Take part in this Amazing Group of people we have here. Professor at this teach about things the black power mixtape. Have such an Amazing Group of powerhouse folks here, dont you think . [applause] i would also like to thank you as our audience. It means you recognize and support this ongoing work and the commitment of these cultural warriors we have in our midst, and we are continuing in the ,truggle for human rights equality, and freedom of speech. So the struggle continues. I would like to frame the conversation we will have around this issue. We have a lot of young people in the audience. What ise relate presented in the book and the film . That weth this in mind would like to emphasize the impact of this film and the book. ,ere we are at the new school an institute of higher education, and we are all educators in one way or the other. Generations34 this this film documented period. We are excited and overwhelmed it is possible to have this here today. Question to our panelists is what was the impetus for you to put yourselves on the front line in this struggle . Brian, you were a little younger. You can tell us last. But kathleen and danny, i would like to hear what you thought your initial impetus was. In reality, the impetus in my case, i had been wanting to join for a long time, but by the time joined ano it, i organization that was in the process of getting committed to black power i was and i met people involved with the black Panther Party and ended up november california in afterwhich was 45 weeks healy newton was in an altercation and wound up in prison charged with murder, a policeman dead, and he was facing the gas chamber. The leader of the black panther said it is more hueysant to save yo life. Huey out. E have to get the impetus was a man who had started a revolutionary movement was facing the gas chamber, so we said lets do it. Lets free huey. Didnt have to go anywhere. I was born and raised in San Francisco, and i remember specifically the number of 1966, and i had been attending the ,lack Panther Party of america and i had been attending their meetings that summer and there was a storefront in my community. About tome time, i was go back to school, so i was spending time at San Francisco state as well. There was this large influx of in otheromen involved groups who mitch regulated to San Francisco. Sanchez. Ke sonia son those are the kind of things that happened. Connection because ande were former members hadblack Student Union gained control of the associated 1967. T budget by spring were starting a communications project. Once the block party took action after bobby hutton death and hueys arrest, the whole area was on fire. Everything was drawn to that right there. We begin to develop a relationship with the black it has party, and if not been for that radicalizations, we might not have gone on strike in , we might not have gone on strike. Was ourhe party that biggest supporter during that strike that brought in other people. Educationd political classes together, so as the party was going through an intense period, at the same time we were mutually supportive of had other come because it become a mass strike, and also supporting the party and do whatever we could do. Actually you had quite a few students who were panthers in the bsu. That is the other thing. , we were not radical enough. Some of us joined the black Panther Party. Amazing. Wow. Brian . As a toddler, i was deeply committed to black power. [laughter] it was inborn. Obviously i was a toddler. , i amistening to you talk struck by the enthusiasm and energy you have for these moments now, still, and i think there is something about this for and book that raises new generation that has not yet tasted what it feels like to collective power. You are clapping because we should walk around thinking that, but we dont, and that is why i am excited to be sitting do anything i can for myself and others to teach about this movement to go back to the questions that were ,aised, this question of power can we do things and change things . I watched this film with my father, who was not involved in he had nont, but personal connection to any of the people you are describing, but this film he turned to me and said, you know what, brian, these people kicked in the doors that i walked through. Humanized people and he was over and over again struck by their intelligence, charisma, that they were saying things that made so much sense. Why they want to bury the black power tradition and are still after the black power militants and why the history of ringing this back to life is important, still matters, and is a dangerous. So made things happened in oakland and San Francisco at the time. I met hank johnson 1966 when we were going to meetings in the fillmore and they were trying to put some sort of stopgap on redevelopment, removal from their homes, but i met hank there and other people who were part of the black Panther Party, and the way in which was so amazing, and this comes from all , their organizing capacity. The bsuwhat happened to was our organizing ability. Those elements that came to the wasy were part of what happening at an incredible moment, and is sent San Francisco state was a teaching tenlege, it had tend to Tutorial Centers around the city , and we always said, how do we use that as a platform for mobilizing the Community Around education. You guys have party answered my next question, but i always have more. I want to touch on something howd did say, and that is ofonly got to see one side the movement in terms of what the media allowed us to see, right . This film does a totally different thing, takes us