Black on Both Sides, Oakland to Algiers: Internationalism and Ideological Divergence of the Black Panther Party, 1969-1971

Abstract

This thesis, as part of the History of Politics and Society Master’s Program, uncovers how and why the Black Panther Party’s engagement with anticolonial and anti-imperialist political thought and practice, in the Global South between the period of 1968-1971, led to an ideological divergence within the Party. The research relies on an international approach to investigate the interactions that key BPP members had with both political writers and activists of the Global South that led them to their separate conclusions. Cleaver’s time in exile leading the International Section of the Black Panther Party put him in contact with revolutionary guerrilla leaders and their resources, increasingly convincing Cleaver that the future of the BPP lay in the armed struggle. On the other hand, Newton, who remained in California, experienced an ideological transformation that led him to refute Cleaver’s internationalism, also diverting from his own previous ideology. Considering the BPP had multiple locations and leaders, this paper focuses on the development of BPP Minister of Self Defense Huey P. Newton and Minister of Information Eldridge Cleaver. Cleaver and Newton wielded rhetorical and tangible authority over the BPP, and their conflicting convictions offered a dichotomy of prospective political paths for the Party. The ideological development of these two men and their divergence from each other also exemplifies broader shifts happening in the Party. Analyzing the link between the Party’s internationalism and the Party’s split in 1971 provides greater insight into how the Black American liberation struggle fits into the global historiography of decolonization and anticolonialism.