards Native Americans, but AIM quickly expanded their reach to indigenous tribal issues, the preservation of native culture, and advocating for Native American history to be taught in schools.
At the time, and to this day, many Native Americans were alienated from their traditional livelihoods and culture.
Having survived the genocides and wars against their people for long over a century, Native American children were subjected to brutal and torturous boarding schools that forced them to assimilate to the "American culture" of the time. Many were also forced into the military, and being torn between all these different worlds, made urban life, when many had no other choice but to live in the city, a truly disorienting experience.
So of course, AIM was a part of the pan-indian movement, and was long over as a needed activist group.
Just like all the other groups on this list, the fbi wasted no time harassing, spying on, and sabotaging the AIM, but AIM's work, just like the Black Panther Party, wasn't anchored to just the United States. They even went to North Ireland, to show their support for the Irish who died during hunger strikes.
I could get into what the AIM stood for and the many things they did, but this post would then last forever, as they were a busy and passionate organization that stood on business. It's genuinely so sad to me that we don't get to learn about AIM alongside the Black Panther Party and Chicano Movement, just because of how active they were historically.
But the American Indian Movement is still active to this day, just like there's modern Black Panther chapters popping up.
The image shows a conference organized and attended by the White Panther Party, God's Children Motorcycle Club, the Black Berets, Sunnygoode Street, and Congolian Maulers Working Communes. The aim of the meeting was to foster collaboration toward various political goals. The Minister of Defense for the White Panther Party, Pun Plamondon, said, "We are trying to show the broad masses of people we are not a threat to them, but to the existing power structure," August 12, 1969.
Photo credit: Ann Arbor News — in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A member of the Republic of Korea's Special Warfare Command, commonly known as the "Black Berets" and feared for their particular brutality towards communist prisoners.
