Why do you hate the terrorists?

Are heroes in the United States heroes to everyone? Does every member of society equally like controversial leaders? Can a person with a revolutionary, anti-establishment background and belief be a hero to the public? Does Fred Hampton deserve a portion of Monroe named after him? The Black Panther Party still has the stigma of a terrorist group to almost everyone in the United States. The government of the time up until present day reinforces this notion of evil with every mention of the Black Panthers. Were the Black Panthers a terrorist group or were they freedom fighters? This paper will look at the actions of the Black Panthers against the assumed identity given by the government to the masses, that the Black Panthers took advantage of the communities they supposedly served.
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in 1966 in North Oakland, California. The main objectives of the party were to free black citizens from racism and oppression by the United States government. The ten-point platform of “What We Want, What We Believe” comprised the basis from which all other Black Panther rules came from. The focus of this paper deals with community activism and aid to the community from the Black Panthers.
Community was most important to the Black Panthers. A grass-roots organization cannot succeed without the roots (the community). The Black Panthers wanted freedom, employment, ending the robbery of the community, decent housing and education, ending police brutality in the community and their own land and nation. The Black Panthers protected the community. They were not to gain anything from any of these needs or wants. It was a communal project. Huey Newton said, “Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.” The Black Panther party wanted equality for everyone. They did not want power for themselves. They wanted it for everyone. Fred Hampton called for, “White power, red power, yellow power, black power.” For anyone to think otherwise is to miss the essence of the Black Panthers.
They sacrificed lives of their leaders for the fulfillment of a dream of equality for the black community. They sacrificed money and resources to further the advancement of the black community in a grassroots way that no other organization before or since has matched. The Black Panthers started community-based programs to help children of the community.
“In January, 1969, the first Panther's Free Breakfast for School Children Program was initiated at St. Augustine's Church in Oakland. By the end of the year, the Panthers set up kitchens in cities across the nation, feeding over 10,000 children every day before they went to school.” (www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/) Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, felt pressure to mimic the Black Panthers breakfast program and started increasing funding for a program of his own. This program, renamed Head Start, was given a government certification and remains to this day.
People pervert the Black Panthers image. The Black Panthers wanted freedom from oppression. The party rules show kindness towards all. “If we ever have to take captives, do not ill-treat them.” (8 points of attention) The Black Panthers did not want a war. They wanted freedom. Whatever means necessary precluded war as a last result, not a first-strike attitude.
History will someday show the Black Panthers as a revolutionary group working for freedom from the government that oppressed its own citizens. History will show the truth about the Black Panthers.