The Black Panther Party Service to the People Programs

The Black Panther Party represents Black Panther Party members' coordinated responses over the last four decades to the failure of city, state, and federal bureaucrats to address the basic needs of their respective communities. The Party pioneered free social service programs that are now in the mainstream of American life.

The Party's Sickle Cell Anemia Research Foundation, operated with Oakland's Children's Hospital, was among the nation's first such testing programs. Its Free Breakfast Program served as a model for national programs. Other initiatives included free clinics, grocery giveaways, school and education programs, senior programs, and legal aid programs.

Published here for the first time in book form, The Black Panther Party makes the case that the programs' methods are viable models for addressing the persistent, basic social injustices and economic problems of today's American cities and suburbs.

The Huey P. Newton Foundation was co-founded in 1993 in Oakland, California, by David Hilliard to honor the legacy of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton, who had been killed four years earlier. A member of the Black Liberation Movement, Hilliard was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party. He is author, coauthor, or editor of eight additional books, including Huey, Spirit of the Panther and The Huey P. Newton Reader. He is writing or editing other books, including The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service 1967-1980 and The History of the Black Panther Party.

Cornel West is professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University. Among his most recent books are Democracy Matters, The African-American Century, The War Against Parents, The Future of American Progressivism, and Race Matters.