- I think everyone has
to recognize that
whatever changes
are gonna be made
in this country for Black
people in the coming years
are gonna be made by young
people all across this country.
This is a force that's gonna
have to be dealt with.
One thing I'd like to say
about this whole question
of violence that's been
bandied around,
should be made very clear
among all Black people.
It's not a question of
violence, aggressive violence.
This is what people
mostly think of.
It's a question of defending
ourselves and our people
against the violence
that's being waged upon us
and has been waged upon us
for the past 400 years.
- Blow up resistance
No, no
Go up in flames
I'm loaded up in armor
Rise up mighty dread
Fighting for my honor,
not on an empty threat ♪
You're gonna feel this,
my love ♪
Feel this danger
I am the realest, my love,
so follow me ♪
♪
- Some very sad news
for all of you.
And I think sad news
for all of our fellow citizens
and people who love peace
all over the world.
And that is
that Martin Luther King
was shot
and was k*lled tonight.
[crowd exclaims, screams]
[dramatic music]
♪
- In New York's
n*gro district, Harlem,
the word of King's death
reached people on the streets
listening
to storefront radios.
Some cried.
Most appeared stunned.
One young girl said,
"He really didn't have
to go back down there.
Maybe he wanted
to prove something."
♪
- I was in high school.
They made the announcement
over the loudspeaker
saying that Martin Luther King
had just been assassinated.
♪
This was the person that
we had all put our faith in
that was gonna take us
to the next level.
And I remember
just walking home crying.
Men walking
down the street crying.
You rarely saw that in Harlem,
a Black man
crying in the street.
So you don't forget
things like that.
♪
[indistinct chatter]
- Our concern now is
that his work does not die.
He gave his life in search
of a more excellent way,
a more effective way,
a creative rather
than a destructive way.
We intend to go on
in search of that way.
- How could you k*ll a man
who preached non-violence?
How could you k*ll a man
who preached love?
How could you k*ll a man--
and if you did this to him,
what would you do to us?
[ominous music]
[indistinct shouting]
[sirens blaring]
♪
- People were mad.
"Wow.
They did it to us again.
"Now who are our heroes?
Who is left?
Who is next?"
Nothing was safe.
It was sort of like,
a big chill
that set upon the nation.
♪
- I went back to Harlem,
and it was as if
somebody had lit a match
to a powder keg.
The place was gone.
And I knew we were in the
beginning of something new.
♪
- They were starting to rebel
on 125st street.
Looting was starting
to happen.
Cop throws me to the ground.
And I said
"I'm not doing anything,"
but he whacks me
with a nightstick.
I get up and start running.
Cops chasing me.
Run around the corner
into a group of disciplined,
standing in military formation,
Black men.
And they said,
"Stop running, young brother."
And they literally formed
a wall between me and the cops.
And they backed the cops down.
I found out later
that these were Panthers.
♪
When Dr. King
was assassinated,
that radicalized me
as well as thousands
of young Black folks
across the country.
♪
- Life changed for all of us
because we were no longer
in fantasyland.
We were no longer
not paying attention.
- For generations,
we've had to have this talk.
"How do you survive?
What is your place?"
But there'd also been
warriors saying,
"We're not saying please.
Can't turn the other cheek."
♪
Stokely Carmichael said,
"Our call is gonna be not,
'n*gro, please,'
but 'Black Power.'"
[applause]
- We are engaged
in a psychological struggle
in this country
and that is whether or not
Black people have the right
to use the words they wanna use
without white people giving
their sanction to it.
[cheers and applause]
And that we maintain
whether they like it or not,
we gonna use the word
"Black power"
and let them address
themselves to that.
[cheers and applause]
But that we are not gonna wait
for white people
to sanction Black power.
- Uh
Bad self
Say it loud
- I'm Black and I'm proud
- Say it loud
- I'm Black and I'm proud
- In a time where
we was getting beat down
and dogs being sicced on us
and we was getting hosed down,
he was just letting us know
he was speaking
against all of that.
Be Black and be proud.
It's a beautiful thing.
We have magic within us.
- We've been treated bad,
talked about ♪
As sure as you're born
But just as sure
as it take two eyes ♪
- The change from
calling ourselves n*gro
to Black was a big step
because no one at that time
really wanted to say
that they were Black.
It was almost insulting
as an opposition
to being white.
So to say that you were Black
made a statement about
how you thought about yourself
and how you thought
about your history.
♪
- Being Black
is a great thing.
Our hair is beautiful.
We're gonna flaunt it.
We're gonna grow these afros.
We gonna be proud
of this black skin.
