Watching the video about the Black Panthers on Wednesday, why do you think they chose to carry firearms if their ultimate goal was to promote equal constitutional rights for all African Americans? Even though they're an extremist group, they chose to promote violence rather than stop it. As President Kennedy mentioned in the video, "Violence only breeds more violence."Also, why do you think they thought that they felt that they needed to carry those wepons in spite the fact that it was legal at the time?
Alex L. - 5th Hour
6 comments:
For years, blacks gave been fighting for their rights. After getting their rights, it's only reasonable that they'd want to exercize those rights. it's also possible they carried guns for protection as well considering the police brutality toward blacks.
Elise Lieberman
5/4/07
5th hour
I think that the main reason the black panthers needed guns was for enforcerment. They were the people who kept the police in check and made sure that they wouldnt arrest or abuse people for no reason. I dont think that they would have been able to do this if they didnt have guns. With the guns it let police officers know that they would use them if they needed to. But I dont think the panthers ever planned on using them against the police. Also I agree with what Elise from 5th said about the blacks needing to exercize thier rights. They did this by having the guns and protecting other blacks from the police. Whenever the police would question them or tell them that they couldnt do what they were doing the Black Panthers would show them that they knew thier rights . For example they would tell them that the are allowed to observe a police officer from a certain distance away and they would be farther away then that distance. Also they would exercize thier rights by carrying the guns around.
Kevin K.
6th Hour
I think was forced black people to carry firearms becaus ethey been killing and hurting black when they weren't being violent. So the black pantha group justwas sayin skip the non-violence if they wanna hurt us we can hurt them. WE also did this to show them we really aint scared of them and we will rebel if we have to. The brutality and the media was on the whites side back then so what the black panthas did was try to flip it and give them a taste of their own medicine. even though the blacks did not do that harm to the whites. the whites hurt the blacks really bad mentally and physically but they would take black soul.
I think that the reason the Black Panthers wanted to carry around guns was for their own protection. They were promoting non-violence but that didn't mean that the police weren't going to back down. Just because you think violence is bad doesn't mean that the police do too. It was legal to carry guns at that time and they wanted to make sure that people knew that. People were getting arrested for all kinds of stupid stuff and they wanted to make sure that it wasn't going to keep happening. I think that if you have the right to do something that you should be able to go and do whatever that thing is you want to do. The Black Panthers were only trying to exercise their rights and carrying a gun was perfectly legal.
Kristin Mafrice
6th hour
I think that the black Panthers needed guns to enforce their views, because people REALLY didn't want to hear what they had to say...the whites(some of them) back then really didn't want to hear what these people had to say. They really didn't care what they wanted, and if they got total freedom or anything. They just didn't care, this kept them in the public eye also, so they could get more supporters because the people were scared what they were going to do with those such guns. So i think they used it mostly for enforcement of their believes, and incase they needed to use them to threaten those that would take farther action to stop them from protesting.
Alexandra Stender
5th hour
I think that the reason the black panthers needed guns was for back up. Even though they were trying to promote non-violionce they needed a back up incase that didnt work. Just because they would back down from a violence doesnt mean the police would also. They needed those guns for protection. They also needed guns because they wanted to scare off people not in the protest from coming in and creating a violent scene.
Eric Jefferson
6/1/07
5th hr
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