Students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland, California, in 1966; the group later shortened its name to the Black Panther Party. The two men adopted Malcolm X’s slogan “Freedom by any means necessary.” The Black Panthers also drew inspiration from Stokely Carmichael, a Black nationalist leader. He coined the phrase “Black Power,” which became the group’s rallying cry, and in 1965 he founded a political party that had a black panther as its emblem. The Black Panthers later adopted that image.
