We applaud the October 2016 AJPH special section for bringing deserved attention to the focus of the Black Panther Party (BPP) on public health. The special section reflected on the BPP’s use of political theater to challenge police brutality and racial injustice while making the case that its public health legacy has been overshadowed by perceptions that its principal aim was to foment violence. The special section also crucially placed the BPP at the forefront of public health work in the 1960s and 1970s, and identified the group as a critical agent for filling gaps in access to care for vulnerable people.
Two additional points can be made on this topic. First, understanding the BPP’s public health activities helps us situate today’s efforts to advance health equity. As Mary T. Bassett noted in “Beyond Berets: The Black Panthers as Health Activists,” the BPP’s “vision hewed closely to the fundamentally radical idea that achieving health for all demands a more just and equitable world.”1(p1741) The BPP maintained an intellectual and pragmatic awareness of the linkages that bind racial inequality, economic deprivation, police and judicial surveillance, and health, linkages that persist today and that many in public health now characterize as social determinants of health.
It is no coincidence that the BPP included free health care for all in its 10-point program alongside demands for freedom from oppression, employment, decent housing, education, and peace.2 Presciently, it sought health programs that would provide not only treatment services but also preventive services, health education, research, and access to medical information, all of which today represent key elements of the Affordable Care Act and the broader public health agenda.
Second, the BPP’s public health efforts tell an important story about demands for social change in this country. Its agenda was a fundamentally American one that invoked the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution,3 and sought to improve the lives of all citizens. The government responded to the BPP by vilifying and ultimately eviscerating its internal infrastructure. The public, for its part, all too often preferred to dismiss the BPP rather than engage its arguments. We cannot help but hear echoes of this past in many of the public reactions to Black Lives Matter and comparable social movements.
As our country confronts some of the same challenges in this new political era, we would do well to understand and engage with the BPP’s platform and achievements.
REFERENCES
- 1.Bassett MT. Beyond berets: the Black Panthers as health activists. Am J Public Health. 2016;106(10):1741–1743. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303412. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Black Panther Party. What we want, what we believe: history of the Black Panther Party. Available at: http://web.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/history.shtml. Accessed February 4, 2017.
- 3.Black Panther Party. Black Panther community programs. Available at: http://web.stanford.edu/group/blackpanthers/programs.shtml. Accessed February 4, 2017.