The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary group founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in the 1960's to stop police brutality in the ghetto areas of California. The group was created in Oakland, California but soon spread their Maoist ideals all throughout northern and southern California. Dressed in black and blue and armed with loaded shotguns the largely African American group would patrol up and down streets looking for police taking advantage of citizens with their authority. Once the newspapers started portraying them as a black nationalist gang they changed their image into only fighting civil rights for all races and began opening a number of foundations to improve life for people living in underdeveloped communities.
What is interesting is that the Black Panther Party was largely communist and held a strict moral code of honor. Despite the FBI's attempt to portray them as a violent gang that should be feared the Black Panthers were able to keep their image as common men and women "policing the police," and helping the working class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party
