By the late 1970's, Huey Newton had become heavily involved in hard drugs and Bobby Seale decided to resign his involvement in the party due to "mental, physical and emotional exhaustion". Lacking any sort of strong leadership in the organization, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense inevitably disbanded in 1982. Despite the fact that the Black Panthers are no longer in existence, many groups have tried to pick up where they left off. While none of these groups have the same radical and violent beliefs that the Black Panthers had, they relentlessly fight for a similar cause.
The Collective Black People Movement (CBPM) seeks to "gather, document, and organize the Skills, Talents and Intelligence (Education) of Black (African) People for the purpose of self-help and collective development." The CBPM also acts as a network amongst individual black communities as well as between black communities. Their work leads to employment, education, and financial assistance for black people across the United States as well as worldwide.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is arguably the largest African-American organization in the United States or possibly the western hemisphere. Despite being founded in 1909, more than half a century before the founding of the Black Panthers, it has had large success as a black liberation group. Its founders include W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells. It is involved in a variety of modern issues including civic engagement, media diversity, health provision, education and economic opportunities, all geared toward improving the quality of life for African-Americans.
The National Urban League strives to improve the lives of the American urban populous, especially African-Americans who have poor qualities of life in the urban ghettos. They improve inner-city residences by providing quality education, healthy communities jobs and other economic opportunities. The National Urban League has been recognized for their work with urban youth and the unemployed.