Although the Black Panther Party has often been accused of being a terrorist faction of black nationalists and supremacists, these were almost entirely rumors spread by the scared public after being convinced by the news press that the Black Panthers were eager to start a civil war despite its certainty to cause a bloodbath. In actuality, the Black Panthers were a group formed out desperation for equal rights. Determined to be noticed and bring publicity to the crimes committed against them they opened huge organizations devoted to feeding hungry children, and educating men women and children on political sciences as well as teaching them self defense to prepare them for police attacks. Even though they were portrayed as a violent gang, very few shots were fired from Black Panther weapons, well on many occasions Black Panther members were ambushed and murdered by police and FBI agents. While many were killed in these ambushes, the Black Panthers succeeded in educating the public on the situation of Americas ghettos, while also conveying their beliefs centered around Mao ze Dong and Malcolm X.
Despite Malcolm X's belief in a violent revolution for blacks rights, the Black Panthers never went on the offensive against the police of any town. Even though their people were being systematically killed off to stop the rebellion they still stood strong for their beliefs. These qualities I really respect in the Black Panther Party and I believe it is necessary for these insurrections to happen so as to make people test the governments authority and question whether it is truly working smoothly. Even though they were almost entirely killed off, The Black Panther Party did succeed in their founding goal, which was to educate the public of the violence going on in the ghetto areas of the U.S.
http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/
