''The Black Panther'' (also called ''The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service'', ''Black Panther Black Community News Service'', and ''Black Community News Service'') was the official newspaper of the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...

. It began as a four-page newsletter in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, in 1967, and was founded by

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African American revolutionary and political activist who co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. He ran the party as its first leader and crafted its ten-point manifesto with ...

and Bobby Seale. 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. It remained in circulation until the dissolution of the Party in 1980.

Foundation

The

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 Newspaper'' was a critical part of the Party's consciousness-raising program. ''The Black Panther Party Newspaper'', variably titled through its duration 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, to September 16, 1980. The newspaper was most popular from 1968 to 1972, and during this time, sold a hundred thousand copies a week. An undergraduate student at San Francisco State, Judy Juanita, served as editor of ''The Black Panther Party Newspaper'' during the later 1960s. In 1969, two-thirds of Black Panther Party members were women and women were heavily represented among the paper's staff and leadership. The artist

Emory Douglas Emory Douglas (born May 24, 1943) is an American graphic artist. He was a member of the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. As a r''evolutionary artist'' and the ''Minister of Culture'' for the Black Panther Part ...

, who studied at the City College of San Francisco, acted as the newspaper’s graphic arts designer as well as Minister of Culture for the party. Working alongside Douglas were Gayle Asali Dickson and Joan Tarika Lewis, who was the first woman to join the Black Panther Party. Its final editor until the dissolution of the Party was JoNina Abron. In its later years, the newspaper was used to rally support for members of the party who became

political prisoners A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although ...

. The newspaper is archived at

California State University, Dominguez Hills California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH, CSU Dominguez Hills, or Cal State Dominguez Hills) is a public university in Carson, California. It was founded in 1960 and is part of the California State University (CSU) system. In 2020, ...

Format

"The BPP newspaper grew from a four-page newsletter to a full newspaper in about a year and 37issues were printed."

Circulation

Circulation was national and international. 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.

50th Anniversary Commemorative Issue

In October, 2016, the

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, in cooperation with about 100 former members of the Black Panther Party, organized an exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the party. The exhibit ran through February, 2017 and was called " All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50". As part of the commemoration, a 20 page issue of ''The Black Panther'' was published.

References

External links

* Th
official archives of the Black Panther Party newspaper
are located at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland. * Issues and artwork from the 30 issues of the ''Black Panther'' in the MoMa's permanen
collection can be viewed online
* Images and PDFs of issues of the ''Black Panther'' can be foun

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Panther (Newspaper) 1967 establishments in California 1980 disestablishments in California Black Panther Party Defunct African-American newspapers Defunct newspapers published in California Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area Newspapers established in 1967 Publications disestablished in 1980 Socialist newspapers published in the United States Socialism in California