The
leading revolutionary nationalist organization in the late 1960s,
the Black Panther Party focused on self-defense and meeting the
basic needs of its constituents – low-income urban Blacks.
The rise of the BPP signaled a break with the civil rights movement
and influenced the American Indian, Asian American, and Chicano
Movements. Its existence in L.A. was especially intense for two
reasons: the FBI had declared the BPP the “number one threat
to national security,” and the zealous nature of the LAPD
under Chief Parker. In December 1969 the LAPD launched a pre-dawn
raid on the headquarters of the Southern California Chapter where
a four-hour gun battle, which inaugurated the Special Weapons and
Tactics Team (SWAT), resulted in the injury of three Panthers, three
police officers, the arrest of eleven Panthers and the destruction
of the building itself. |
