Why Did The Collapse Of The Black Panthers

Being that the Free Breakfast for Children Program was so successful, that success led the Panthers to start free health clinics. The free health clinics was started due to the lack of health care attention that served many blacks in the inner-city communities. The health clinics depended on volunteer services from local doctors, residents, medical students, nurses, interns, along with people in the community, as well as low-rent and or donated spaces. Not only were the Panthers helping black but they were helping non-blacks as well (Bloom 188). The focus was to address the limited resources of the pressing health care concerns of poor blacks and the lack of adequate medical facilities along with medical professionals. These health clinics
J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI, declared that the Panthers were the “greatest threat to the internal security of the United States” (Smith). Hoover and the FBI developed COINTELPRO, which stood for Counter Intelligence Program, that is a systematic program of political repression. COINTELPRO main priority was to destroy the Black Panthers by which they accomplished. The Black Panthers had corruption within the Party, most of the leaders were in jail, exiled, or dead. These along with political repression is what helped in the collapse of the Panthers.
Not only did the Black Panthers show the black community to arm themselves but they gave the community hope and promise to overcome poverty and oppression, by showing the community a revolution (Bloom 391). When there was nothing but chaos and rage throughout the ghettos, it was the Black Panthers who used that rage and organized it to mobilize the youth of the ghetto. The Black Panthers were able to join forces and become allies to those who were the enemies of the US. The Black Panthers could show the failures of the federal war on poverty through their community programs. Not only did the Black Panthers bring awareness to the black community it also opened the eyes of non-blacks as well (Bloom 392). Even though the Panthers made mistakes that led to their demise, their success made significant contributions to the black freedom struggle. They were an organization that gave some people hope. The Panthers inspired thousands of people to take control of their lives and communities. When the government failed them, the Panthers taught the black community to depend on themselves. The government may have been fearful of the Panthers being a communist organization but the truth is the government was afraid of what would happen if African Americans come