I posted a version of this in a previous post; expanding it a bit here.
I often introduce my students to the Black Panther Party at some point in my rap classes. Tupac's mother and other family members were active members of the party, and its influence looms large in the lives of other artists as well. Typically, we watch these two clips (clip 1 and clip 2) from Eyes on the Prize [NB: it doesn’t seem like these are available on YouTube anymore…]. In other classes, I've shown Stanley Nelson's Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution or had them read Robyn Spencer's The Revolution has Come. I ask them to complete the following sentence: "Although J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI at the time, called the Black Panthers 'the single greatest threat to the internal security of our nation,' the Panthers were really..."
We also look at the Panthers’ Ten-Point Program, which was published in 1966, and which you can find here. Consider what the Panthers were demanding at the time, and the extent to which any of those demands have been met. The final point, number 10, Signifies on the Declaration of Independence. How does this re-presentation of the Declaration’s opening in the context of the Panthers’ Ten-Point Program change the way it means? How does it illuminate what was left out from the original Declaration?
Songs to discuss:
Tupac, "Panther Power," “Violent”
Jay-Z, “99 Problems” (the second verse in particular)
Paris, “Panther Power”
Dead Prez feat. The Last Poets, “Panthers”