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href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/16/black-panther-party-marvel-film-jail">https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/16/black-panther-party-marvel-film-jail</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Black Panther film fuels calls for release
of jailed political activists<br>
</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Sam Levin - February
16, 2018<br>
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<p>Film serves as ‘opportunity to remind people
of the real heroes of the Black Panthers’,
says former party leader</p>
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<p>When he was released from prison in 2014, Sekou
Odinga felt like he was falling from the sky into a
foreign land. After 33 years behind bars, the former <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/black-panther"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag" class="u-underline">Black
Panther</a> party leader was released into a United
States he didn’t recognize – with strange technology
and grandchildren he had never hugged.</p>
<p>Though he celebrated with family and supporters,
Odinga, 73, also remained mindful of the many other
civil rights activists who weren’t so lucky: “You
always feel like you don’t want to leave nobody
behind.”</p>
<p>This weekend, his advocacy group is gathering outside
movie theaters across New York City to educate crowds
at sold-out screenings of Black Panther about the
real-life Black Panthers who fought for black
liberation in the 1960s and 1970s – some of whom have
also been fighting for their own freedom from
incarceration for decades. </p>
<p>The <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/06/black-panther-review-marvel-wakanda-chadwick-boseman"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">Marvel
superhero film</a>, which is already <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/12/will-black-panther-be-marvels-biggest-blockbuster-yet"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">breaking
records</a> at the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/14/marvel-movie-black-panther-is-box-office-hit-in-uk-and-ireland"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">box
office</a>, takes place in a fictional African
country and has been widely praised as a well-timed <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/01/black-panther-africa-colour-daniel-kaluuya-lupita-nyongo"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">political
commentary</a>. </p>
<p>For some activists, however, Ryan Coogler’s film and
mostly black cast is much more than a refreshing comic
book story that <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/14/black-panther-superhero-film-discuss-with-spoilers-ryan-coogler"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">breaks
down stereotypes</a> in an industry dominated by
white film-makers.</p>
<p>The Afrofuturist film has sparked renewed calls from
attorneys, families and civil rights leaders for the
release of more than a dozen <a
href="https://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/28/sekou_odinga_on_15_black_panthers"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">incarcerated</a>
former members of the Black Panther Party for
Self-Defense (BPP), the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/14/fifty-years-black-panthers-formed-black-lives-matter-revolutionary"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">radical
group founded in 1966</a> in Oakland, California.</p>
<p>“Many are in the worst prisons and the worst
conditions, and a lot of them are getting older and
suffer from health problems,” said Odinga, who was <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/29/nyregion/brink-s-convict-is-found-guilty-in-queens-shootout-with-police.html"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">convicted</a>
of attempted murder of police officers in the 1980s, a
time when the US government was aggressively targeting
black power movements with surveillance, violence,
arrest and prosecution. “This is an opportunity to
remind people of the real heroes of the Black Panthers
and the conditions they live in today.” </p>
<p>The film, which begins in Oakland, was released
months after it was revealed that the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/06/fbi-black-identity-extremists-racial-profiling"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">FBI’s
terrorism unit</a> had labeled some people “black
identity extremists”, claiming that activists fighting
police brutality posed a violent threat. The concept
resembled the US government’s highly criticized
domestic counterintelligence program known as <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/07/fbi-office-break-in-1971-come-forward-documents"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">Cointelpro</a>,
which was used to monitor and disrupt the Black
Panthers and other <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/19/preemptive-prosecution-muslims-cointelpro"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">leftist
groups</a>. </p>
<p>“We have to educate people that this has all happened
before, and it will happen again if we’re not
careful,” said Malkia Cyril, a California activist
whose mother was a Black Panther. Kamau Sadiki, a
former Black Panther whom Cyril considers an uncle,
was convicted decades after the 1971 killing of an
officer and is still in prison, where he has
maintained his innocence. </p>
<p>“We need people to understand that these are not
simply criminals who committed some heinous crime
being punished,” said Cyril. “These are black
activists who are largely being punished for their
activism.” </p>
<p>Although the Black Panthers made news for criminal
trials and clashes with police, the party’s <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/14/fifty-years-black-panthers-formed-black-lives-matter-revolutionary"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">foundational
work</a> centered on “survival programs” for black
communities neglected by the government – including <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/oakland-gentrification-eviction-black-panther-francis-moore"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">free
breakfasts</a> for children, health clinics and
“liberation” <a
href="https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/10/06/black-panther-school-ahead-of-its-time/"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">schools</a>.
</p>
<p>“They all uplifted people,” said Ericka Huggins, a
former Black Panther leader from Oakland.</p>
<p>She said she hoped the film spread that message. She
recounted when the former Black Panther Eddie Conway
was released in 2014 after he challenged his
conviction in the shooting death of an officer, for
which he spent 44 years in prison: “He arrived on the
outside of these walls with nothing but passion and
love.”</p>
<p>Others deserve that opportunity, she said. </p>
<p>In the lead-up to the film, many have mentioned Mumia
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who had his <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/07/abu-jamal-death-penalty-pennsylvania-black-panthers"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">death
sentence commuted to life in prison</a> and
continues to fight for his release in a controversial
police killing case. His lawyers have long argued his
innocence, claimed he was denied a fair trial and more
recently fought for <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/01/black-panther-mumia-abu-jamal-denied-hepatitis-c-treatment"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">proper
medical treatment</a> behind bars. </p>
<p>“Mumia is always focused on working toward the
liberation of black people and all oppressed people,”
said his lawyer Bret Grote. “He is quite optimistic
and brimming with energy and life, and they’ve never
been able to diminish that for a moment despite what
they’ve put him through.” </p>
<p>Kietryn Zychal, a Nebraska writer and activist, said
she would watch the Black Panther film closely so that
she could later try to recount as much of it as
possible to Ed Poindexter, another incarcerated former
BPP member. He was <a
href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/e6carter/the-omaha-two?utm_term=.kdxPEylYX#.ao5D71MZp"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">sentenced
to life</a> for a bombing that killed an officer,
convicted based on the <a
href="http://www.n2pp.info/print/Amnesty_International_4-7-1980.pdf"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">questionable
testimony</a> of a teenager.</p>
<p>“His case needs some attention from people outside of
Nebraska,” said Zychal.</p>
<p>Monifa Akinwole-Bandele, an activist whose father was
a Black Panther Party member, said incarcerated BPP
members, like <a
href="https://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/20/50_years_after_founding_of_black"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">Herman
Bell</a>, are repeatedly denied parole in the face
of pressure from police unions. </p>
<p>She said she hoped the presentation of powerful black
characters in the film could inspire audiences in the
same way that the BPP inspired her. </p>
<p>“Adults I looked up to had taken such a bold stance
against racism in America,” she said. “It had a huge
impact on me and what I thought was possible.” </p>
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