We're gonna wear dashikis.
- I'm Black and I'm proud
- Music became a weapon
in many ways.
It became the soundtrack
to what was going
on in the movement.
- And workin'
for someone else ♪
- Every time we came outside,
we heard it.
And they were relentless
in playing it.
Why shouldn't they be?
It was the call to arms
that everybody had to have.
- Say it loud
- I'm Black and I'm proud
- This a time for us to be able
to sing with pride
about what is going on
and how this whole revolution
that is taking place
is right on the stage,
and it is apparent
in the Apollo Theater.
[cheers and applause]
[upbeat music]
- Bobby Schiffman,
who ran the Apollo Theater
and Peter Long,
who was the publicity agent
at the time
formed this group in the
basement of the Apollo Theater.
Listen My Brother
was a repertory company
for underprivileged kids
who had talent
but their parents
didn't have the money
to send them to a music school.
We were rehearing in the
Apollo basement one night,
and we needed a guitar player.
Luther Vandross,
who was already in the group,
said, "I know this
Puerto Rican dude.
The dude can play."
♪
- I was a 15-year-old kid,
but the chance of being
on the Apollo stage
was the ultimate gold.
And so whatever you had to do
to get there,
that was what you did.
I'm coming from
The Bronx to Harlem
with my Sears and Roebuck
amplifier
and my Sears and Roebuck guitar.
I walked into
the Apollo theater
downstairs in the basement.
I heard them laughing
in their hands.
- [laughing]
I look at him
and his cheap amp.
♪
We had seen on the stage
of the Apollo the amp.
It was this huge, you know,
big piece of equipment.
So we had never seen
this teeny amp.
It was like a suitcase.
- I plugged it in.
I turned on my amplifier.
And you know what I played?
"Soul Finger," all by myself.
Da da da da da da da
da da da, da da ♪
- He started playing.
We all shut up.
Because it wasn't
about the amp.
It was about the music
coming out of it.
He sounded so fabulous.
- I got in the band.
- That's how I met Carlos.
- We knew that we were meant
for each other.
By the time I was 19,
20 years old,
we were married.
During the time that we were
in Listen My Brother,
we rehearsed so much
that we started being called
The Rehearsals.
[groovy bass guitar music]
- Because all we did
was rehearse.
Peter Long would come to me,
and he would say,
"Robin, The Supremes
are on the bill tonight.
"Go upstairs and watch
their choreography,
"their microphone technique.
And by the way, look at their
gowns, their grooming."
- If we were doing dancing,
our homework was go upstairs
and see the Temptations
or the Unifics.
Look at their dancing styles.
- We learned all of that
in the basement
of the Apollo Theater.
Who could ask
for anything more?
[upbeat jazz music]
One day, Jim Henson came down
to the Apollo to see us.
We did our whole show for him
in the basement.
- And he was like,
"Oh, my God.
Your message is unbelievable."
- And the next thing we knew,
we gonna do a TV show.
- Because that message
was perfect
for "Sesame Street."
- Joan Ganz Cooney,
one of the creators
of the show,
definitely had a concept.
This was not about
"We're just gonna throw some
programming on for kids."
- This is the late '60s.
This is 1969.
Richard Nixon is president.
[indistinct clamoring]
- The cities had been burning.
There had been riots
following King's death.
It was as if
the public was saying,
"So do something"
to the TV set.
And one day,
they turned on the TV set,
and the TV set did something.
- We were already
in the consciousness
of "We are young and Black,
and no one can stop us."
So we were empowered.
"Sesame Street" impacted
the culture in a major way,
especially with all of these
Black kids or these Latin kids
performing on the show.
This is something you
didn't see on television.
The reason you had
the Neighborhood
is because that set
was replicating
a neighborhood in Harlem.
- So it was Harlem, USA,
Anywhere, USA,
Community, USA.
- And to integrate that
and show young children
diversity that
they'd never seen before.
Look who is delivering
the message--
a bunch of young,
Black teenagers.
all: You've got
to learn something ♪
You've got
to learn something ♪
You've got to learn
something ♪
To get where you want to be
- A man can't play a song
- Oh, no, no
- If there is no melody
- Ah, yeah
A girl can't bake
a cake now ♪
- Oh, oh
- If she don't have
a recipe ♪
- Ha, ha, yeah
all: A man can't
build a house ♪
If he can't cut a tree
You've got
to learn something ♪
- The type of message
that was being sent
was exactly aligned
with the message
that Martin Luther King
was also making.
