The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally formed under the name Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was cofounded on October 15, 1966, in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton (1942–1989) and Bobby Seale (b. 1936); the two had been classmates at Merritt College. The BPP grew from the Black power movement and focused on protecting and improving the lot of urban Black communities. Emphasizing their role in community self-defense, members of the Panthers would patrol the streets carrying rifles and would often shadow and follow police vehicles to discourage acts of abuse—a system they dubbed cop watching.