inside to humanize the people who were that isit, and something we dont give to see too often and something this film does extremely well. With that in mind, i would like to show clip number one, if we could roll clip one, please . [video clip] singing abouts this for the fbi, but it is just song and words. A few years ago i was listening to Stokley Carmichaels speeches , and it was shortly after 9 11 in america and i was making a reservation with Jetblue Airlines to fly to california. The airport, the fbi, cia, and tsa intercepted me and took me in a back room and started questioning me about this Stokley Carmichael speech i was listening to. They were very concerned with me listening to the stokley 1967, sol speech from 40 years ago. We have wrapped talking about shooting other people, but the fbi is not looking for them. They are looking for me because i am listening to this speech from 40 years ago. The fbi is still scared of this man. He doesnt have the influence he had then. [end clip] so, i was saving that for later. That was the clip i wanted to show, because i knew you would respond like you did, but it still plays to the point you were making about why this is still so dangerous in the movement is considered so dangerous. Saying how the fbi stopped him at the airport because hes listening to a Stokley Carmichael speech from 1967. What is that saying about where we are today and where can we go from here . I think they went to Great Lengths to put that jeannie back in the bottle. Brought them whenever they could into the party, and for the rest it was punishment and mass incarceration, and that continued. Think that they had to put down the black radical movement in part because it inspired so many other movements and parts of what was happening in america trying to model themselves on the panthers and people like Stokley Carmichael. They went to all that expense, length, and involvement to make that happen, and now they cant just roll that back and say, sorry. We should not have those people in prison. The Media Coverage at the time of Stokley Carmichaels activity in the black power era was extraordinarily twisted and they tried to make him seem all , expose arrests, talk about him like a dog. He shoulderson said be the subject of retroactive control. They try to demonize and tried to isolate the information fromould get rom stokely or any of us but in sweden it was quite different. Cameramencurious and could go anywhere and talk to anyone they wanted. Sweden had a different policy about covering america. The u. S. Not follow abuse of itself or the vietnam war. They also taught or you could read in their media stories about what they called the other america. This is about the Civil Rights Movement, the black Power Movement, and this wasnt about fear. It was news. That is footage of stokely in sweden. People were going around the what and making it clear the black movement was about, and it was very exciting and stokely was charming, sexy, and exciting, and people were attracted. People who were attracted were cornered off in one room, and a lot of times they would be all black. Said they woul form perceptions that were entirely different. Kill white people, this is what the fbi wanted to think these movements were about so they could justify their abuse. We know this and we can see this throughout American History, the controlling ideas, the idea of controlling our imagination. Imagine this process, a very democratic process. It was in hierarchal process with the black Panther Party and the black Power Movement as well. You had charismatic figures like this young woman right here, and on, sheer when she came became an iconic figure in that sense in that she was really spokesman for the black Power Movement and was connected to the black Panther Party. Those are incredible visual. Deas they wanted to cut this and suffer that. A little too visionary . Yeah, and because they are ,harismatic, as kathleen was stokely, or many of the others, or huey himself. The moment you saw huey sitting in that chair, the question as young people, even when i was those students working down there, i wanted to be like them. I was 14 years old, 15 years old. I wanted to be like then. Pmagine you had huey pugh newton and people wanted to be like him. You had to suffer that idea. Now i would like to try to get to the clip i was looking for before, which on my pages Stokley Carmichael. Can we try that one again . Yeah . Hm, it got out of order somehow. That is the one you just played. Maybe you didnt play the whole thing . Perhaps . Where is anthony . , four is not the one. [video clip] this is it. Call president johnson on the telephone trying to get hold of dr. Martin luther king couldnt get no diamonds from his mines said, burn, baby, burn fbi. Is for the that is the hotline. Nothing ise, man, wasted. Different takes a form. What form will you take when you die . He said, this is for the fbi. Hadas a fiery speaker and passionate ideas, but he was a calm, cool, collected person, so he is singing this for the fbi, but they are just words. I was listening to Stokley Carmichael speeches you for a record i was working on. 9 11 and itly after was making a reservation on Jetblue Airlines to fly to california. When i got to the airport, the me, cia, and tsa intercepted and took me in a back room and started questioning me about this Stokley Carmichael speech. They probably had some sort of bug or tap or something, but they were very concerned with me listening to this Stokley Carmichael from 1967, 40 years we haveds he said rappers who talk about shooting people all the time, killing, but the fbi is not