The Listen My Brother,
"Sesame Street" combination
was crucial for us to be able
to get over that hump
and establish the,
you know, the later '60s
as a time of awakening.
all: To get where
you want to be ♪
To get where
you want to be ♪
[anticipatory drum music]
♪
- I believe that this nation
should commit itself
of landing a man on the Moon
and returning him safely
to the Earth.
- We stand ready to share
for the benefit
of all mankind.
- Let us go
to the new world together.
[applause]
- 9:32 a.m., July 16th, 1969.
♪
The Moon awaited.
[rocket roaring]
[dramatic music]
- Liftoff.
We have a liftoff.
♪
[radio beeping]
- And how do you feel about
man setting foot on the moon?
- I think
it's a waste of money.
- Why should they go up there
when they have so many ghettos
that should be cured?
People are going hungry
all over the United States.
- Thousands of people
have contributed
toward this day
of accomplishment.
- The Eagle has landed.
- Why can't Nixon and the rest
of the administration
cure this problem
before they try to find out
what's on the moon?
- I think that to me
it's groovy for certain people,
but not for the Black man
in America.
- We gonna do many--
mingle with the crowd?
Integrate with the moon people
or something?
- I guess you're about
the only person around
that doesn't have TV coverage
of the scene.
- How is the quality
of the TV?
- Oh, it's beautiful,
Mike, it really is.
- Gee, that's great. Is the
lighting halfway decent?
- Yes, indeed.
- The rat done
bit my sister, Nell ♪
With Whitey on the moon
And her face and arms
began to swell ♪
And Whitey's on the moon
I can't pay no doctor bills
But Whitey's on the moon
Ten years from now
I'll be payin' still ♪
While Whitey's on the moon
You know the man just upped
my rent last night ♪
'Cause Whitey's
on the moon? ♪
No hot water, no toilets,
and no lights ♪
But Whitey's on the moon
I wonder why
he's uppin' me? ♪
'Cause Whitey's
on the Moon? ♪
I was already giving him
fifty a week ♪
And now Whitey's
on the moon ♪
Taxes taking
my whole damn check ♪
The junkies make me
a nervous wreck ♪
The price of food
is going up ♪
And as if all that crap
wasn't enough ♪
A rat done
bit my sister, Nell ♪
With Whitey on the moon
Her face and arms
began to swell ♪
And Whitey's on the moon
Was all that money
I made last year ♪
For Whitey on the moon?
How come I ain't got
no money here? ♪
Hm, Whitey's on the moon
You know I just about
had my fill ♪
Of Whitey on the moon
I think I'll send
these doctor bills ♪
Airmail special
To Whitey on the moon
♪
- They've got
the flag up now.
You can see
the Stars and Stripes.
- "Whitey on the Moon"
was such a powerful critique
of the insanity
of how they were using
science and technology.
It showed the ridiculousness
of white people
and the white power structure
trying to conquer the universe.
- We came in peace
for all mankind.
These footprints
will remain for centuries.
- Peter, cleared for takeoff.
- A lot of artists would
want to sample Gil Scott-Heron
because it still speaks
to the communities today.
[ambient music]
- People must hear
what we're saying
about ourselves
and about the world.
There was a sense of not only
Black identity,
Black consciousness,
but always the sense
of Black politics
also being weaved in
because when people said,
"Black power,"
we said, "Yeah.
Here it is in poetry.
Look at this.
h*, h*, h*."
- Hey now.
- The '60s music revolution
and poetry.
both: Hey now
- f*ck' up
the clowns, huh ♪
both: Hey now
Check out the rippin' tar
both: Hey now
- Jackin' up the laws now
both: Hey now
- [rapping indistinctly ]
both: Hey now
- [rapping indistinctly ]
both: Hey now
- [rapping indistinctly ]
both: Hey now
- To us in the movement,
they were superstars.
If you told a girl
you were dating
in the Panthers
or the Lords that
"Let's get a bite to eat
and go see The Last Poets,"
you had a date.
[applause]
- When I was listening,
I kept watching
Barbara and Loretta.
What were you feeling
when that was going on?
- I was thinking,
"It's about time
I hear something besides,
"Blondes Have More Fun."
[laughter]
[cheers and applause]
- What about you, Barbara?
- Well..
[chuckles]
Listening to The Last Poets
is a religious experience
for me.
You know?
They make you feel like
you can relax now.
There's a new breed
of Black man, you know?
You can just
- Yes.
[cheers and applause]
- You--are you trying
to create a new breed
of Black people
by doing this kind of thing?
- We trying to encourage
Black people
to really dig on what they are,
you know?
