The Black Panther Party was founded as an aid to the black community. They fed the hungry, protected the weak from racist police, and presented a new paradigm of black political and social activism. Its "survival programs"-such as food giveaways, free health clinics and free breakfast programs for children-were popular fixtures in black neighborhoods in the early 1970s, but for the white power structure and the vast majority of the white public, the Panthers represented only anti-government militancy; a view which engendered the wrath of the police and FBI and led to the murder of several party members by law enforcement. The question that stands is not whether their platform had good intentions, but whether their requests were too brash. When minority groups ask the majority for equality and a place in society, they must know who to ask and when. When Martin Luther King Jr. made his platform for his civil rights movement, he had the understanding that they were the underdog and he had to please the "white-man," and make everyone believe he spoke of the truth. When a minority group comes onto the scene, it is assumed they have a group of followers. These followers are the foot soldiers for one's platform. However, what the minority group's leaders must be able to recognize, is how to make non-believers do the unthinkable. The Black Panthers had the right concept to attract fellow blacks, but what they failed to recognize is that their platform did not give the white person a reason to want to believe.
             The Black Panther Platform: "What We Want, What We Believe," was written to let the public know what they wanted and how they were going to achieve it. With little effort they appealed to the black community, with the main idea of unification. This concept was not a diificult one to grasp, because the blacks had very little to lose. However, the Black Panthers undoubtadely knew that blacks wou...