looking for them. They are looking at me because im listening to the speech from 40 years ago, and it shows you the power of those words. They still resonates today. He doesnt have the same influence over our community he did then. So you got [end clip] so you got to see it twice. What i wanted to talk about was this behind the scenes look at the leaders of the movement. I never saw this kind of footage before i saw this film, and what was it about the young swedish filmmakers, journalists, that allow been that kind of access, and why would they look for that . Because they could do what they wanted. They were not told by their editors to this, do that. I saw footage in this film that completely blew my mind. I dont particularly remember swedish tv, but in algeria first they showed images of the building where we were. No one in america has ever seen the building of the International BlackPanther Party, other than one picture in york times magazine. That is the only picture i have seen. You cant turn on tv and hear what he has to say, but in this film we hear him saying, yes, we want to reach the level of the vietnamese and make our provisional revolutionary government, but we have not gotten to it. Can you imagine . Fbi would not allow because the United States is at war. That is part of it, the politics of war, anticommunism, and the insanely psychotic level of white supremacist madness we were being subjected to. Responsive. Ere not we did not go along with White Supremacy. In fact, we challenged it openly, condemned it, and made fun of it. We had a movement around the country and the world repudiating it, so this is probably in the context of the vietnam war and her own sense of being disrespected, the names they got called, etc. It might have had something to do with how they responded to this, but it also intimidates the press and the people. They are afraid. Blackther part of the Power Movement is that it is internationalized, the struggle here of africanamericans, the collaborations with the struggles of vietnam, algeria. This is right after the algerian liberation, and also connected with the african liberation to support groups within the, on , anc, all of this in some sense had an enormous power and resonated with people. So now the Civil Rights Movement for all intents and purpose was an internal struggle in the United States, dealing with racism, White Supremacy. Now we begin to ponder the question of a system of capitalism. All those again to frame a discourse, so you are making alliances an in algeria, connecting to vietnam and other movements around the world. Malcolm did it when he went to mecca. He came back and begin to talk about the international relationship, taking the struggle of africanamericans to the u. N. \ and now you have a local Grassroots Organization doing that work, talking about communityhrough protection from police. Free schools, free health care, breakfast for children. Breakfast for children was the predecessor to the governments records for children. Breakfast for children was started by the black Panther Party. [applause] thank you. We dont remember that. We forget that. You have all these things happening on a local level, taking on a local level and Building National and International Networks here at that is dangerou. That is dangerous. Toamerica has a tendency think there is something wrong with black people, genetically, culturally, psychologically. Is reasons shift, but it always something. It is hard for People Living here to step outside of White Supremacy and ask a question like, why are you in jail . What are you doing here . Are to this day radicals per trade as irrational people whose radical miss flows from their irrational psychological problem. Instead of flowing from their theytions of life, so dont know any better. They might as well ask angela davis, why are you here . Ok, lets talk about why i am here. Thank you for asking me a question. Lets talk. I am talking and the cameras are rolling and i am telling you unedited what i think . When people see that, they are so struck and taken in by it that you start to think that these people grew up in a horrible condition and got the idea they could do something to change it. Maybe that is what the whole thing is about them and not some pathological problem. [applause] with that reference to angela davis, thank you for that, brian. Can we go to clip number three, please . [video clip] the trial will be his stork in its unfairness. The trial will be historic in its unfairness. I think they seized upon this opportunity to try her and put her to death. Originally fired her from her teaching job at the university of california and this is an extension of that as far as im concerned. The evidence presented to the grand jury shows that the guns that week used in the shootout the guns that were used in the shootout were registered in her name. Assuming that is true, that is all it shows, that she owns some guns. There is nothing illegal in the state of california about owning guns. It is not a crime. Because of the inflammatory press that has built up around since then and because of the need the government felt to put her in jail and two from their point of view kill her, they could put enough pressure in that grand jury room to get an amendment. In the actual interview with angela in this film is priceless. And yougela in jail have never seen this footage anywhere else if you have not seen this film. , i would love for you to talk about the women of the movement. Angela, we know you were the first female leader within the party. Prof. Cleaver that is not true. The first one was Joanne Mitchell who