To appreciate what they are
and to let it come out
in whatever forms
of expression they want it to.
- Poetry at the time
was our way
of communicating
our frustration, our pathos.
Amiri Baraka said,
"The poems have to be b*ll*ts."
- Poems are a good thing
to have it said and to hear it
because it freed us up
to let us know
we've been told a lot
as Black people to don't talk.
We don't have an opinion.
- They were no-nonsense.
It was not candy-covered,
candy-coated.
You know, they'd tell you
just like it was.
- Jibero
my pretty n*gga.
Sweating b*ll*ts
of blood and bedbugs.
Swaying slowly
to a softly strung
5-string guitar, Jibero.
- They were in a way, like,
secret kind of messages
for us.
A lot of things
they would say,
people outside
of the community
might not understand
what they were saying.
But we did.
- When
the revolution comes ♪
both:
When the revolution comes
- When
the revolution comes ♪
When the revolution comes
Some of us will probably
catch it on TV ♪
With chicken hanging
from our mouths ♪
You'll know
it's revolution ♪
Because there won't be
no commercials ♪
When the revolution comes
- We were into revolution.
We wanted to have a socialist,
participatory democracy.
- When
the revolution comes ♪
Transit cops
would be crushed ♪
By the trains
after losing their g*ns ♪
And blood will run through
the streets of Harlem ♪
Drowning anything
without substance ♪
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes,
when the revolution comes ♪
- "When the Revolution Comes,"
it has those famous
closing lines.
"When the revolution comes
but until the revolution comes,
n*gg*s are just gonna party."
- I know n*gg*s will party.
both: And bullshit.
And party.
And bullshit.
- And party.
- And a lot of people think
that was like,
a Notorious B.I.G.
original line.
But that's actually a line
borrowed from The Last Poets.
And the context was
that's what you're
gonna be doing
when you should
be making revolution.
[all chanting indistinctly]
- And slowly,
the militancy in my own poems
made me think, "Felipe,
you're not doing enough.
You're not doing enough."
- Mr. Felipe Luciano,
uh, a member
of the Young Lords,
to speak briefly
as to the philosophy
of his organization.
- Well, first of all,
the Young Lords are
a predominantly
Puerto Rican group
operating out of East Harlem.
Our motto is
to serve and protect.
And quite literally,
that's what we're about.
We serve and protect
our people.
- People would say, "Whoa.
When did you join
the Young Lords?"
And it was never
a question of joining.
It really was about
how it sort of evolved.
As a young person,
what appealed to me
was a lot of groups
tend to read
these very academic treatises
or radical struggle.
But the idea of sitting around
and having these
intellectual discussions,
it was like, "Ugh," you know?
Like, let's do stuff.
One of things I loved about us
in the Young Lords
is that we were so clueless
and really young.
We were, like, making it up
as we went along.
- When we asked the people
what the major problem was
in this community,
we assumed it was gonna
be police brutality.
It was not.
- They answered, "La basura."
The garbage.
Garbage was never picked up
above 96th Street.
96th Street
was the dividing line.
Below 96th Street,
you are white,
upper middle class,
living in high-rise buildings
with doormen.
Cross over 96th Street,
and you walk
into another world,
the barrio.
♪
- People playing dominos
in the street.
And they would say,
"Why don't you look behind you
and look at the garbage there?
It's been there
for two or three days."
In the middle of summer,
with the stench
- Putrid, rotting garbage.
And watching the rats
dart in and out
is justugh.
- We went to the garbage depot
on 99th Street.
I remember a olive-skinned
Italian man
standing in the front
with a green uniform
pressed neatly.
And I said,
"May we borrow some brooms?
"We wanna sweep our streets.
And we'll bring 'em
right back."
He said, "Get out of here."
I pushed him.
He almost fell back.
So went in.
We took the brooms.
We took the garbage bags.
And I said as I was leaving,
"And we'll bring 'em
back to you."
That was the beginning
of our revolutionary move.
♪
- And in our community,
we have an endearing term
for elderly women.
They were called "doñas."
They would come out
with their little brooms
and help us clean up
the garbage.
- We took all of the garbage
that had accumulated
during the weekend,
and we put it
at the edge of the street
and waited for the Sanitation
Department to come.
They didn't come.
Two weeks passed like that.
Finally, we had had it.
The smell was unbearable,
and we knew it was
a health hazard.
So we took the garbage cans--
remember, in those days,
they were metal--
and you could hear
the scraping
[imitates scraping]
from Second Avenue
all the way to Third Avenue.
We lined the avenue.
[light music]
- And mysteriously,
lighter fluid
and matches appeared.
