Os '''Panteras brancas''' (''White Panthers'', en inglés) é unha organización política estadounidense fundada en 1968 por Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon e John e Leni Sinclair.

Nace como resposta a unhas declaracións do co-fundador das Panteras Negras Huey P. Newton, cando durante unha entrevista se lle preguntou se os brancos poderían formar parte da súa organización. A resposta foi que se cadra debían fundar un Partido da Pantera Branca. Inspirados por esas palabras, e polo exemplo dado pola organización afroamericana, varias persoas decidiron fundar as Panteras Brancas e dedicarse á revolución cultural e a "loitar por un planeta máis limpo e pola liberación dos prisioneiros políticos".
O seu ideario baseouse nun manifesto similar aos dez puntos dos Panteras Negras.
    
*Absoluta adhesión e apoio ao programa dos dez puntos dos Panteras Negras; 
*Asalto total á cultura en calquera sentido, incluíndo rock'n roll, maría e foder nas rúas.
*Libre intercambio de enerxía e materiais-reclamamos a fin do diñeiro!; 
*Que sexan de balde a comida, a roupa, a maría, a música, os corpos, a atención médica - todo de balde para todo o mundo!; 
*Libre acceso aos medios de comunicación - tecnoloxía gratis por parte dos bichos avarentos!
*Tempo e espazo libres para todos os seres humanos - acabar con todos os límites antinaturais; 
*Liberar todas as escolas e todas as estruturas das directrices; darlle a volta aos edificios sobre a xente dunha vez!
*Liberar todos os presos en calquera lugar - son os nosos irmáns. 
*Liberar todos os soldados dunha vez - que non se recruten máis exércitos; 
*Liberar toda a xente dos seus "líderes" - os líderes apestan - todo o poder para toda a xente, liberdade significa que todos e cada un sexamos libres.

'''The White Panthers''' were a white-American political John Sinclair. It was started in response to an interview where Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, was asked what white people could do to support the Black Panthers. Newton replied that they could form a White Panther Party. Thus, the group took its name in emulation of the Black Panthers, and dedicated its energies to "cultural revolution." Sinclair made every effort to ensure that the White Panthers were not mistaken for a white supremacist group, responding to such claims with "quite the contrary."

== Michigan years ==
The group was most active in marijuana, something that ultimately cost Sinclair his freedom after several arrests for possession. It also aligned itself with radical politics; for example explaining the 12th Street Riot as justifiable under current political and economic conditions in Detroit. 
 
Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon was indicted as a co-conspirator with Sinclair in connection with the bombing of the CIA office in Ann Arbor a year after the founding of the group. Upon hearing, on the left-wing alternative radio station WABX, that he had been indicted, he fled the U.S. for Europe and Africa, spending time in Algeria with the self-exiled Huey Newton. After secretly reentering the country, and on his way to a safe house in northern Michigan, he was arrested in a routine traffic stop, thus joining Sinclair in prison, who had been sentenced to nine and half years in jail for serially violating Michigan’s marijuana possession laws. Plamondon was convicted and was in prison when Sinclair was released on bond in 1971 while appeals were being heard on his case. Sinclair's unexpected release came two days after a large "Free John" benefit concert held at the University of Michigan's Crisler Arena headlined by John Lennon and Yoko Ono as well as Stevie Wonder.

== Legal reforms ==

The group had a direct role in two important legal decisions. A landmark U.S. vs. U.S. District Court (Plamondon et al), [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=407&invol=297 407 U.S. 297], commonly known as the Bush Administration’s NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. The judgment freed Plamondon, yet Sinclair was free only on bond fighting his possession conviction when in 1972 the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in the ''People v. Sinclair'', 387 Mich. 91, 194 N.W.2d 878 (1972) that Michigan’s classification of marijuana was unconstitutional, in effect decriminalizing possession until a new law conforming to the ruling was passed by the Michigan Legislature a week later. Sinclair was freed but the cumulative effects of the imprisonment had marked the end of the White Panther Party in Michigan, which renamed itself while its leaders were still incarcerated, ultimately choosing the Rainbow People's Party as a new name.

== Related groups ==
 
The headquarters of the White Panthers in Portland, Oregon were raided by the FBI on December 5, 1970. Two members of the group were arrested and accused of throwing a molotov cocktail through the window of a local Selective Service office.  

White Panthers chapters in San Francisco and Berkeley remained active into the 1980s [http://berkeleyinthe70s.homestead.com/files/W-JUNE80.htm]. In 1984, angry because then-Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein proposed to ban handguns in the city, the San Francisco White Panthers mounted a successful petition drive that forced Feinstein into a recall election, which she won.

Author and anarchist Mick Farren, a leader of the United Kingdom Underground, later founded the White Panthers, UK.