Black Panthers: Film Series - Part II
The following films are scheduled to be shown:
Fred Hampton in His Own Words (30 minutes )
Excerpts of speeches and video from the young, intelligent and charismatic chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois Chapter.
Legacy of Torture – The San Francisco 8 (28 minutes)
On January 23, 2007, after a two-year witch hunt by local, state and federal police, six former Bay Area Black Panther Party organizers were arrested: Richard Brown, Richard O’Neal, Francisco Torres, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor. Two well-known political prisoners, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqin (Anthony Bottom), part of the New York Three who were falsely accused and convicted of killing two New York City policemen, have also been accused and indicted. John Bowman, the ninth target of the two-year-long grand jury witch hunt, died in December. This Freedom Archives DVD documents the torture of several of the arrested activists—Bowman, Jones, and Taylor—at the hands of the New Orleans Police Department in 1973. The video also captures the level of police brutality, assassinations and abuse suffered by the Black community during the 1960s and 1970s.
American Gangster Hoover & Cointellpro (42 minutes)
A part of BET Entertainment’s American Gangster series, this documentary examines the United States government counterintelligence program established by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950’s known as COINTELPRO, as a means of disrupting dissident political organizations, including those that championed civil rights and Communism.