And when we lit the match,
people just roared
and applauded.
[cheers and applause]
[car horn honking]
[cheers and applause]
[sirens blaring]
♪
- If you look at a map
of Manhattan,
the same avenue that goes
through the business district
all the way down
to Wall Street
goes up into East Harlem.
So if you stop traffic uptown,
it screws everything up
midtown.
[cheers and applause]
- It was summertime
on a Friday.
People wanted to get
to the Hamptons.
They wanted to get
to their upstate homes.
Man, were they pissed.
[crowd clamoring]
All we knew is that
we wanted them to pay attention
to the fact that they weren't
picking up the garbage.
- It worked because
Sanitation started coming
and picking up
the f*cking garbage.
- Our militancy got bolder--
our desire to prove
to the city
that these were militant
Puerto Ricans,
that we weren't
taking any crap
all: [chanting]
Los boricuas se vengarán.
- That we were
the Latino counterpart
to the Black Panther Party,
and we proved it.
all: [chanting] Boricua,
defiende lo tuyo.
Despierta, boricua.
Defiende lo tuyo.
Despierta, boricua.
- I was always
looking for,
"What are we going
"to actually, you know,
physically do?"
A lot of times, Black women
are not allowed to be
tough and assertive.
But women in the Lords
and in the Panthers
had such a powerful presence.
- "All power to the people"
is becoming a reality
because the people
have come out here to stand--
- Everything is political.
What we do,
how we speak,
how we eat,
how we dance,
how we create art,
how we do poetry--
all the things
that are components
of a particular culture
or cultures.
[light jazz music]
- [laughing]
Here is a young lady
in a beautiful dress.
Oh, that's me.
This was part of
the African Parade, I believe.
♪
- There's an organization
that flourished in Harlem
in the '60s, called
the African Jazz-Art
Society Studios--
AJASS.
And two of their leaders
were these brothers,
Elombe Brathwaite
and Kwame Brathwaite,
who was the photographer.
♪
- Kwame's photography wanted
to enlighten women
and enlighten Harlem,
and enlighten the community
about the greatness
of Black women.
AJASS took it upon themselves
to invent a vehicle
to demonstrate Black beauty:
the Grandassa models.
- Every year, they would have
this fashion extravaganza
to try and project African art
and culture and music
to the world.
And that was a whole new rhythm
in the cultural movement.
And at the same time,
all of the African nations
beginning to get free
from colonialism.
African diplomats are
beginning to come to Harlem.
So there was this expl*si*n
in Black America
and in the African world.
And AJASS just kind
of pulled it all together.
They were able to attract
popular musicians
and jazz performers.
And you would
have Nina Simone,
or you'd
have Abbey Lincoln,
who was also
a Grandassa model.
- And these beautiful
Black women,
they represented
and began to express
what is one of the guiding
slogans at that time--
was "Black is beautiful."
- Kwame taught us to be proud
and how to talk
and how to perform
in front of an audience.
- My mom made me
my first dashiki
to go to one of these events.
And we didn't have
a lot of money.
So Mom took
her kitchen curtains down,
and she made me
this beautiful dashiki.
And from a distance,
it looked like African print.
But if you got up very close,
you could see the teakettle
and the teacups.
But I didn't care
anything about that.
I had a dashiki.
And when you can walk in
and see
all of these fantastic,
beautiful Black women
in African clothing
with natural hairdo
being appreciated for
their extraordinary beauty--
that was special.
- When I first joined,
I was extremely shy.
In fact, at that time,
I never felt, really,
attractive enough
to even think
about modeling.
My hair at that time
was permed
because I had to fit in
with the society
and my family.
It was very risky,
but I let it go natural,
with much discussion
from friends and family.
♪
The first fashion show,
I was scared to death.
And then when I saw
everybody else walking out,
I felt so elevated.
And that was the beginning
of the Grandassa model in me.
[dreamy piano music]
My boyfriend said that
Kwame had created a monster.
I no longer felt timid.
I felt empowered
and that I could say
what I wanted to say.
And my family and friends'
attitude changed
about my hair over time.
That comes
from seeing somebody
confident and
sure of themselves
and not caring
what you think.
And that was
the impression
that I gave them.
And they came to
accept it and me.
♪
- For the longest time,
we've seen us
try to compromise
or play it cute.
We're no longer
giving you microbraids.
[laughs]
And I mean that
metaphorically
and I mean it
literally.
We're not giving anyone
a reason to ask us
to be palatable.
We're giving you the real.
