DOI: 10.22281/2413-9912-2022-06-03-43-50

Vorobyev D.N.

THE IDEOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF-DEFENSE (1966-1982): FROM THE ORIGINS TO ITS MAIN ELEMENTS

The article is devoted to the analysis of the ideology of the African-American political organization the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which was active between 1966 and 1982. The main emphasis is placed on the search for the ideological origins of the Black Panthers leaders’ worldview, as well as the consideration of the main elements of the ideology of this organization. Created in the mid 1960s by black students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense became the most famous representative of the Black Power movement. Supporters of this movement, who adhered to the ideas of revolutionary nationalism, believed that only a radical restructuring of the socio-economic and political system in the United States could significantly improve the position of the black population in the country. The peculiarity of the Black Panthers was in combination of the ideas of black nationalism, inherent the Black Power movement in general, with the left ideology. This specific feature of the organization’s ideology was the result of the fact that the worldview of the leaders of the Black Panthers was influenced not only by such famous figures of black nationalism as Malcolm X or Stokely Carmichael, but also by the most prominent theorists of socialism and anti-colonialism, such as the philosopher Frantz Fanon or the head of the PRC Mao Zedong. As a result, the ideology of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense combined the need for a cultural revolution or radical socio-economic and political changes in a socialist direction with the importance of fighting institutional racism in the USA, as well as of promoting the principles of feminism to eliminate the vestiges of the patriarchal way of life in the African American community.

Keywords: the US history, Race Relations, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seal, Maoism, Black Nationalism, Black Power movement

Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia)

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