Ten-Point Program

The Ten-Point Program was a political program adopted by the Black Panther Party in the United States. The program comprised ten strong demands that directly reflected the hardships of the time when the Black Panther Party was active (1960s - 1970s). The program called for peace, fair housing, education for the youth, and exemption from military service, amongst many other demands. The party represented oppressed blacks in their communities and The Ten-Point Program was a response to their many setbacks. While the Black Panthers represented a counterculture that had seemingly extreme ideals in the light of the political racism of the government during the civil rights movement, the Ten-Point Program was a legal document that attempted to ask for rights in a non-violent way.

Demands

The Ten-Point Program called for extreme changes in the government. The following list explains demands of the Ten-Point Program and the reasoning behind it.

# We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our black community.
#: The party believed that freedom was being able to determine one's own destiny.
# We want full employment for our people.
#: The party believed strongly that the Federal Government was responsible for job opportunities, and that if American businessmen will not give "full employment" to black workers, "then the technology and 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 [them] a high standard of living." [http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm The Ten Point Plan] . Blackpanther.org. Retrieved 2008-08-14.]
# We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our black community.
#: This demand was a response to the overdue payment of 40 acres and two mules. The party felt that racism in the United Stated had robbed them, and they went as far as stating that they would accept the payment in currency and that it should be disbursed amongst many communities.
# We want decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings.
#: The party claimed that white landlords would not give them proper housing, so demanded government aid for the black community to build houses themselves.
# 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.
#: This point was very important because it demanded only the education on the real history of the black community.
# We want all black men to be exempt from military service.
#: This was by far the strongest demand. The party wanted blacks to be exempt from fighting in a racist military against others of color.
# We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people.
#: The party believed strongly in self-defense. It was a Constitutional right to bear arms and to protect oneself in a matter of self defense, and therefore the party often organized themselves in groups that would teach and promote self defense in order to protect themselves from harm, especially from harm from racist police officers.
# We want freedom for all black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails.
#: It was also a Constitutional right to have a fair trail and jury.
# 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.
#: The party believed that "the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that Black people will receive fair trials." The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave each man the right to be tried by his peers, i.e. people from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. Thus the party demanded that in a trial of a black person, the court select a jury from the Black community from which the Black defendant came. The party claimed that the black community has been and is being "tried by all-White juries that have no understanding of the 'average reasoning man' of the Black community."fact|date=August 2008
# We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.
#: This last demand is a brief synopsis of the first nine.

Legacy

The Ten-Point Program changed over time; for example, a demand for completely free health care for all black and oppressed people became the sixth demand in the list in 1972. The Ten-Point Program was ultimately unsuccessful, but some of the rights demanded for were slowly given to black people through the course of the civil rights movement in the United States.

References

* Newton, Huey P. [http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/1966/10/15.htm1980 "War Against the Panthers"] . Marxists.org (1980).
* [http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/16_01/Bbpp161.shtml The Panther Party's Ten Point Program] . Rethinking Schools Online (2001). Retrieved 2008-08-14.
* [http://www.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/history.shtml History of the Black Panther Party] . Standford University. Retrieved 2008-08-14.