The Black Panther Party, or BPP, was a black revolutionary socialist organization active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. Internationally known through its involvement with the Black Power movement, the group was founded in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, at first offering to protect black neighborhoods from police brutality, espousing socialist and Marxist doctrines. At FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s command the party was under constant surveillance by the time membership reached a peak of 10,000 in 1969, beginning to contract soon after due to ongoing legal troubles, internal splits, defections, and incarceration.

The Black Panthers Archive at Cornell University contains a collection of Black Panthers ephemera and publications, including issues of the periodicals The Black Panthers, Liberated Guardian, Open City, the Black Panther community newsletter; pamphlets by Huey Newton and Kim Il Sung; cover proofs, posters, handbills and flyers pertaining to figures such as Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver.