last_angry_man
21st February 2008, 00:48
The Black Panther Party in the news
Just by coincidence, I have learned more about the history of the Black Panther Party in the last few months than in the preceding thirty years.
While enjoying some time off around the holidays, I stumbled across an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles celebrating the art of Emory Douglas. Mr. Douglas was the primary artist behind the vast majority of the posters, cartoons and other artwork that was published in the Black Panther Party newspaper and elsewhere. A real adventure in time travel for anyone old enough to have enjoyed this stuff the first time around, and a total mind-fuck to anyone younger. The twenty-somethings at the gallery (the MOCA outpost at the Pacific Design center) couldn’t believe that the Panthers regularly published a newspaper calling for armed struggle against America. And not in some far away, conceptual terms: they advocated direct confrontation with the local police departments in Oakland, SF, LA and elsewhere and the infamous “Off the Pig” series of posters is almost unbelievable to anyone living in the post 911 world where dissent can get you jailed without trial.
Then the Roy and Edna Disney / Cal Arts Theatre (REDCAT) located in the Disney Concert Hall in downtown, LA presented a three night film series about the Black Panthers. Each night, a few films were shown and then a discussion was held featuring former members of the Party. I was lucky enough to attend two of the three nights, and it was there that I learned about the ongoing struggle of the San Francisco 8.
The SF8 are former Panthers who are being persecuted by former FBI agents who have been dragged out of retirement so the Homeland Security folks can figure out how to spend all of that money allocated to protecting us from “evil-doers.” The best they could come up with was to prosecute (and persecute) and bunch of nice old men who were acquitted the first time around in the early 70s. I guess the “anti-terror” folks think that Bush would just do away with whatever “Bill of Rights” protections that would otherwise stop the FBI from railroading innocent men. Fortunately, the Feds have only been able to make life miserable for these former Panthers, but without any likelihood of convicting anyone. But this case requires ongoing scrutiny.
Finally, while browsing through the LA outlet of Amoeba Records, I came across their “Blacksploitation” film section and found two amazing DVDs. (both are documentaries, so they really shouldn't be located in the same section as "Blacula!") One, “The Murder of Fred Hampton” should be required viewing by every high school student in America. It details the murder of the leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party by a Chicago Police hit squad. While the Chicago District Attorney stood behind the cops in spite of clear evidence of a planned assassination, the courts eventually sided with the victims and awarded them a sizeable settlement. In the current climate, I doubt the victims would stand a chance in the rigged courts of America in 2008.
The second DVD is a four disc collection from the News Reel folks – a sort of hippie CNN that worked as an alternate media source back in the late 60s / 70s. The collection includes several short films on the Panthers, more recent interviews with surviving members, films of recent reunions and most interestingly, several hundred pages of FBI documents related to the COINTELPRO program of criminal repression of the Panthers (and other activist groups) that were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. There is enough included in these 4 discs to keep you busy for at least two or three nights of viewing.
I believe that the MOCA exhibit closes this week, while the REDCAT film series took place back in January. But the two DVDs I described are currently available online and I can’t recommend them highly enough – both for fellow veterans of the struggle as well as any youngsters who want to learn what it was really like back then.
Just by coincidence, I have learned more about the history of the Black Panther Party in the last few months than in the preceding thirty years.
While enjoying some time off around the holidays, I stumbled across an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles celebrating the art of Emory Douglas. Mr. Douglas was the primary artist behind the vast majority of the posters, cartoons and other artwork that was published in the Black Panther Party newspaper and elsewhere. A real adventure in time travel for anyone old enough to have enjoyed this stuff the first time around, and a total mind-fuck to anyone younger. The twenty-somethings at the gallery (the MOCA outpost at the Pacific Design center) couldn’t believe that the Panthers regularly published a newspaper calling for armed struggle against America. And not in some far away, conceptual terms: they advocated direct confrontation with the local police departments in Oakland, SF, LA and elsewhere and the infamous “Off the Pig” series of posters is almost unbelievable to anyone living in the post 911 world where dissent can get you jailed without trial.
Then the Roy and Edna Disney / Cal Arts Theatre (REDCAT) located in the Disney Concert Hall in downtown, LA presented a three night film series about the Black Panthers. Each night, a few films were shown and then a discussion was held featuring former members of the Party. I was lucky enough to attend two of the three nights, and it was there that I learned about the ongoing struggle of the San Francisco 8.
The SF8 are former Panthers who are being persecuted by former FBI agents who have been dragged out of retirement so the Homeland Security folks can figure out how to spend all of that money allocated to protecting us from “evil-doers.” The best they could come up with was to prosecute (and persecute) and bunch of nice old men who were acquitted the first time around in the early 70s. I guess the “anti-terror” folks think that Bush would just do away with whatever “Bill of Rights” protections that would otherwise stop the FBI from railroading innocent men. Fortunately, the Feds have only been able to make life miserable for these former Panthers, but without any likelihood of convicting anyone. But this case requires ongoing scrutiny.
Finally, while browsing through the LA outlet of Amoeba Records, I came across their “Blacksploitation” film section and found two amazing DVDs. (both are documentaries, so they really shouldn't be located in the same section as "Blacula!") One, “The Murder of Fred Hampton” should be required viewing by every high school student in America. It details the murder of the leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party by a Chicago Police hit squad. While the Chicago District Attorney stood behind the cops in spite of clear evidence of a planned assassination, the courts eventually sided with the victims and awarded them a sizeable settlement. In the current climate, I doubt the victims would stand a chance in the rigged courts of America in 2008.
The second DVD is a four disc collection from the News Reel folks – a sort of hippie CNN that worked as an alternate media source back in the late 60s / 70s. The collection includes several short films on the Panthers, more recent interviews with surviving members, films of recent reunions and most interestingly, several hundred pages of FBI documents related to the COINTELPRO program of criminal repression of the Panthers (and other activist groups) that were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. There is enough included in these 4 discs to keep you busy for at least two or three nights of viewing.
I believe that the MOCA exhibit closes this week, while the REDCAT film series took place back in January. But the two DVDs I described are currently available online and I can’t recommend them highly enough – both for fellow veterans of the struggle as well as any youngsters who want to learn what it was really like back then.