At the height of their activism in the late 1960s, the Black Panther Party was regarded as little more than a gun-toting, violent, and disruptive organisation.
To do this day, even, the civil rights organisation is often used as a point of contrast with Martin Luther King - the epitome of a peaceful activist.
It is precisely this misconception that Shaka King hopes to undo in his new film, Judas and the Black Messiah.
King, who directed and produced the biopic, hopes to show audiences that - in spite of widely-held beliefs about the organisation - the Panthers "led with love".
Speaking at a press conference attended by VT earlier this month, the director said "they weren’t a terrorist organisation, but rather they were community organisers and philosophers and thinkers".
Check out the official trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah:Judas and the Black Messiah, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2021, tells the story of Fred Hampton - chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter.
We learn of the betrayal of Hampton (played by Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya) at the hands of an FBI informant, William O’Neal (played by fellow Get Out actor LaKeith Stanfield).
The press conference - also attended by Kaluuya, O'Neal, and Dominique Fishback (who plays Hampton's fiancée, Akua Njeri) - was something of a history lesson, as well as a promotional event for the movie.
We learned that following his arrest on charges of impersonating a federal officer and of car theft, O’Neal - hoping to have his conviction overturned - went undercover on behalf of the FBI in 1967.
His betrayal ultimately led to Hampton’s murder by police in 1969, aged just 21. The revolutionary was fatally shot while he was in bed asleep beside his pregnant fiancée Akua Njeri (formerly known as Deborah Johnson).
He would ultimately never meet his son, Fred Hampton Jr, who was born just three weeks after his death.
But while this act of callous violence by the authorities was carried out in the 1960s, King believes that very little has changed to this day.
“We have normalised cops abusing people to the point where we don’t even see it as abuse,” King said.
The tragedy was, of course, justified by the authorities as an act of defense against terrorism. So hellbent were they in bringing down the Black Panther Party that they would go to the extent of killing a youngster - an expectant father, no less - in his own home.
The FBI had really met their match with the Panthers, who were founded in 1966 as an assertive movement against widespread police brutality in the Black community.
Armed with guns, they would follow the police in their community and monitor any incidents of brutality. When confronted by the authorities, they would recite state and federal laws that permitted them to carry their loaded firearms.
Hampton was ultimately killed as part of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program, or Cointelpro, which sought to infiltrate political and social organisations.
But while it would be easy to regard the Black Panther movement as one that was marred by tragedy, there was a lot more to it than that.
“From the outset, our goal was to correct the record or make some attempts to correct the record,” King said at the press conference. “Just in terms of putting forth an accurate representation of what the Black Panther Party stood for”
The Black Panther Party was an organisation of brotherhood, sisterhood, love, and self-love.
As well as protecting their community, the Black Panthers also worked towards social reform. For example, they created a free breakfast program for children from less privileged backgrounds. They also provided educational opportunities for those in their community.
Furthermore, as part of the film, King included a powerful depiction of the love story between Hampton and his eventual widow, Akua.
Love is at the very core of the narrative - the love the late Hampton had for his fiancée, his unborn child, and his community.
As chairman of the Illinois chapter, Hampton urged Black people in the state and throughout the country to take full advantage of their rights as American citizens.
He spoke with passion and eloquence and, in fact, King said that what “sealed the deal” in terms of deciding to make a film about Hampton was “his words”.
“Reading his words, they were just incredibly profound, always relevant,” he added.
But as well as depicting the sentimental aspects of the Black Panther Party, it was necessary to show audiences that the police brutality that terrorised Black citizens over 50 years ago is the same police brutality seen today.
“Our goal was to make a movie that captured 1968, but so little has changed between 1968 and 2021 that we don’t really have to draw parallels to the present,” King said.
He went on to say that the movie was an “opportunity to explore this country’s past and present of crushing voices of dissent.”
King added that his film delves into the way that the state is “weaponised” to undermine Americans who aim for nothing more than “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
“Ultimately,” he says. “That’s what the Black Panthers were trying to bring to the masses.”
King’s new movie, Judas and the Black Messiah is in cinemas now and will be available to stream on HBO Max in March.
