Amid backlash, National Park Service yanks $98,000 grant for Black Panther Party legacy project

A month after announcing its plans to greenlight $98,000 in federal funds for a project by a UC Berkeley professor documenting the Black Panther Party’s legacy, the National Park Service has pulled the plug amid a fierce backlash by conservatives who decried the history of what they labeled “a violent extremist group.”

At the time, the park service said the project would “memorialize a history that brought meaning to lives far beyond the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Then, critics got wind of it. Conservative news outlets said it was outrageous for the feds to give taxpayer money to honor the Black Panther’s legacy.  The Fraternal Order of Police fired off a letter dated Oct. 19 to President Donald Trump, expressing that organization’s “outrage and shock.”

Amid the criticism, the National Park Service has changed course.