Communication Studies, Department of

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

8-2007

Citation

Critical Studies in Media Communication 24:3 (August 2007), pp. 206–227.

doi: 10.1080/07393180701520900

Comments

Copyright © 2007 National Communication Association; published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Used by permission.

Abstract

The 1995 movie Panther depicted the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as a vibrant but ultimately doomed social movement for racial and economic justice during the late 1960s. Panther’s narrative indicted the white-operated police for perpetuating violence against African Americans and for undermining movements for black empowerment. As such, this film represented a rare source of filmic counter-memory that challenged hegemonic memories of U.S. race relations. Newspaper reports and reviews of Panther, however, questioned the film’s veracity as a source of historical information. An analysis of these reviews and reports indicates the challenges counter-memories confront in popular culture.

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