The Black Panther Party (BPP) came to represent the West Coast manifestation of Black Power as well as the angry mood within urban African American communities in the 1960s. The groups main influences were Malcolm X, especially after his 1964 break from the Nation of Islam, and Robert F. Williams, the then Cuban-based civil rights leader and advocate of armed self-defense. Philosophically, the organization was rooted in an eclectic blend of Marxist-Leninism, black nationalism, and in the revolutionary movements of Africa and Asia.

Black Panthers (from left): 2nd Lt. James Pelser, Capt. Jerry James, 1st Lt. Greg Criner and 1st Lt. Robert Reynolds.

The BPP was founded in October 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, two young black college students in Oakland, California. The name of the organization was taken from the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which had used the symbol and name for organizing in the...