[light music and laughter]
- You are young
Gifted and Black
We must begin
To tell our young
There's a world,
little girl ♪
Waiting for you
Yours is a quest
That's just begun
- She was saying,
"We are here.
"We are able.
"We are competent.
Give us a chance
to do what we do."
You know, I'm pretty sure
that's what
she was trying to say.
I'm sure that's what
all of those pieces
that we were doing then
had to say.
- To be young
Gifted and Black
- I'm the only person
in my family
on my mother's side
that has dark skin.
My mom is very fair-skinned,
and all my brothers
are very fair-skinned.
- In the whole world,
you know ♪
- So I turned out like this,
and when I was younger,
you know, a lot of people
in my family
used to make fun of me.
When Nina Simone put out
"Young, Gifted and Black"
- Young
Gifted and Black
- it was one of the most
powerful moments in my life,
to have that image of her
with the 'fro on the cover.
♪
Sort of made me feel like,
"Man, I could be something."
- And I am haunted
by my youth ♪
- "To Be Young,
Gifted and Black"
was expressing
what we were feeling
at the lack of opportunities
after we had gone through
college education--
high school, much less.
To get through all this,
and, okay, you're proving
what you could do.
Now how are you gonna be able
to make a living?
- In this country,
systemic racism
is unavoidable.
It's a part of--
part and parcel
of the sociopolitical
conditions
that the people face.
- The Black Panthers became
very prominent then
because they understood
what time it was.
It was time
for revolution.
singers: [together]
Revolution has come
group: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
singers:
Time to pick up the g*n
group: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
- Nonviolence is a very
nonfunctional approach.
One of our basic premises
is that political power
grows out
of the barrel of a g*n.
And this has been taken up
by the young men
in the community.
all:
[chanting] Off the pigs!
singers:
Time to pick up the g*n
- Am I under arrest?
Am I?
Take your hands off me
if I'm not under arrest.
- Well, I think it's
a ridiculous way to try
and solve the problems
that have to be solved
among people of goodwill.
And there's certainly
nothing that can be done
in the line of goodwill
when Americans have g*ns
with the--even the implied idea
that those g*ns
might be directed
against other Americans.
- Take your hands off me!
- The Black Panther Party
is informing and calling
on all the peoples
of the communities
across the country
to scorn and denounce
the action
of this capitalistic
government's attempts
to try to destroy
the Black Panther Party.
And know the Black Panther
Party is a moving force
for the revolutionary struggle
that's going on for change.
- When Bobby Seale talks
about the constitutional
right to bear arms,
they got berets
and leather coats
and they just storm in
to the legislature like that.
"They're crazy.
I wanna join them."
[laughs]
I joined
the Black Panther Party
in 1968,
so when I was 15 years old.
When I joined the Panthers,
the first day,
I thought the Panthers
were gonna give me a g*n.
And they gave me
a stack of books.
"Autobiography of Malcolm X,"
"Soul on Ice"
by Eldridge Cleaver,
"Wretched of the Earth"
by Frantz Fanon.
"This is a class struggle
for human rights,
"not just a race struggle
for civil rights.
Study those books so you know
what revolution is about."
singers:
No more brothers in jail
all: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
- There were a number
of Black national groups,
radical groups,
and progressive groups
in Harlem at that time.
RAM--Revolutionary
Action Movement.
The Mau Mau.
The idea of Black nationalism
was embracing Blackness,
talking about nationhood.
And the music is shifting
in that way too,
in terms of what
people are singing about.
[tense music]
♪
- Music was part
of the background
and foreground
of our movement.
Remember,
the Black Panther Party,
you were not like Panthers
who showed up once a week.
You were 24-hour-a-day Panther
and you lived in a Panther pad.
And we worked closely
with the Panthers
and we initiated
a number of programs
that the Black Panther Party
had already instituted.
And one of the key programs
that we were establishing
was a free breakfast program
for children.
- Teachers were saying,
"Black kids are disruptive.
They're not paying attention."
And the Panthers said,
"Maybe it's hard for a kid
when a teacher's saying,
"'Three apples plus two apples
equal five apples,'
to sit still and pay attention
and your stomach is growling."
That was your work.
It would be
the breakfast program.
It would be the health clinic.
It would be
at one of the buildings
where there might be
a rent strike
or the welfare center
or organizing in your school.
Let me say
that revolutionaries are guided
by great feelings of love.
- People have
always said to me,
"You know, you can always tell
ex-Black Panthers
by the way that they relate
to older people and children,"
because that's primarily
who we worked with.
[indistinct chatter]
I wound up
in the Black Panther Party
as a natural progression
of political life in the '60s.
