Nearly 50 students gathered to watch two civil rights documentaries during the continuation of Boston University Green Party’s commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. last night in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Students watched ‘Rosa Parks: Path to Freedom’ and ‘All Power to the People: The Black Panthers ‘ Beyond,’ one night after more than 100 students gathered for the group’s celebration of King’s life in Metcalf Hall.
The first movie focused on Rosa Parks, an African-American woman who helped to become a catalyst in the struggle for Civil Rights and Desegregation in the 1950s and 1960s. Through her use of civil disobedience and refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Al., she became known as the ‘Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.’
The second film, a documentary on the Civil Rights Movement, focused not only on the works of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X but the Black Panthers as well. The Black Panthers became a national movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, encouraging African-Americans to empower themselves within their communities. One issue they stood up to was the police brutality on blacks, according to the film. The Black Panthers encouraged African-Americans to defend themselves in whatever means necessary, according to the film.
The film also covered acts of suppression of movements like the Black Panthers. According to the film, organizations like the Black Panthers were suppressed in part by organizations of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.
College of Arts and Sciences senior Gabrielle Saylor, president of the BU Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she was impressed with the films, particularly in how they showed how one of the primary goals of the Black Panthers was to promote change, rather than violence.
‘The Black Panthers were not actually about violence, but rather about change, which can be violent,’ Saylor said.
Karlo Silbiger, a junior in the College of Fine Arts and School of Education, and CAS senior Tammy Owens, co-presidents of the BU Green Party, said they thought it was important to raise awareness on civil rights through the two nights of events. Civil rights is an important issue to the Green Party, they said.
‘Martin Luther King Jr. is one of our heroes,’ Owens said. ‘We wanted to present all aspects of the Civil Rights Movement King, Rosa Parks and the Black Panthers because we don’t have a Civil Rights Day, only a Martin Luther King Day.’
Silbiger said Martin Luther King Day was a convenient way to delve into larger issues important to the campus group.
‘We sort of used [Martin Luther King’s birthday] as a jumping-off point,’ he said. ‘Our idea is to pick big issues that we think might be of interests to the student body here at BU, and just go from there.’
Last night’s films, and the Rosa Parks film especially, were intended to make larger statements about civil rights, they said.
‘The Rosa Parks film represents much better than the Black Panthers do,’ Owens said. ‘We are Rosa Parks.’
Both Silbiger and Owens said standing up for what people believe in is an important part of the focus of the Green Party.
‘Both of these films were inspirational videos ways for people to come here and say, ‘Wow, if they can do it, we can too,” Silbiger said. ‘We see our focus as getting people more involved, and to help people become more educated, and that’s why we do these kinds of things, watch these kinds of movies, watch the four amazing speakers we had here last night.
‘It’s a way for them to learn about important issues, and hopefully go from there,’ he said.