The Black Panther Party (BPP) was a political organization that was founded with similar goals as the NAACP. These goals were structured around fighting racial inequality. Founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seal in Oakland, CA in 1966, the BPP's militant beliefs were structured after those of Malcom X, Che Guevara, Mao Tse-Tung, and Ho Chi Minh^1. The BPP held beliefs which included using violence against violence, brandishing firearms in public, and confronting police officers in the streets.^2 However, in addition to these aggressive tactics, the BPP was known to be very involved in their local communities providing many free services to the impoverished in the inner-city. Some of these services included: “free breakfast, medical and dental clinics, freedom schools, free clothing, free shoes, free transportation to prisons, screening for high blood pressure and sickle cell anemia, and day-care centers”^1. Since the start of the movement, the party was viewed in negative light by the federal government, especially the FBI; with J. Edgar Hoover referring to the BPP as the "greatest threat to the internal security of the country." With that being said, no candidate ever won public office running with the BPP, so I would not compare the organization to the democratic party, but rather the NAACP due to their grassroots structure and community involvement.

Sources:

Haas, Jeffrey. The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther. Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill /Chicago Review, 2010. Print.

Painter, Nell Irvin. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.