24  Souls Winter 2004 Souls 6 (1): 24–41, 2004 / Copyright © 2004 The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York / 1099-9949/02 / DOI:10.1080/10999940490486585 I Organizing Against Criminal Injustice Contributions of the Black Panther Party Heather Schoenfeld Souls Collateral Consequences n October of 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale organized the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as an organization to advocate Black Power. According to Philip Foner, shortly thereafter, hundreds of Black youth self-identified as Black Panthers. 1 By 1968, Eldridge Cleaver took the helm, after Newton’s incarceration, and established a dozen new Party chapters across the nation. 2 A national poll conducted in 1970 found that 43 percent of Black respondents under the age of twenty felt that the Black Panther Party represented their own views. 3 In another survey conducted in 1970, urban Black Ameri- cans rated the Panthers the only Black group that would increase its effectiveness in the future, while the effectiveness of the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was expected to diminish. That same poll reported that 62 percent of Black respondents admired the Black Panthers. 4 Using frame theory developed by social scientists to study social movement organiza- tions (SMOs), I investigate why the Black Panther Party succeeded in mobilizing Black urban youth. 5 The Black Panther Party’s (hereafter “the Party”) collective action frames, evident in the Party’s vision and tactics, resonated with the lives of Black youth. 6 In addition, the mobilization campaign targeted Black youth living under similar socioeco- nomic conditions as Party leaders. I present this argument in six sections. First, I discuss the social movement theory that serves as a basis for this contention. Drawing upon and adding to the theories of framing, I argue that if a social movement organization’s collec- tive action frames resonate with its targets of mobilization, these potential followers are more likely to believe in the efficacy of collective action. Second, I reference the Pan- thers’ written and verbal accounts of their experiences to describe the common experi- ences of Black youth and illustrate the frame resonance of the Party. Third, I demonstrate how the Party’s leadership, through the example of Huey Newton, grew up in the same socioeconomic position as targeted Black youth and drew from their collective experi- ences in developing the Party’s vision. Fourth, I explain how the Party’s political and tactical activities informed its collective action frames. Fifth, using theory discussed in