About

What this is.
What it isn't.

blackpanther.party is a free set of tools for anyone who needs protection and a voice: scripts for knowing your rights in the moment, letters that put a demand in writing, and posters that fill a room. It runs entirely in your browser. There are no accounts, no tracking, no ads, and no server that sees what you type.

Why this name

The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded in Oakland in October 1966. It is remembered for the leather jackets and the guns, but most of its energy went into what it called survival programs: a free breakfast that fed thousands of children every school morning, free medical clinics, sickle cell screening, free legal aid, free busing to prisons, a free ambulance service, and a newspaper that at its peak reached more than a hundred thousand readers a week. Its first program was watching the police with a law book in hand and teaching neighbors what the law actually said.

The through-line was simple: find what people need to survive and hand it to them, free, today, with dignity. That is what this site tries to do with the tools of 2026. Know it. Write it. Post it.

What this site is not

This site is an independent educational project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any political party, organization, or group, past or present, including any group that uses the Panther name today. It does not ask for money, collect names, or organize anything. It is a toolbox.

It is for everyone. Black, brown, white, immigrant, citizen, renter, worker, student, parent, protester, bystander. Rights that only some people can use are not rights.

Disclaimer

Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship with anyone. Witness contains general information about rights that apply across the United States, drawn from public guidance. Speak produces template letters based on federal statutes and legal doctrines shared by nearly every state. Laws differ by state and change over time; points that vary are flagged, and it is your responsibility to check them for where you live. If you are in trouble, talk to a lawyer. Free legal aid is available in every state: call 211 or visit lawhelp.org.

Press is a design tool. What you print is your responsibility. Please don't use it to say things about people that aren't true.

Privacy

Everything runs in your browser. Letter drafts, poster designs, and trusted contacts are stored only on your device, using your browser's local storage, and you can clear them at any time from the page. Audio recordings in Witness stay on your device until you choose to save or share them. The "text my location" button opens your own messaging app; nothing is sent through this site. This site sets no cookies and uses no analytics. The only outside request it makes is to load fonts from Google Fonts; if you block that, the site still works.

Sources

Witness scripts are drawn from public know-your-rights guidance published by:

Speak letters cite the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq.), the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. § 552), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq.), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.), the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the No Surprises Act, and the implied warranty of habitability as recognized in the case law of nearly every state. Statutes are linked from Cornell's Legal Information Institute.

History: Bloom and Martin, Black against Empire (2013); Nelson, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination (2011); the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation.

Copy it

Everything here is free to copy, translate, adapt, and host. A tenant union, a church, a school club, or a mutual aid group can take the whole site, add local numbers and templates, and put it on a five-dollar hosting plan. If you translate a wallet card, send it back so others can use it.

All power to all the people.