PBS aired its Stanley Nelson-directed documentary Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution Tuesday evening, and the film became the fuel that launched #BlackPanthersPBS as a top trending topic on Instagram and Twitter.
Media and black journalists hailed the documentary as “phenomenal.”
#BlackPanthersPBS was absolutely phenomenal. Power to the people. ALWAYS. pic.twitter.com/HIuVblxoEi
— HuffPost BlackVoices (@blackvoices) February 17, 2016
"I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary!" RIP #FredHampton #BlackPanthersPBS
— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) February 17, 2016
Thank you @StanleyNelson1 for this work! I hope this 50th anniv. will see the BPP remembered for who they were! With pride!#BlackPanthersPBS
— Jamilah Lemieux🖤 (@JamilahLemieux) February 17, 2016
Black Lives Matter leader and Baltimore mayoral candidate DeRay McKesson showed his support and simply tweeted: #BlackPanthersPBS
— deray (@deray) February 17, 2016
Other Twitter users used the documentary to attack recently deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, President Ronald Reagan, and the National Rifle Association.
Ronald Reagan fought the #BlackPanthers Gave us Crack cocaine and the devil incarnate #SCOTUS #Scalia pic.twitter.com/edzlQV6901
— aafsec Malcolm Garvy (@aafsec) February 17, 2016
So has the NRA ever come out and said most of their ideas were stolen from the Black Panthers? That would be nice. #BlackPanthersPBS
— (((RuggedAmethyst))) (@GrooveSDC) February 17, 2016
Still, other Twitter users watched the PBS film and linked the Black Panther Party’s radical agenda to that of present-day radical black nationalist group Black Lives Matter.
https://twitter.com/Skiperella/status/699790247349989377
The people who hated the Black Panther Party got older and had children who now hate the Black Lives Matter movement.
— ♈️☀️~Femme~🌙♌️ (@FeministaJones) February 17, 2016
Black lives matter is our present day BPP. I love it.
— ⚡️Reese (@astoldbyreese__) February 17, 2016
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
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