The Appeal of Communism - The BPP, Education, and Communist Rise in America

In 1968 Bobby Seale, co-founder and chairman of the Black Panther Party, wrote a book trying to fix what he believed were misconceptions about the Party, and to explain and justify their methods and goals. Essentially, at this time the BPP was an openly communist orginization, with core beliefs with a core in basic Marxism. At the time, the system was very appealing to young black men. This is for several reasons. Communism as a whole has a basic human appeal, because it allows it's members to see themselves as on the moral high ground. Under a basic capitalist system, success is based on hard work and luck. Obviously, other factors - such as available education - are factors, but issues like these are grounds for reform, not revolution.

For this reason communist groups don't focus on why some people are successful, or even the things that keep a capitalist system from flowing. Instead, they focus on the pure fact that some have more money than others. Because supporters of communism are usually those who feel they do not live the lifestyle they deserve, as a communist they see themselves as the victims of the rich, who in reality were either hard working, lucky, or both. This convieniantly also means that the money that would fund their lifestyle wouldn't come from them, it would come from the rich who had "stolen" the money from them. All of this appealed to young black men, who could mix this false sense of self-righteousness and how society had wronged them with the real injustices they had to endure. This was not only a way to gain a better lifestyle from the "thieving" rich, but also a way to end the injustices which, no matter what political situation, really did have to end.

The other reason that this philosophy appealed to "young black men" is because they felt they were not part of the democractic system. This was valid to an extent, because some policies were in place to limit the involvement of blacks. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ended direct limitations on voting, but county borders could still be used to limit black involvement. In addition, the Northern educational system was dominated by whites, which denied black children role models. C. Herbert Oliver, a parent of one such child, explained that this was very different from the South, where segregated schools gave black children role models in teachers and principals. This was the main difference between the two, and the Northern system meant that black children saw themselves, as blacks, seperate from the power system from an early age. This carried into their adult life were they would subconciously focus on the very real injustices in the polical system, making them seem even bigger than they really were.