The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution was a documentary film that showed the rise and fall of the Black Panthers and also highlighted their relationship with the police as well as the FBI. It also showed the impact this party had on people of color during this time. I liked this documentary because many of the voices we heard via interviews for the film was from people that were present and active during this time. Many of the interviewees were party members, law enforcement,supporters and I believe FBI members in the sixties. The film starts with the events that lead to the creation of the Black Panther Party. Starts in 1966, in Oakland County. There was animosity between blacks and police. They formed in a response to that hostility, in a sense of self defence. They would observe law enforcement doing their job with their weapons,

One of their points from the ten point platform was and end to police brutality and and for the murder of black people to cease. Aside from the arrest of Huey Newton from allegedly murdering a police officer, and protesting, there was not much physical conflict with the police. Hoover attacks the panthers as he sees them gain membership, Black organization was a treat to the status quo. Hoover starts surveillance programs to discredit and dismantle the party. He wanted to prevent a leader to unify the party, prevent the appeal to younger audiences, and isolate them from the black community. Party members told stories of their phones being taped, them being followed, family question, and members harassed. They recruited people to work for the FBI as informants from within the party. The FBI was determined to end this organization. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., elicited a change for some Panther members. Members said “(King's assassination) killed the last chance for negotiation… Killed whatever hope I had in