BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY:
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY'S IMPACT ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
DOWNFALL OF THE PARTY
The FBI and police were frequently attacking the party's rank and file; their actions were often justified by claims that the Panthers had attacked police officers or other made-up allegations.
One of the most prominent incidents was the 1969 police raid on the BPP headquarters that killed two men. One of them was Chicago area BPP President Fred Hampton. The death of Fred Hampton officially marked the downfall of the Party.
“Chicago police remove the body of Fred Hampton, leader of the Illinois Black Panther Party, who was slain in a gun battle with police on Chicago’s West Side on Dec. 4, 1969.”
[Source: Washington Post]
Attacks on the party, as well as internal disintegration and conflicts, contributed to the party's demise by the early 1980s.
By seeing the party being ripped apart by forces both internally and internationally, its leadership was completely eradicated. The remainder of the Panthers were either forced to flee the country or tracked down and assassinated.
"The top reads "You can jail a revolutionary but you can't jail the revolution. You can run a freedom fighter around the country but you can't run freedom fighting around the country. You can murder a liberator, but you can't murder liberation." The second quote reads "Fred Hampton Deputy Chairman Illinois Chapter Black Panther Party. Born August 30, 1948 Murdered by Fascist Pigs Dec. 4, 1969."
[Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture]