Summary
The Black Panther was the official newspaper of the Black Panther Party. It began as a four-page newsletter in Oakland, California, in 1967, and was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.[1] It was the main publication of the party and was soon sold in several large cities across the United States, as well as having an international readership. The newspaper distributed information about the party's activities, and expressed through articles the ideology of the Black Panther Party, focusing on both international revolutions as inspiration and contemporary racial struggles of African Americans across the United States.[2]
 | |
 Front page for the first issue on April 25, 1967 | |
| Format | Tabloid |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | |
| Publisher | Black Panther Party |
| Founded | April 25, 1967 |
| Political alignment | Black Power |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | September 16, 1980 |
| Headquarters | Oakland, California |
| Country | United States |
| ISSN | 0523-7238 |
| OCLC number | 32411926 |
Foundation edit
The Black Panther Party maintained a commitment to community service, including various "survival programs" developed by individual chapters that, by 1969, became part of the national party's "serve the people program" to connect their commitments to basic social services with community organizing and consciousness raising. The Black Panther Party's Intercommunal News Service published The Black Panther Party Newspaper as a critical part of its consciousness raising program.[3]
The Black Panther Party Newspaper, also known as The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, Black Panther Black Community News Service, and Black Community News Service, was published by the Black Panther Party from April 25, 1967,[4] to September 16, 1980.[4] The newspaper was most popular from 1968 to 1972, and during this time, sold a hundred thousand copies a week.[2]
An undergraduate student at San Francisco State, Judy Juanita, served as editor of The Black Panther Party Newspaper during the later 1960s.[5] In 1969, two-thirds of Black Panther Party members were women.[6]
Emory Douglas, who studied at the City College of San Francisco, acted as the newspaper’s graphic arts designer. Working alongside Douglas were Gayle Asali Dickson and Joan Tarika Lewis, who was the first woman to join the Black Panther Party.[7]
In its later years, the newspaper was used to rally support for members of the party who became political prisoners.[citation needed]
Format edit
"The BPP newspaper grew from a four-page newsletter to a full newspaper in about a year and [537] issues were printed".[8]
Circulation edit
Circulation was national and international.[9] From 1968 to 1971, The Black Panther Party Newspaper was the most widely read Black newspaper in the United States, with a weekly circulation of more than 300,000. It sold for 25 cents. Every Panther was required to read and study the newspaper before they could sell it. As it became nationally circulated, The Black Panther Party Newspaper national distribution center was located in San Francisco, with a distribution team led by Andrew Austin, Sam Napier, and Ellis White. Other distribution centers were in Chicago, Kansas, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.[8]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Danky, James Philip; Hady, Maureen E. (1998). African-American newspapers and periodicals : a national bibliography. Mark Graham. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-674-00788-8.
- ^ a b Jones, Charles E. (Charles Earl), 1953- (1998). The Black Panther party (reconsidered). Baltimore: Black Classic Press. ISBN 0933121970. OCLC 39228699.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Carpini, Michael X. Delli. "Black Panther Party 1966–1982." In James Ciment and Immanuel Ness (eds), Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America, pp. 190–197. Vol. 1, Third Parties in History; Third-Party Maps; American Third Parties A-F. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, 2000. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
- ^ a b "A complete archive of the Black Panther Party's newspapers from beginning to end". Reddit. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
- ^ Tobar, Hector (April 19, 2013). "Judy Juanita and her 'Virgin Soul'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
- ^ Cleaver, Kathleen Neal, Women, Power and Revolution, excerpted from Liberation, Imagination and the Black Panther Party. London, England: Routledge, 2001, pp. 123–127.
- ^ Khandwala, Anoushka (4 January 2021). ""The Black Panther Newspaper Wielded the Potency of Design"". elephant.art. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ^ a b Jennings, Billy X (May 4, 2015). "Remembering the Black Panther Party Newspaper April 25, 1967–September 1980". San Francisco Bayview. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
- ^ "Freedom Archives".
Further reading edit
- "The Black Panther: newspaper of the Black Panther Party". libcom.org.
- Charles Evens Inniss Memorial Library Archives. The Black Panther Newspapers and Posters – Collection History and Scope. Medgar Evers College, CUNY, November 2013. Web. February 25, 2017. This online exhibit displays digitized issues of the newspaper The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service from 1969 to 1973 and the party’s propaganda posters.
- African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War, Document collection: Congress. Staff Study by the Committee on Internal Security – House of Representatives. The Black Panther Party Its Origin and Development as Reflected In Its Official Weekly Newspaper The Black Panther Black Community News Service. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1970.
External links edit
- LCCN 74-8013