Remembering the Black Panther Party, This Time with Women
by Jennifer Williams|Ms. Blog
“What we remember about the [Black Panther Party] is sort of like ‘sexy black men with guns,’” Tanya Hamilton (left), writer and director of the Indie Spirit Award-nominated new film Night Catches Us, told Fresh Air’s Terry Gross in a recent interview.
Few people know about women’s leadership in the Party’s education and free breakfast programs for children. Even fewer are aware that Elaine Brown chaired the party for three years in Huey Newton’s absence and used her authority to place other women in leadership positions and to combat the sexist behavior of male party members.
Hamilton had those women in mind when she created Patricia “Patti” Wilson (Kerry Washington), the female lead of her debut film Night Catches Us. Set in 1976 Philadelphia, the film witnesses the ruins of a movement. Ex-Panther Patti, an attorney, is raising a precocious daughter, Iris (Jamara Griffin), on her own after her husband’s murder by the Philadelphia police. She refuses to talk about the painful past but still lives in the house where her husband was shot.
Hamilton considers Patti “the most complicated character” in the predominantly male-cast film. “A lot of the women I think were kind of the backbone [of the movement],” she said in an interview with Michel Martin. Patti remains the backbone of her community by bailing young men out of jail and raising money for their defense. When former Panther Marcus (Anthony Mackie) returns to Philly after a mysterious four-year absence, Patti is the only one who believes he’s not a snitch.
Read the Full Essay @ Ms. Blog
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Jennifer Williams is a writer and professor of English at New York University. She blogs at for colored girls who drink cosmos when suicide seems to gauche.
by Jennifer Williams|Ms. Blog
“What we remember about the [Black Panther Party] is sort of like ‘sexy black men with guns,’” Tanya Hamilton (left), writer and director of the Indie Spirit Award-nominated new film Night Catches Us, told Fresh Air’s Terry Gross in a recent interview.
Few people know about women’s leadership in the Party’s education and free breakfast programs for children. Even fewer are aware that Elaine Brown chaired the party for three years in Huey Newton’s absence and used her authority to place other women in leadership positions and to combat the sexist behavior of male party members.
Hamilton had those women in mind when she created Patricia “Patti” Wilson (Kerry Washington), the female lead of her debut film Night Catches Us. Set in 1976 Philadelphia, the film witnesses the ruins of a movement. Ex-Panther Patti, an attorney, is raising a precocious daughter, Iris (Jamara Griffin), on her own after her husband’s murder by the Philadelphia police. She refuses to talk about the painful past but still lives in the house where her husband was shot.
Hamilton considers Patti “the most complicated character” in the predominantly male-cast film. “A lot of the women I think were kind of the backbone [of the movement],” she said in an interview with Michel Martin. Patti remains the backbone of her community by bailing young men out of jail and raising money for their defense. When former Panther Marcus (Anthony Mackie) returns to Philly after a mysterious four-year absence, Patti is the only one who believes he’s not a snitch.
Read the Full Essay @ Ms. Blog
***
Jennifer Williams is a writer and professor of English at New York University. She blogs at for colored girls who drink cosmos when suicide seems to gauche.
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