Throughout the book, The Color of Water, James McBride made many references to
different organizations bent on black power. He explained in minor detail how they
walked through the streets and intimidated others, especially him. The best known, and
probably the most powerful, of the organizations was the Black Panther Party.
The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966, immediately after the death of Malcolm X.
Huey P. Newton gathered together 5 of his long-time friends and started The Party. These
inseparable started the real fight of black power, but in a different way than that of the
other groups. The majority of these black supremacists, at the time, simply walked around
their area of town, equipped with a shotgun over their shoulder, which was surprisingly
legal at the time. The Panthers were different. They attacked racism with people. The
original six men made the Ten-Point Program, a code for the panthers to live by.
This list helped the panthers to sustain communities as their life style dwindled. They
developed many other programs to do so as well. These programs were built on
connections that one of two panthers had made to support the common good. They
employed storekeeper panthers to start up a free breakfast program. This allowed young
boys and girls to come into a cafeteria and eat a hot, nutritious meal every morning at
7:30. This program increased not only community togetherness, but also health of their
children. The next free service that the panthers provided was the medical clinics. Any
black person could come into the clinic with an illness and get proper medical treatment
from a trained doctor, and get good medicine too. Next in line came the Clothing and
Shoe Programs. This also helped the people keep warm, therefore healthy, while at the
same time keeping their image high with others. The final service that was provided was
the Buses to Prison Program. This program al...