New documentary: The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution

THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION is the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph, and many others, THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION is an essential history and a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America. Learn more about the documentary including viewing the trailer and getting upcoming screening dates below.

UPCOMING SCREENINGS

August 28	Woodstock Film Festival Screening Series	Woodstock, NY
August 29	Black Harvest Film Festival Producer Laurens Grant in person!	Chicago, IL
August 29	Sidewalk Film Festival	Birmingham, AL
Opens September 2	Film Forum 9/2, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson, Laurens Grant, and Kathleen Clever (via skype) 9/3, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson and ImageNation 9/4, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson and Panther Flores Forbes 9/5, 2:45pm: Stanley Nelson and Rita Williams-Garcia 9/5, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson and Akila Worksongs 9/6, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson and Jamilah Lemieux (Ebony) 9/9, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson and Panther Jamal Joseph 9/10, 7:15pm: Stanley Nelson, Jamal Joseph, Center for Constitutional Rights 9/11, 7:15pm: Panther Omar Barbour and the Black Youth Project 100, moderated by Charlene Caruthers	New York, NY
September 8	Diaspora Festival of Black and Independent Film	Chapel Hill, NC
Opens September 11	AMC Magic Johnson Harlem	Harlem, NY
Opens September 11	Landmark Kendall Square Stanley Nelson in Person 9/12 and 9/13!	Boston, MA
September 15	Space Gallery	Portland, ME
September 16	Charles Theater Special advance screening with Stanley Nelson!	Baltimore, MD
Opens September 18	E Street Cinema Stanley Nelson and Special Guests in person 9/18! Producer Laurens Grant in person 9/19!	Washington, DC
Opens September 18	Landmark Ritz at the Bourse Producer Laurens Grant in person 9/18! Stanley Nelson and Special Guests in person 9/20!	Philadelphia, PA
Opens September 18	Charles Theatre Stanley Nelson and Special Guests in person 9/19!	Baltimore, MD
Opens September 18	Webster Film Series	St. Louis, MO
Opens September 18	Northwest Film Forum	Seattle, WA
Opens September 18	O Cinema Wynwood	Miami, FL
Opens September 25	Landmark Nuart Stanley Nelson in person 9/25 and 9/26!	Los Angeles, CA
Opens September 25	Gene Siskel Film Center Stanley Nelson in person 9/27!	Chicago, IL
Opens September 25	Digital Gym Cinema	San Diego, CA
September 30	Marchesa Hall & Theater Presented by the Austin Film Society	Austin, TX
Opens October 2	Landmark Opera Plaza Stanley Nelson in person opening weekend!	San Francisco, CA
Opens October 2	Piedmont Theatre Stanley Nelson in person opening weekend!	Oakland, CA
Opens October 2	Shattuck Cinemas Stanley Nelson in person opening weekend!	Berkeley, CA
Opens October 2	Smith Rafael Film Center Stanley Nelson in person opening weekend!	San Rafael, CA
Opens October 2	CCA Santa Fe	Santa Fe, NM
Opens October 9	Hollywood Theatre	Portland, OR
Opens October 9	Landmark Midtown Art Cinemas Stanley Nelson in person 10/9 and 10/10!	Atlanta, GA
Opens October 9	Landmark Theatres	Minneapolis, MN
Opens October 9	Real Art Ways	Hartford, CT
October 11	Detroit Film Theater	Detroit, MI

VIDEO: Hillary Clinton speaks with Black Lives Matter leaders.

Here is a 8 minute video of part of the exchange between Hillary Clinton and members of #BlackLivesMatter at a campaign rally in New Hampshire. Clinton meets with #BlackLivesMatter protesters after they were barred from her event. Watch as Clinton responds to several tough questions.

Why Marvel is lazy when it comes to creating new minority characters.

Why Marvel is lazy when it comes to creating minority characters.

By George L. Cook III

Now I’m just as much of a geek as any other comic book reader or comic book movie lover out there. I love what Marvel Comics is doing on screen and in print recently. In the movies there has been some diversity with characters such as Blade (The forgotten Marvel hero who helped usher in the superhero movie era), War Machine, Falcon, Nick Fury, Storm, and soon The Black Panther to name a few. But (there’s always a but) when it comes to adding diversity in the comics Marvel is becoming a bit lazy. Recently when it comes to adding diversity in terms of race Marvel has simply been reinventing older characters as minority characters.

One of the more famous examples being the Miles Morales Spiderman which is great and all but didn’t take much creativity in my opinion. Other examples include a recent reinvention with the comic Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Never heard of it either) in which a character that once was a white boy has been changed to a black girl.The character Of Ms. Marvel is no longer a white woman but a Pakistani teen named Kamal Khan.

