May 16, 1967: 57 years ago, May 15 1967, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense [...]

57 years ago, May 15 1967, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense published their Ten-Point Program. Titled “What We Want Now! What We Believe,” the program was published in every consecutive issue of the Black Panther newspaper

The Ten-Point Program was written on October 16, 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the founders of the party, who were neighbors in North Oakland and students at Merritt College. They wrote it at the Office of Economic Development Corp. on Market St, where they both worked

The Program was modeled on the Nation of Islam’s Muslim Program but differed dramatically in content, replacing the NOI’s religious, separatist Black nationalism with a secular, revolutionary one. In 1969, derogatory references to “the white man” were amended to “the capitalists”