You get a little bit
more radical.
I think it just comes
with being beaten up a lot.
And this happened to me
and my friends so often
that it was the Black Panther
Party For Self-Defense,
and that appealed to me.
They were saying,
"Don't just let the police
beat up on you
any time they want."
singers:
No more pigs
In our community
all: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
singers: No more pigs
In our community
all: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
singers:
No more pigs
In our community
- And the Panthers was
when I first heard
that the police were
an occupying army.
They are not here
to protect you.
They're here to control you.
- Just put him on the ground!
- It was a very
adversarial relationship.
singers:
No more brothers in jail
all: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
singers: The pigs
are gonna catch hell ♪
all: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
singers:
No more brothers in jail
all: [chanting]
Off the pigs!
- And as you organize more
and people get more conscious,
the relationship becomes
more and more hostile.
But police terror
and police m*rder,
as H. Rap Brown said
- I say violence is necessary.
Violence is a part
of America's culture.
It is as American
as cherry pie.
[tense music]
- At about 3:30
in the morning,
a police unit
of about 15, 20 cops
kick in Grandma's door.
And I'm arrested.
21 Panthers who were
in a leadership position
in New York were indicted.
We were charged
with conspiracy,
b*mb conspiracy,
weapons possession.
It became known as the
New York Panther 21 case.
- Vice President Agnew
has called the Panthers
"a completely irresponsible
anarchistic group
of criminals."
FBI Director Hoover
has called them
"the greatest danger
to the internal security
of the country."
By raiding virtually
every local headquarter,
some offices
have been ransacked,
files confiscated.
- Our charges carried
a sentence
of something like 368 years.
And our bail was set
at $100,000.
And you're talking
about Panthers,
grassroot people.
I had just turned 16.
Average age:
20, 21 years old.
- We were, like, thinking,
"Wait,
these are people that we know,
that we were with
just the night before."
These things
couldn't be possible.
- Remember, we're working
against a narrative
where the highest court
in the land,
the Supreme Court,
wrote a decision that said,
at very best,
we're only 3/5
of a human being.
- Power
all: Power
- Power
all: Power
- Power
- It's an attempt to suppress
and k*ll if necessary
the Black people
who are standing up
for their own rights.
all: Educate, empower
- Let's liberate, empower
all: Let's liberate,
empower ♪
- Power
all: Power
- Everyone in the Panther 21
were all people that I knew.
They were all from my branch.
When we had
our section meeting,
the directive was
that all New York Panthers
were to go out and support
the Panther 21.
- I said power
all: Power!
- Power!
all: Power!
- Power to the people
all: Power to the people
- The trial lasted
for 13 months.
The jury came back
in three hours
and acquitted the Panther 21.
[faint chanting]
But that had been
a brutal two-year journey
which saw families destroyed,
which saw the Black Panther
Party effectively destroyed,
friendships destroyed.
The study of what happens
to the New York
Black Panther Party
is a study of how
the judicial system
is weaponized against
poor Black folks.
[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic psychedelic
rock music]
- We really thought
that we were making
significant changes
in society.
On the face of it,
it looked like
we were really powerful people.
But in fact,
the arrest of the Panther 21
just showed us
how powerless we were.
It made us realize
that we were fighting a w*r
that we really couldn't win,
that we were up
against something
that was far,
far more powerful.
We just wanted to be treated
like everybody else.
We just wanted to be normal.
- [chanting] Hands up!
all: Don't sh**t!
- [chanting] Hands up!
all: Don't sh**t!
- [chanting] Black lives
all: Matter!
- [chanting] Black lives
all: Matter!
- And women's lives
all: Matter!
- And trans lives
all: Matter.
- People are still
protesting racism today
because nothing much
has changed.
I mean, some things
have changed.
You do see us in magazines.
We do have people
in the government.
We do have representation
in the government.
But basically,
there's still
racism in banking;
there's still
racism in housing;
there's racism
in hospitals.
Racism still exists.
- I was so depressed and I
- People remember the 1960s
as a time of cultural change.
It's a mirror;
it's a reflection
of what the world is
and what's happening
right now in America.
- The struggle takes place
in the music
of Curtis Mayfield.
- Sisters.
[echoing] n*gg*s!
[echoing] Whiteys!
[echoing] Jews!
[echoing] Crackers.
[echoing] Don't worry.
If there's hell below
[echoing]
Below, below, below.
[echoing] We're all
Gonna go!
[screams]
- Although we may be
technically fighting
the same battle
that they did
in the '60s at its core,
the way that we've had
to do it now is different.
