This pamphlet was fascinating to me. Seeing something that the Black Panther Party actually wrote and handed out is like gazing right into the past. The pamphlet talks about the recent coalition with the Peace and Freedom Party, and lists some proposals for the Peace and Freedom Party to follow. The Black Panther Party was closely aligned with Marxist-Socialist views and ideas, as was the Peace and Freedom Party. While I disagree with the idea of any type of ethno-state, reading this pamphlet and other works in class done by Black Nationalists has made me more sympathetic. The viewpoints of Black Nationalism made sense at the time, when no progress seemed to be underway. In class, we read some excerpts from Malcolm X’s autobiography, and the Black Panther Party was founded around many of Malcolm X’s ideas. The Black Arts Movement was heavily inspired around the ideas of revolution and freedom, which were central to many of the Black Panther Party’s goals and viewpoints. This pamphlet offers a perfect look into the viewpoints and opinions of the time, and how they merge with what we’ve been reading in class.
