Black Women & The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program (1969 – 1980)

Introduction

Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1966 in Oakland, California. Developed in response to the prevalence of police brutality in their communities, the BPP focused on the liberation and self-defense of Black people. ¹

Newton and Seale published the BPP’s Ten-Point Program on May 15, 1967, in the second issue of The Black Panther (the BPP’s weekly newspaper). While the Party is often remembered for their push for armed self-defense, Point 10 reads, “we want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.” ² 

The BPP understood that “self-defense” and liberation was more than just armed resistance, it required ensuring that the basic needs of the Black community were fulfilled. The American government failed to provide the Black community with adequate health care, education, and access to food. The Panthers particularly “recognized hunger as one of the greatest forms of oppression,” as the Black community’s relationship to food is heavily intertwined with racial trauma and structural racism.

In the wake of the state neglecting the Black community, the Black Panthers created a series of community-based “survival programs,” including health clinics, legal aid, and, notably, the Free Breakfast for School Children program.  The first Free Breakfast Program began in Oakland and spread to BPP chapters nationwide, serving 15,000 to 30,000 children daily. The program, which relied on volunteers and donations, helped hungry Black children better focus in school and, eventually, became an educational space itself. The BPP created “liberation schools,” opportunities for children to learn about the Ten-Point Program, structural inequity, and famous Communist revolutionaries. The political nature of the program was highly intentional, as the Panthers believed food itself was political, and their survival programs could be a gateway to Black consciousness and revolution. 

Images

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Analysis

The photos above capture numerous scenes from Free Breakfast Programs across the nation. In addition to the countless children being served in these photos, a noteworthy detail is that many of the volunteers seen cooking and supplying food are women. Despite the number of primary sources that document the contributions of women to the program, secondary literature on the BPP’s survival programs rarely reflects on the theme of gender. 

It can be argued that the Breakfast Program worked to reinforce stereotypes about Black women and perpetuate sexist ideology. 

In a statement to the press, published on April 27, 1969, in The Black Panther Black Community News Service, The Black Panther Party asked for donations of food, kitchen supplies, and money to support the Des Moines breakfast program (see second to last image). 

Point 2 of the statement explicitly asks for “sisters and mothers… to help prepare food and serve the children.” By only asking for female volunteers, the statement perpetuates gender roles that designate (Black) women to the domestic sphere and performing heavy labor there. 

The BPP also held particular beliefs on family structure and motherhood; they believed in the notion of “revolutionary motherhood,” which stated it was the (Black) woman’s responsibility to have children who would then continue the revolution. Thus, some female members became mothers specifically for the cause of the BPP and not out of personal desire. The recruitment of mothers for the breakfast program reinforces this concept and effectively merges Black motherhood with/equates it to political labor. 

An alternative argument, however, is that the Free Breakfast Program provided a unique opportunity for women to engage with and lead radical Black liberation efforts. 

The BPP established that leadership roles and rankings of members were assigned based on merit, not gender. Kathleen Cleaver was the first woman on the Party’s Central Committee; Elaine Brown was chairman of the organization from 1974 to 1977; Andrea Jones and Shirley George-Meadors founded the Boston and San Diego branches of the BPP, respectively.

The BPP allowed for Black women to hold leadership roles in a time where they were often suppressed. As former Panther Safiya Bukhari noted, “In a time when the other nationalist organizations were defining the role of the women as barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen, women in the Black Panther Party were working right along side the men, being assigned sections to organize just like the men, receiving the same training as the men.” 

Bukhari began her involvement with the BPP by volunteering with the Free Breakfast Program (initially as part of a sorority project). Each morning at 5:00 with her young daughter in tow, Bukhari helped cook and serve food and aided the children with homework. As she continued her work with the Program, she discovered that the police were spreading rumors to parents saying the BPP was serving their children poisoned food. Bukhari then increased her political awareness and engagement with the Party. By 1970, she was a full-time Panther, establishing a Liberation School and working with mothers on welfare in her community.

The Free Breakfast Program was a partial catalyst for Bukhari’s career as a Black political organizer. Though sexist rhetoric and ideology were certainly present within the BPP and the Breakfast Program, the labor Bukhari and other women performed was still empowering, essential to liberating the Black community, and increased their engagement with radical Black politics. 

To say that the Breakfast Program only perpetuated gender roles and male chauvinism is to undermine the intensive labor the women performed — labor which they actively chose to do.  Without the work of female Panthers, many children may have remained hungry, and the BPP’s message may not have reached as many community members.