The Black Panther Cubs: when the revolution doesn't come
The children of the Black Panther Party offer us lessons for today
When I was growing up in the suburbs I was warned by parents and the media to be terrified of the Black Panther Party. When I became an adult and started reading the truth about the Black Panther Party I realized that their humanized, community based revolution was something that could liberate all marginalized people—if they could survive. They managed to survive from 1966 - 1982. This is a short documentary film about the children of the Black Panther Party.
As the description says, “Born into the 1970s revolutionary movement for Black equality and self-determination, they have lived in the shadows of a promised land that was never attained. We join them as they continue to wrestle, 50 years later, with the dichotomy of their extraordinary childhoods: the enormous pride and love it gave them as members of the Black Panther family, and the booming loss they endured – of parents, of security, and of the hope for radical change that did not materialise. That hope lives on in the cubs, and their reflections on America’s current crisis offers burning lessons for today.”
I found a lot of inspiration and warnings that still apply—or, apply again—50 years later.
P.S.: If you’d like a deeper dive into the many facets of the Black Panthers, check out Stanley Nelson’s extraordinary longer doc: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/stanley-nelson-reveals-the-real-black-panther-party/