CONTROVERSIES & FBI INVOLVEMENT | BY: COLE LINDSAY

May 11, 2020

Many people have heard of the Black Panther Party and it is one of the most iconic groups that emerged from the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Most people however do not know that it was infiltrated by the FBI and is still today portrayed in the image the FBI and the media created for the Panthers. The 1960’s were a time of high racial tension between white Americans and African Americans. The Black Panther Party was founded in response to the killing of Malcolm X and the shooting of another young black man by the police in California. The party soon organized protests against police brutality and started the neighborhood watch program. This program involved African Americans patrolling their own neighborhoods because of a lack of trust towards the police. This caused many in the media and government to portray the Black Panthers in a less than positive light. An article written by historian Tom Davies, who is researching the media's perception of the BPP,  he talks about the history of the BPP and how they were perceived by the American Public. “In the eyes of many Americans, the group was a clear threat to law and order: a dangerous band of gun-wielding macho revolutionaries who sided with America’s Cold War enemies” (Davies). The predominant view of the Black Panther’s was that it was an extremist group that spread fear and represented the “anti-establishment” mindset. This representation of the Panthers could not be further from their original goal as an organization. The original founding goal of the black panthers was to help the African American community face social and political injustices by standing together. Davies describes their mission by saying,  “Combating police brutality was only one part of a much broader political programme, which aimed at transforming a black urban experience marked by poverty, poor housing conditions, substandard education and political powerlessness” (Davies). The creation of the image of the Black Panthers that we know today was created as a response to subdue the rising popularity of the party in the late 1960’s. This attempt to make the Black Panther Party unpopular in the eyes of the American people was greatly helped by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To this day, the image of the Panthers that was cultivated by the FBI and media dominates the cultural conversations surrounding the group. 

The interference of the FBI in the Black Panther Party has been well documented and written about. The Black Panther’s were infiltrated by many FBI informants and at one point, the FBI was influencing major decisions being made within the group. This was a common tactic used by law enforcement of the time to bring about the destruction of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Communist groups, and the Black Panthers. In a paper written by Katelyn Stieva, a researcher exploring the FBI’s influence on the Panthers, she discusses the FBI’s COINTELPRO (Counter-intelligence Program) and the various methods used against the Black Panther’s. One method referred to as “social control”, was used to “limit the capacity of social movements to create change” (Stieva). Even the head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, in 1968 said, “the Black Panther Party, without question, represents the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” (Stieva). The FBI made it very clear that it believed the Black Panther group was a threat to the national security of the American people and started an information war to persuade the public of this opinion. Stieva talks about the purpose of the new COINTELPRO in the eyes of the FBI, 

“The purpose of this new program, according to the documents, was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalists, hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supports, and to counter their propensity for violence and civil disorder” (Stieva 85). 

Over the period of time that the Black Panther’s were active, the FBI launched over 230 authorized COINTELPRO activities. The FBI not only infiltrated the Black Panther organization, but it spread false rumors, anonymous letters, and there have been claims the FBI helped with the assassination of Black Panther leadership. In 2007, congress released the final report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations in regards to the FBI’s covert action program designed to destroy the black panther party. The report discusses specifically the various methods the FBI used to drive a wedge between the Black Panther’s leadership. The report directly states, 

“This effort included mailing anonymous letters and caricatures to BPP members ridiculing the local and national BPP leadership for the express purpose of exacerbating an existing "gang war" between the BPP and an organization called the United Slaves (US). This "gang war" resulted in the killing of four BPP members by members of the US and in numerous beatings and shootings” (“THE FBI'S COVERT…”).

Tactics like the one discussed above were just some of the methods used against the Black Panthers. The overarching goal of the program itself was to “Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them” (“THE FBI'S COVERT…”). The way that the FBI discredited the BPP was through its representation and creation of images. The FBI wanted the BPP to be seen as a group that was a threat to society, and they accomplished this by starting feuds within the party, attacking leadership, and inciting the use of violence. The FBI also forged a series of letters between the two leaders of the party at the time in 1970, Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. The findings by the senate intelligence committee state that the FBI wanted to  “provoke Cleaver to openly question Newton's leadership ... It is felt that distance and lack of personal contact between Newton and Cleaver do offer a counterintelligence opportunity that should be probed” (“THE FBI'S COVERT…”). Throughout the Nixon administration of the 1970’s, the BPP slowly lost its battle against the FBI and the group officially closed its doors in 1982. 

The Black Panther Party was also shaped by the media into a black-nationalistic and violent group that fit into a much larger agenda of discrediting the rise of goups that represented an altenrative to white culture, such as the BPP. A paper written in the Harvard international journal of press by Jane Rhodes, discusses the relationship the Black Panther Party had with the media and how it was portrayed throughout American society. She says, “The press shaped stories about the Black Panthers to fit the organization, practices, and constraints of media institutions and the ideologies of government and law enforcement” (Rhodes 97). Although Rhodes admits the media shaped some American’s opinions about the group, she argues that the Black Panthers also pushed back against the way the media portrayed them. “The Black Panthers often managed to resist total capitulation to the interests of the press and to control their uniquely radical image” (Rhodes 98).  This struggle for power over representation in the public’s eye, can explain the relationship that the Black Panthers and the media had. This struggle of images led to many misinformed Americans that led to a general feeling of fear towards the Panthers. A perfect example of how the media framed the Black Panthers can be seen from the very first mention of the group in the New York Times in 1967. After a group of Panthers protested with guns outside the California State Legislature building, the headline that appeared in the New York Times read, “ARMED NEGROES PROTEST GUN BILL” (Pedersen). This type of attention grabbing article led many readers to come to understand the BPP as a black-nationalistic militant group. Without any explaining or questioning of the actual protestors, the image of the Black Panthers was already being created to fit the white narrative after their first public appearance. The combination of the mixed messaging of the media, FBI, and the Black Panther Party itself, led to a controversial feeling towards the group. 

The relationship between white Americans and African Americans has been a strange one to understand throughout American history. Since the ending of slavery in the 19th century the very social and cultural fabric of our country has undergone a monumental change. With each passing decade, minority groups have strived and gained more inclusiveness into American culture. Understanding the roles that various political and institutional powers have in shaping images and narratives within our society is very important for the creation of American icons. The Black Panther Party will be remembered far longer than any of us currently alive could conceive, but understanding their unique story and the opposing or controversial forces they went up against, sheds new light onto the group. With further work extending the knowledge that we have of the Black Panthers, we can understand their place among America's greatest and longest lasting icons.