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Historical Context of Black Panther

Updated: Dec 9, 2019

Black Panther was a Marvel superhero movie released in 2018 with an almost entirely black cast.












Black Panther was also a name used for a political party in 1966 made up of an African American revolutionary party whose aims were to patrol black communities to protect them from police brutality. Many members were involved in fatal fights with the police; it also had internal party issues which resulted in the murder of two members. Scholars have characterized the Black Panther Party as the most influential black movement organization of the late 1960s and police described them as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." The FBI created a counterintelligence organization to take down the party as well as introducing strict gun laws. The party also participated in rallies to educate people about how to protect themselves and a protest in 1967 at the statehouse to protest a bill to make open carry gun laws illegal; this resulted in heavily publicized incidents. The party came out with many political phrases starting in "we want" but these demands changed many times. Over all from 1966 to 1972 when the group disbanded they caused injuries and death to a large number of people and as well as protests and shoot outs tried to claim youth liberation; however whilst these schools provided food they did not provide good education. The Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.




Martin Luther king Jr was a young Baptist minister in 1963 who helped to organize a rally in Washington that was attended by more than 250,000 people and he gave a speech about racial equality for African-Americans; this march played a vital role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.However as he had fought for no segregation in schools, workplaces and public facilities he later started to fight for causes like poverty issues for African-Americans and was killed in 1968; days after which the law was passed for equal housing rights. Before he died Martin Luther King Jr also secured voting rights for African-Americans in 1965. He became a target of those apposed to the movement and was jailed, beaten up, had his house bombed with multiple death threats and yet he continued to fight as a well known figure head of the movement and stayed a peaceful role model. Due to his influence people today and as close as 2018 are still trying to fulfill the entirety of his message, NFL players kneeled during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality, higher wages for fast food workers and the black lives matter movement. Martin Luther King Jr also paved the way for Americas first black president in 2008, Barack Obama.










In 1951 Barbara Johns led a talk at her school at age 16 which led to a peaceful protest march of students out of school to demonstrate their thoughts that there should be integration in schools (both black and white students being able to attend the same school). The school board still did not see the seriousness of the issue and so Barbara brought in lawyers from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to help them achieve integration, Barbara also held a meeting with her community where she held a speech to get them behind the movement. Despite being 16 years old and receiving death threats and harassment from the Ku Klux Klan she still continued fighting. The lawsuit for integration went to the U.S Supreme Court and they passed a law to have mixed black and white schools in 1954. In 1988 almost 45% of schools had managed to desegregate; however there are worries due to the fact that now on average there are only 28% of white students in schools with the majority of black students. Her protest led to many more sit ins and protests by other members of the Civil Rights Movement and was even inspiring to Martin Luther King Jr.














The Little Rock nine were a group of nine high school students in 1957 who were the first nine students that the NAACP enrolled in Little Rock Central High which had been an all white school until the integration law started by Barbara Johns. These students were chosen to represent the black community and why they deserved desegregation based on their grades and effort in school; one of these nine became the first ever African-American to graduate from a Central Highschool which marked a huge step in American History.


Civil Rights Movements started years after The slave trade which was when countries like America went to Africa and used people as slaves; by selling and buying them from each other after they had been captured and forced across the sea to America. From Africa it was women and children who were desired as slaves for labour and lineage incorporation whereas men were sold to the Europeans. Between the 17th and 18th centuries African slaves were traded in the Caribbean for ingredients that were made into rum in America which was sold to Africa in exchange for slaves.

















The slave trade lasted until 1865. Abraham Lincoln the US President of the time created three documents that helped to abolish slavery during Americas Civil War. The first of these was the Emancipation Proclamation which stated that all slaves should be set free; a lot f slaves were. When running for the US senate he declared that America needed to be all slave free or not and it could not survive as half and half which would unite American people either for or against slavery. Another one of Abraham Lincolns documents was the Thirteenth Amendment which finally said that in the whole of America there should be no slavery unless it was punishment for a crime which abolished slavery in America and is still in place as a law today.


Colonialization is taking over control of a group of people of an area to use as you wish. This was done in Africa by force and violence, they responded with The African Resistance which was formed with military and political groups to fight against colonialization and to regain control, however this did not work especially after Africa`s political and revolutionary changes. They were unable to protect themselves from invaders; this was also due to the fact that Africa was not technologically advanced whereas Europe had the Technological revolution. By the 1900`s most of Africa was enslaved by Europe which established effective methods of control and exploitation.


Triangular trade was three ports trading involving cooperation between all three ports in exporting goods and slaves between each other. Slave trade started with Africa rulers trading enemies for security against European`s taking them as slaves.12 million or more people were thought to have been traded in slavery with 40% of these coming from Africa; 15% of these at least died on the journey across the Atlantic. Unsanitary conditions on the boats caused the spread of disease and depression. By the end the slaves that were not sold to houses were sold into labour such as tobacco, coffee, cotton and 70% ended up producing sugar. This happened between 1619 when the first boat of Africans arrived in America to 1760 when slave trade was first spoken out against to 1789 when the UK banned slavery, then in 1808 when the US banned slavery to finally 1853 when Brazil banned slavery. The Atlantic slave trade lasted in total around 4 and a half centuries. Triangular trade also was a term used due to slave trades three stages which were goods taken to Africa n exchange for slaves, transporting slaves from Africa to America and finally slave produced goods taken from America to Europe. There was a committee formed by William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson called the Committee for Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, Britain. This group was made up of missionaries and British people who campaigned to abolish slavery which was gradual over a period of about twenty years.


Barack Obama in a Speech in Selma in 2015 stated that there are many places like this that come together from a "clash of wills" and stated that "what they did here will reverberate through the ages" because they "proved that non violent change is possible" due to pioneers that were unafraid to brave the unfamiliar as their own liberty had been denied. He also talks about the change that it has brought through the centuries on America.








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