Robert George Seale is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", the Party's main practice was monitoring police activities and challenging police brutality in Black communities, first in Oakland, California, and later in cities throughout the United States.
Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the early 2020s. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
Mario Van Peebles is an American film director and actor best known for appearing in Heartbreak Ridge in 1986 and known for directing and starring in New Jack City in 1991 and USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage in 2016. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, whom he portrayed in the 2003 biopic Baadasssss!, which he also co-wrote and directed.
Posse is a 1993 American Western film directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles. Featuring a large ensemble cast, the film tells the story of a posse of African-American soldiers and one ostracized white soldier, who are all betrayed by a corrupt colonel. The story starts with the group escaping with a cache of gold, and continues with their leader Jesse Lee taking revenge on the men who killed his preacher father. The story is presented as a flashback told by an unnamed old man. The title of the film refers to a group of people who are summoned to help law enforcement officers. This film was the first film to be released by Gramercy Pictures.
Merritt College is a public community college in Oakland, California, United States. Merritt, like the other three campuses of the Peralta Community College District, is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. The college enrolls approximately 6,000 students.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a 1971 American independent blaxploitation action thriller film written, co-produced, scored, edited, directed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles. His son Mario Van Peebles also appears in a small role, playing the title character as a young boy. The film tells the picaresque story of a poor black man fleeing from the white police authorities.
Baadasssss! is a 2003 American biographical drama film, written, produced, directed by, and starring Mario Van Peebles. The film is based on the struggles of Van Peebles' father Melvin Van Peebles, as he attempts to film and distribute Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a film that was widely credited with showing Hollywood that a viable African-American audience existed, and thus influencing the creation of the blaxploitation genre. The film also stars Joy Bryant, Nia Long, Ossie Davis, Paul Rodriguez, Rainn Wilson, and Terry Crews.
Rappin' is a 1985 American film directed by Joel Silberg, written by Adam Friedman and Robert J. Litz, produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and starring Mario Van Peebles. The film is a sequel to Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, and is also known as Breakdance 3. Although it features Ice-T, Rappin' has a plot unconnected to the previous two films and features different lead characters and locations. It is also considered to be a companion piece to the documentary Breakin' 'n' Enterin'.
Kadeem Hardison is an American actor. The son of fashion model Bethann Hardison, he rose to prominence after landing the role of Dwayne Wayne on the television series A Different World, a spin-off of the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. He is also known for playing Craig Cooper, the title character's father, in the Disney Channel series K.C. Undercover. Hardison has also appeared in the first season of the Showtime comedy Black Monday and starred as Bowser in the Netflix series Teenage Bounty Hunters.
Don't Play Us Cheap is a 1973 American musical comedy film based on the 1970 musical of the same name. The musical was written, produced, scored, edited and directed by Melvin Van Peebles. Both the original stage musical and the film adaptation are based on Van Peebles' 1967 French-language novel La fête à Harlem (1967).
Identity Crisis is a 1989 comedy film directed by Melvin Van Peebles. Written by Mario Van Peebles, the film is about a rapper who winds up sharing his body with the soul of a dead fashion designer, switching between personalities every time he is struck on the head.
Solo is a 1996 American science fiction action film directed by Norberto Barba, and starring Mario Van Peebles, William Sadler, Adrien Brody, Barry Corbin and Demián Bichir. The film was based on the 1989 novel Weapon by Robert Mason, and was adapted into a screenplay by David L. Corley for Columbia/TriStar Pictures.
Ghetto Gothic is the fifth studio album by Melvin Van Peebles. Released in 1995, this album marks the second traditional music effort by Van Peebles, after What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?! Previously, Van Peebles released the experimental spoken word albums Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed To Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack.
Mercury Records released the stirring song "Freedom " in 1995. More than sixty African-American female musicians from pop, R&B, and hip-hop groups and artists make up the chorus. En Vogue, Xscape, Aaliyah, Vanessa L. Williams, Mary J. Blige, MC Lyte, SWV, TLC, and Monica are among the notable contributions. "Freedom" was recorded immediately following the 1995 American Music Awards. In addition to uplifting women today, the song honors historical black resistance figures such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, and Angela Davis. It is a version of a song by Joi from her album "The Pendulum Vibe," released in 1994.
Gang of Roses is a 2003 Western action drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude La Marre. It starred Monica Calhoun, Lil' Kim, LisaRaye, Charity Hill, Bobby Brown, Stacey Dash, Roselyn Sánchez, and Marie Matiko. The movie took just 18 days to film.
Gunmen is a 1994 American action comedy film directed by Deran Sarafian and starring Mario Van Peebles, Christopher Lambert, Denis Leary, Kadeem Hardison, and Patrick Stewart. Robert Harper and Brenda Bakke are co-stars of the film. It was second film collaboration between Lambert, John Flock and John Davis, after Fortress.
The Black Panther Party was a Marxist–Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, California. The party was active in the United States between 1966 and 1982, with chapters in many major American cities, including San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Philadelphia. They were also active in many prisons and had international chapters in the United Kingdom and Algeria. Upon its inception, the party's core practice was its open carry patrols ("copwatching") designed to challenge the excessive force and misconduct of the Oakland Police Department. From 1969 onward, the party created social programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, education programs, and community health clinics. The Black Panther Party advocated for class struggle, claiming to represent the proletarian vanguard.
Redemption Road is a 2010 American film directed by Mario Van Peebles and starring Michael Clarke Duncan and Luke Perry.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975 is a 2011 Swedish documentary film directed by Göran Olsson, that examines the evolution of the Black Power movement in American society from 1967 to 1975 as viewed through Swedish journalists and filmmakers. It features footage of the movement shot by Swedish journalists in the United States at that time, with appearances by Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, and other activists, artists, and leaders central to the movement.
Joan Tarika Lewis, is an American visual artist, musician, author, political activist. She was the first woman to join the Black Panther Party.Joan is the aunt of James Todd Smith