- Hey, yo. So we're all
on this f*cking bus.
They're calling us "bodies
in cages."
As of right now,
they've let us know
that we're getting cited.
They don't care
about what we think
so we gotta make
a lot of noise.
- [screaming]
- Curtis Mayfield starts
talking about "It's all right."
But then he gets more specific
with, "If there's hell below,
we're all gonna go."
[funky jazz music]
- The immediate frontal message
to me was,
"Basically,
we're all the same."
Whatever our skin color is,
it doesn't matter.
Blonds are gonna go
to the same hell
that people with my kind
of hair are gonna go to.
- Educated fools
- From uneducated schools
Pimping people is the rule
Polluted water in the pool
And Nixon talking about,
"Don't worry" ♪
- And when he calls
Nixon out by name
and the election out by name
and the corruption, you know,
everything that's happened--
self-hatred by name.
You know, Marvin Gaye
with the "Inner City Blues";
the Last Poets again,
doing it through poetry;
Sonia Sanchez,
the spoken word artist;
Gil Scott-Heron
with "The Revolution
Will Not Be Televised,"
specifically calling out
and making that call
for revolution.
[crowd cheering]
all: Black lives matter!
Black lives
- Matter!
- Hip-hop is definitely
one of the biggest instruments
and engines
for pushing this narrative
of Black Lives Matter.
- I could come up with these
lyrics from the oblivion,
like, out of nowhere.
It's almost like these
particles just come together,
these atoms,
and just zone into my ears.
I could move people.
We all have voices
and we have to speak up.
[chanting and music
intermingling]
[applause]
♪
- I think the reason people
say music is a weapon
is because honesty is a weapon.
[chuckles]
I think the only thing
that cuts through
a lot of the bullshit
and the noise in the world
is honesty.
- Brothers and the whiteys
- When you get music that is
honest and rooted in something
that's actually genuine
and true,
that's when it becomes
something that you can
weaponize for good.
- Enough is enough.
No justice
all: No peace!
No justice
all: No peace!
No justice
all: No peace!
- In '63, Dr. King
talked about he had a dream.
We've come today,
Black and white,
and all races and religions
and sexual orientations
to say this dream
is still alive.
You might've k*lled
the dreamer,
but you can't k*ll the dream
because truth crushed to Earth
shall rise again.
We gonna rise,
never to fall again.
We gonna stand up
even when our legs are tired.
We gonna make
this dream come true.
- Black power!
all: Black power!
- There can be no show
- Black power.
- And if
there's hell below ♪
- What do we want?
crowd: Justice!
We're all gonna go
No justice
all: No peace!
Lord, what we gonna do?
- So what do we want?
crowd: Justice!
- And when do we want it?
crowd: Now!
- I said, what do we want?
♪
- It's almost like a family
of people coming together
and they out here
on the frontline protesting,
letting the world know
that we see what's happening
and we don't approve
of what's happening.
We all want the same thing,
which is human rights.
- This is in no way to detract
from all of the work
that all the civil rights
leaders did
in the 1960s,
but maybe it wasn't
radical enough.
We're still being brutalized
by the cops.
This is not a state
that we wanna hand down
to our children.
This has gotta end
by any means necessary.
The buck stops here.
- It has to be uncovered
to be--to be understood.
The light has to be shone
on the darkness.
Things are going to crumble,
and we have
to rebuild them anew.
And I believe that
that can happen,
but not without struggle.
- The reason
that we do what we do
as poets, as musicians,
artists, as rappers,
is so that someone
can then take it
and use it further,
whatever we're trying
to put out in the world.
- You and I live in a country
which is supposed to be
the citadel of education,
freedom, justice, democracy,
and all of those other
pretty-sounding words.
To bring about
the complete independence
of people of African descent,
we want freedom
by any
means necessary.
[applause]
We want justice
by any means necessary.
We want equality
by any means necessary.
We want it now,
or we don't think anybody
should have it.
[cheers and applause]
Let's talk about our part
My heart touch your heart
Let's talk about,
let's talk about living ♪
Had enough of dying
That's what we all about
Let's do more giving
Do more forgiving, yeah
Our souls are brought
together ♪
So that we could
love each other ♪
Sister, we are here
♪
We are here for all of us
♪
We are here for all of us
♪
It's why we are here
Why we are here
We are here
We are here for all of us
♪
We are here for all of us
♪
That's why we are here
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01x04 - Power
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Documentary series examines the story of Harlem, its music during the 1960's and its connections to today.
Documentary series examines the story of Harlem, its music during the 1960's and its connections to today.