Key moment: Black Panther Party leaders organized a rally June 19, 1970, in Washington, D.C., to call for supporters to join the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention later that year – to “unite the struggles of black liberation, independence for Puerto Rico, students” women and others behind a common program.
Historical significance: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale created the revolutionary Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966 to battle oppression and police brutality. Its strategies, captured in iconic photos of Black men willing to take up arms as protection, ran counter to methods championed by traditional civil rights activists. The Black Panther Party, as it later became known, offered social reforms such as free breakfast programs, conducted voter registration drives and advocated for prison reform. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress)