I’m not just talking about the Party. That reunion happened in Oak Town over the weekend. Check out the archives here, and here’s two articles. It was good to hear a former Philadelphia Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal, set it off with his commentary. His Op-Ed served as an appropriate and powerful open to the Pacifica broadcast. His BPP anniversary oriented interview, aired later in the program, was on-point as well. Here’s the transcript of the latter.
This photo is from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Bro. Mumia, as he was known then, as Lt. of Communication for the Philadelphia branch of the BPP. He was 15 at the time. The picture was on the front page of The Sunday Philadelphia Inqurier in January 1970. It was published one month to the day of the COINTEL-PRO-led police murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
(Related asides: First, are you as excited as I am about Kathleen Cleaver’s forthcoming autobiography? Like Mumia’s forthcoming book on jailhouse lawyers, it can’t come soon enough. Second, let’s enjoy this footage for as long as we can.)
But there’s another 40th Panther birthday to celebrate: the one of the Marvel Comics superhero. Same age, believe it or not. The African warrior-king was the first Black superhero to appear in American comics.
When you have a free half-hour, you can check out this animated adaptation of the character’s first appearance—at least until it disappears. 🙂
“Prey Of The Black Panther”, Part One
Drums in the Global Village 