Evaluating the Black Panthers

• Opposition from the police & Nixon's administration & their own internal division dramatically decreased Black Panther influence & dynamism by the early 1970's
• Caught the popular imagination because they attracted so much media attention- suggested that they were little more than a temporary media phenomenon
• Although whites usually reviled them- Black Panthers were popular in the Black community- polls indicated that a majority of black Americans sympathised with the Black Panthers & black nationalism
• Approval Rating- NAACP among the black population dropped from 80%-1963- 20%-1969
• Black Panthers popularity was due to highly practical help offered in the ghetto programmes & to the assertiveness that demo started & aroused black pride