Tuesday, February 16, 2016

A Conversation with 'Black Panthers' Director Stanley Nelson

 
Fifty years ago, a group set out to attain equality in education, housing, employment and civil rights, the Black Panther Party.

Beyoncé's epic half-time performance of her new single "Formation," paid a visual homage to the Black Panthers, showing us their legacy is far from forgotten. Her dancers dressed in all-black leather while sporting Panther inspired berets. They raised their fists into the air, holding them up emblematic of the "Power Fist" used by the Black Panthers as a sign of solidarity and support.

Despite this recent tribute, the Black Panther party is remembered differently throughout history. The party which was once regarded as, "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country" by former FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, was one of the most influential civil rights groups of its era.

The Black Panther Party is the focus of a documentary directed by Stanley Nelson which recaps the party's history and sheds light on the issue of racial discrimination and misuse of police surveillance that still remains relevant today.
 
NBCBLK spoke with the director of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Stanley Nelson, and former member of the Black Panther party, Jamal Joseph, about the influence of the Black Panthers on the Black Lives Matter movement, the relevance of police brutality and misuse of surveillance almost half a century after the birth of the Panther party. 

Click here for the full article.

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