The
Black Panther Party was a product of the Black Power movement of the 1950s and
-60s, uniting ideas of proactive racial protest with Marxist ideas of class
struggle. The “10-Point Program” outlined the fundamental demands of the party
and sets the tone for the goals of many members of the black power movement. The
uniting theme of the “10-Point Program” was the idea that economic and
educational equality was required to support black communities and provide true
freedom. In addition, the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth points called for
measures to protect black people from the exploitative and racist system of the
United States by exposing the biased judicial, police, and military system.
These
principles of the Black Panther Party are not often directly mentioned
throughout the poetry of the Black Arts Movement but are instead represented in
many poems through the assertive, proud tone of the black poetry of this
period. In “For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide”, Etheridge Knight distances
himself and black people from white people by confronting the topic of suicide.
Knight says that, unlike the white boys, black poets should never commit
suicide “For Black Poets belong to Black People”. The poem shows discontentment
with solely integrating and instead tells black readers to go beyond the goals and
methods of the Civil Rights Movement into the self-deterministic motto of the
Black Panther Party. In the poem, every mention of black people or elements
representing black people are capitalized, reenforcing the idea of Black Pride.
One
poem, in which the ideas of the “10-Pont Program” are more directly mentioned
is “Black Art” by Amiri Baraka. In the line: “Another negroleader/ On the steps
of the white house one/ Kneeling between the sheriff's thighs/ Negotiating
coolly for his people.” Baraka calls out the same systemic issues the Black
Panther Party sought out to resolve. The previous attempts of striking deals with
the white government by black leaders are seen as taking on a position of
inferiority to invoke sympathy. Both Baraka and the Black Panther Party see the
economic, governmental, societal system as inherently unjust. Any attempts at
improving the system will not truly fix the fundamental issue, that black
people live life as inferiors to the ruling class of white people. The Black
Pride Movement and the Black Arts
Movement, which accompanied it, fight for
black people to become equal in every facet of life and gain their rightful
place in society.
