Introduction The Black Panthers was an African American movement that was started in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland California. The movement was later known as the Black Power because it championed the interests of the Black Americans. The Black Power joined the political arena as The Black Panther Party where they expanded their objectives and philosophies to protect and fight for the rights of the Black Americans, who were under the oppression and discrimination of the United States government in the 1960s and 1970s. The Black Panthers Party grew and became a powerful organization of the Black Americans earning both local and international recognition in its anti-racism struggles and permeation into social, cultural, military, and political aspects of the United States government as they shaped the future of the Black Americans. This paper is going to examine racial identity and the historical experiences of the Black Panthers in the United States. The Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party was a party for self-defense. Baggins states that ‘the Panthers practiced militant self-defense of minority communities against the United States government, and fought to establish revolutionary socialism through mass organizing and community-based programs’” (1). The Black Panther Party was against capitalism and sought to mobilize the Black Americans in the fight against oppression and discrimination by Whites due to the capitalism ideology. The party was a unique ethnic organization in the United States because of its use of the military as self-defense in the anti-racism struggles. The objective of the Black Panther Party was “the evolutionary establishment of the real economic, social and political equality across gender and color lines” (Baggins 1). To meet their objective, the Black Panthers party formulated a ten-point program. Ten Point Program In the fight for their rights and emancipation of the Black Americans, Huey Newton led the Black Panthers in the formulation of the ten-point program. After formulating the ten-point program, he protested that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Baggins 2). The Black Panthers gave the ultimatum to the United States government to meet their ten-point demands or the Black Americans fight for them. The ten-point program is a list of ten demands of the Black Panthers Party. The first demand was “we want freedom, we want the power to determine the destiny of our Black community” (Baggins 2). The Black Americans had been under oppression and discrimination of the White Americans in the government hence they sought emancipation and political power to rule and decide their future. Other demands were employment, slavery compensation, decent housing, historical identity, justice, and peace amongst other demands. The Black Panther Theory To fight effectively for their rights, the Black Panthers Party used the Marxism theory of dialectic materialism. According to Courtney, “the Panther educational kit declares: we must teach party members to apply the Marxist-Leninist method” (1). They employed Marxist tactics and philosophies in making sure that the Black Americans establish a socialist state by overthrowing the capitalist and racist rule of the White Americans. The Panth