How the Black Panthers’ Breakfast Program Both Inspired and Threatened the Government

Free breakfast for school children was one of the Black Panthers’ most far-sighted and effective programs.

Moorbey'z Blog

BY ERIN BLAKEMORE

A teacher and his at a Black Panther liberation school. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

In 1969, a group of children sat down to a free breakfast before school. On the menu: chocolate milk, eggs, meat, cereal and fresh oranges. The scene wouldn’t be out of place in a school cafeteria these days—but the federal government wasn’t providing the food. Instead, breakfast was served thanks to the Black Panther Party.

At the time, the militant black nationalist party was vilified in the news media and feared by those intimidated by its message of black power and its commitment to ending police brutality and the subjugation of black Americans. But for students eating breakfast, the Black Panthers’ politics were less interesting than the meals they were providing.

“The children, many of whom had never eaten breakfast before the Panthers started their program,” the Sun Reporterwrote, “think the Panthers…

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