Overall I’d say they didn’t achieve what they wanted. Still, The Milford Act shows the crazy shit Republicans will do to keep guns out the hands of black folk. Which amuses me.
Mulford act! God damn phone autoincorrect!
As a community organization, the Black Panther Party implemented a variety of social programs that were entirely positive: free breakfasts for children, free health clinics, etc. As an organization dedicated to raising awareness, the BPP helped bring to public consciousness the issues of police brutality and unequal treatment within the criminal justice system. Sadly, these issues are still with us and in some ways have become much worse.
The use of armed individuals as a self-defense force was quite a brilliant (and intentionally provocative) strategy. They used the legal right to carry weapons to their advantage. Although personally I am a tremendous proponent of gun control, I do entirely understand the BPP’s motivations for arming themselves in the context of the 1960s (the conflicts within the civil rights movement, liberation struggles throughout the world, the revolutionary fervor of the day, the very real sense of disempowerment and oppression within the black community, etc.). Some individuals within the party were more extreme than others, undoubtedly, and I can’t condone the use of violence. However, I definitely sympathize with the underlying motivations that inspired the founding of the BPP.
The FBI behaved atrociously in its attempts to destroy the BPP, including but not limited to the assassination of Fred Hampton.