And yes I know about the dozens of alternate universes and different versions of the same character which is why Nick Fury can be white in one universe and black in another but those are still reinventions. To those who don't really read comics I'm not going to explain all of the different universes because quite frankly it would be easier to explain Quantum Theory to you.

It’s great that Marvel has made moves to add diversity, but why couldn’t they do so by creating completely new characters? Marvel is taking the lazy way out.

I’m talking new characters with complete origin stories and all. Yes, it may be a little more work than simply changing the color of an existing character but it’s also creating something new and hopefully exciting. I know there is some fear in how fan boys will react but they will get over it. I’ve also wondered if comic execs use the fan boys as a convenient excuse not to create new non- white characters.

Marvel can bring in young minority talent and I’m sure that marvel can create minority characters from scratch. Just like with other characters it will be hit or miss, but you can’t get a hit if you don’t take a swing.

Take a swing at it Marvel!

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com Email George Cook

Notable Mississippians join chorus to change state flag

In a letter appearing in a full-page ad in today's Clarion-Ledger, author John Grisham, actor Morgan Freeman, legendary quarterback Archie Manning, "The Help" author Kathryn Stockett and others are calling for removal of the Confederate emblem from Mississippi's state flag.

With other states removing their Confederate battle flags, Mississippi remains the last with the Confederate emblem flying over the statehouse.

"It is simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the National Guard, and go about their normal lives with a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their ancestors enslaved," the letter says. "It's time for Mississippi to fly a flag for all its people."

Read more: Celebrities to Miss.: 'A Flag for All of Us'

NAACP STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF CHAIRMAN EMERITUS JULIAN BOND

August 16, 2015

(BALTIMORE, MD) - Longtime civil rights leader Julian Bond has died.  The NAACP board member, 75, passed away after a brief illness. 

“From his days as a young activist to his years as both an elder statesman and NAACP Chairman Emeritus, Julian Bond inspired a generation of civil rights leaders,” said NAACP Chairman Roslyn M. Brock.  “From my days as a youth board member of the NAACP to my present tenure as NAACP Chairman, like so many of my generation and before, I am yet inspired by the depth and breadth of Chairman Emeritus Bond’s exemplary service: activist, writer, historian, professor, public intellectual, public servant and an unrelentingly eloquent voice for the voiceless. The grateful citizen heirs of the civil and human rights legacy of Julian Bond can neither be counted nor confined to a generation. Many of the most characteristically American freedoms enjoyed by so many Americans today were made real because of the lifelong sacrifice and service of Julian Bond.  On behalf of the NAACP and our country, we ask for your prayers for his family.”

“The nation and the NAACP deeply grieve Julian Bond's death even as we are profoundly grateful for his life,” said NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks.  “The arc of service of Chairman Emeritus Julian Bond's life extends high and wide over America's social justice landscape: as a young lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr., gifted writer, eloquent speaker, esteemed professor, Georgia state senator, nominee for U.S. Vice President, revered civil rights leader, champion for marriage equality and well beloved NAACP Chairman Emeritus. We extend our heartfelt sympathies and soul deep prayers to his family.  This is a moment of incalculable loss in a trying hour of innumerable civil right challenges.  The life and legacy, indeed the eloquence of Julian Bond’s example, yet speak to the present and future of the NAACP.”

Details as to how to commemorate and memorialize Mr. Bond's monumental legacy will be shared at the appropriate time. 

While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Bond helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He was elected Board Chairman of the NAACP in 1998.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Bond's family moved to Pennsylvania when he was five years old when his father, Horace Mann Bond, became the first African American President of Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), his alma mater. Bond attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and won a varsity letter for swimming. He also founded a literary magazine called The Pegasus and served as an intern at Time magazine.

Bond was a founding member of the SNCC and served as communications director from 1961 to 1966. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities in Georgia. Bond graduated from Morehouse and helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). He was the organization's president from 1971 to 1979.

Bond was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965. White members of the House refused to seat him because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. In 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the House had denied Bond his freedom of speech and had to seat him.

From 1965 to 1975, he served in the Georgia House and served six terms in the Georgia Senate from 1975 to 1986.

In 1968, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and was the first African-American nominated as Vice President of the United States. He withdrew his name from the ballot because he was too young to serve.

Bond ran for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to civil rights leader John Lewis. In the 1980s and ‘90s, Bond taught at several universities, including American, Drexel, Williams, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard universities and the University of Virginia.

Bond continued with his activism as Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP, after serving 11 years as Chair, and working to educate the public about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the struggles that African Americans endured.