Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

A two-part documentary exploring the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party during the 1960s and beyond, a uniquely American story of a growing pride in black culture and more militant demands for justice and racial equality. Incorporating larger-than-life personalities such as Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, and Fred Hampton, renowned documentarian Stanley Nelson assembles rare archival footage that contextualises the history of the Panthers, an organisation established in response to racism and police brutality. The programme offers a critical appraisal of its subject but also highlights the corrupt activities of J Edgar Hoover's FBI and the countless shoot-outs, raids and arrests that were the response of local police. Part 1 of 2.