Yep it was created by two white guys jumping on the blaxploitation wave, just like most black heroes like Luke Cage, Jon Stewart, and the like.
What you see popularized about Black Panther today was created by the two FBAs, the world by Priest and the action impact by Reggie Hudlin. They are the ones who truly integrated and set Black Panther apart and Wakanda as apart in the Marvel universe. They made the character popular enough where it would even be sensible to bring them into a movie.
That said I believe Priest was part of Milestone with McDuffie, where they co created Static and other Milestone heroes. That said McDuffie and Priest have very different political and spiritual beliefs, which sort of helped them make comics that weren't diehard liberal, they balanced each other. Unfortunately they contracted DC with right of first refusal for all non-comic offerings and DC made sure to keep them contained.