Weekly Blog

This week in class we talked about African American women and their role and influence in the Black Panther Party.

I realized that I was very familiar with the things we talked about for a couple of reasons. The first being that as I mentioned during the first week of class, my my father's parents were Black Panther Party members. I can't remember which city chapter they were involved with the most though because they moved around a lot. Each time their is a family reunion all of my family members, myself included, are graced with stories of their time during the era. I can always tell that my grandmother and grandfather miss the times where they involved in social justice and an opportunity to protect and be involved in a community of their like-minded peers.

My grandmother in particular always says that she misses the time because of how well Black women were regarded and appreciated. She felt like a true equal.

When I asked my grandparents about their opinion on the Black Lives Matter Movement and compared it to the efforts of the Black Panthers. We agreed that both movements' platform was based on police brutality on Black people. However, my grandparents both agreed that the BLM movement does not "make enough noise" and shake up the government the way the Black Panther Party did.