Free Republic

An activist group has launched a voter registration effort aimed at black voters at screenings of the “Black Panther” movie nationwide. Members of the Electoral Justice Project, an offshoot of the Movement for Black Lives, are seeking to “mobilize the black electorate” and increase political engagement with the #WakandaTheVote campaign, the website Blavity reported. Wakanda is the fictional African nation featured in the long-anticipated Marvel film “Black Panther.” Kayla Reed, Jessica Byrd and Rukia Lumumba founded the Electoral Justice Project last year, and told Blavity that the movement has been effective “because we meet our communities where they are,...

The first set of estimates are in, and they’re showing that Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther is headed toward a historic weekend with $200M-$205M over four-days, $175M over three. These figures do not come from Disney. The Ryan Coolger-directed, an co-written pic with Joe Robert Cole should post an estimated $72M today, with last night’s $25.2M previews repping 35% of that number. On a three-day and four-day basis, Black Panther‘s estimates are easily the pre-summer records beating Beauty and the Beast ($174.7M 3-day, $188.2M 4-day) and Warner Bros./DC’s Batman v. Superman ($166M 3-day, $181M 4-day). If these figures maintain, then Black Panther...

Sope Aluko, a Christian actress born in Nigeria who holds U.S. and British citizenship, said that the set of "Black Panther" (2018) felt "almost like church." "During breaks we shared our testimony of how we got to where [we] did and most of the people were testifying to God's miracles, it was almost like church," Aluko told Okay Africa's Ezinne Mgbeahuruike. Mgbeahuruike had asked her, "How was it working alongside such heavy hitters like Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, and Forest Whitaker?" The actress responded that the "Black Panther" set "felt very familiar and like home." "We had early call...

Bloated with every trope in the genre, too long running time, lack of investment in the villains and Jon Snow dies not once, but twice. With the #OscarsSoWhite controversy and the lack of diversity in mainstream movies and TV being recognized and addressed, its risky to criticize BLACK PANTHER. I have seen the sea-change. Black actors and actresses are being hired. They are being represented on TV series and in films. The New York Times headline was “Why ‘Black Panther’ is a Defining Moment for Black America” might well be a true statement, but is it a good movie? A...

Blackness invites speculation. The very idea of a global African diaspora creates the most fertile of grounds for a field of what-ifs. What if European enslavers and colonizers had never ventured into the African continent? More intriguing yet: What if African nations and peoples had successfully rebuffed generations of plunder and theft? What if the Zulu had won the wars against the Voortrekkers and the British, and a confederation of Bantu people had risen up and smashed Belgian rule? What if the Transatlantic children of the mother continent had been allowed to remain, building their empires with the bounties of...

"Marvel Comics’s Black Panther was originally conceived in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two Jewish New Yorkers, as a bid to offer black readers a character to identify with."

In 1998, exactly twenty years before Black Panther, the first Marvel Comics superhero made its theatrical debut. It was the vampire known as Blade. And he was black. To be fair, there had been a handful of films based on Marvel properties before this—but 1944’s Captain America was a black-and-white serial film, 1989’s The Punisher and 1990’s Captain America were both direct-to-DVD, 1994’s Fantastic Four was never released, and though it’s a cult classic, the less said about 1986’s Howard the Duck, the better.

In recent years there has been a diversity shift within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the promise of more to come, MCU producer and orchestrator Kevin Feige speaks on this and more! As we stand on the eve of what proves to be not only an entertaining and successful film in Black Panther, but also the first modern superhero and blockbuster film to feature a predominantly all black cast. If Wonder Woman’s success proved anything it’s that audiences have waited long enough and want the spotlight on those people who are typically relegated to less significant roles. This film doesn’t...

Black Panther premieres to the general public this week. And as we all already know, it will be the blackity, black, black, black, black, black, blackest thing that will ever happen in the history of black people, blackness and people. So black that instead of ticket stubs, the box office will give you a reparations check. So black that instead of popcorn, the concession stands will sell buckets of white tears—frozen, caramelized and sprinkled with Old Bay. So black that apparently the first 15 minutes of the movie is just an Ida B. Wells hologram playing spades with Danny Glover....

The Black Panther first entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2016 in Captain America: Civil War. Now he's got his own film, which goes way beyond the usual expectations of fantasy, fight scenes and romance. Having a plot based around a black superhero with a predominantly black cast is a first for Marvel, but the film builds on this concept in a massive way. Directed by Creed's Ryan Coogler, it is set in the mythical country of Wakanda: a hidden African kingdom with incredible technological power, due to its reserves of the world's most useful precious metal. Chadwick Boseman,...

For a few hours starting next weekend, black America will exhale, something it has not done since the Republican Party chose as its presidential nominee a man who rose to national political prominence on open bigotry and 58% of white voters made him President. For a few hours, it will be a veritable black American holiday, a kind of revival in the middle of Black History Month and the second year of the Donald Trump era.

Marvel Studio News has reported that Facebook has banned a group that attempted to sabotage the fan review scores of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and also promised to do the same thing to Marvel’s upcoming Black Panther. The group’s Facebook page was named “Down With Disney’s Treatment of Franchises and its Fanboys,” and it had created an event to post low review scores on the fan review section of the Rotten Tomatoes website. The exact motivations of the group aren’t completely clear, though some trends and theories have cropped up during the course of its actions. According to a...

An armed Antifa group is launching a new cell in Philadelphia, with support from the “alt-left” alternative media. The group currently hosts anti-police workshops called “Our Enemies in Blue.” The group draws inspiration from convicted murderers and calls for violence against the police, theft of goods, and armed insurrection. Antifa websites like It’s Going Down, Sub.Media and Insurrection News have been promoting the group, which calls itself the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement, calling on their readers to donate to a Fundrazr account for the creation of the new cell. The press release the group published in far-left media is filled with...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is a staunch defender of convicted cop killer and domestic terrorist Joanne Chesimard, who just became the first woman ever to be placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Chesimard, living under asylum in Cuba, also goes by her Black Panther name of Assata Shakur. She was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted by a jury of the 1979 murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Less than two years later, Chesimard escaped from prison and lived underground before surfacing in Cuba in 1984. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/maxine-waters-loves-convicted-terrorist/#ymkvdJAq1fKh1qYO.99

a-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated public intellectual, faced a setback in his attempt to introduce racial diversity to the world of comic books when Marvel announced that Black Panther & The Crew, which Coates had been writing with Yona Harvey, would be canceled after six issues. Only two issues have been published thus far; The Verge, which first reported the news, said Coates cited “poor sales” as the reason for the cancellation.

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David issued a statement Thursday in response to a planned “armed march” of the local chapter of the Revolutionary Black Panther Party.

OAKLAND (BCN)—The Oakland City Council on Tuesday night will consider a proposal to name a section of De Fremery Park in West Oakland for a 17-year-old Black Panther Party member who was killed in a confrontation with Oakland police in 1968. City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who represents West Oakland, said she and Councilman Larry Reid are recommending that the city name the grove of trees on the park’s south side “Bobby Hutton Grove” to recognize his contribution to Oakland.

On July 7, 2016 the FBI issued a "Potential Activity Alert," for "Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Riots Planned for 8-10 July, 2016, ("which is a day before 12 officers were ambushed and shot), killing 5 of them in Dallas Texas.The alert stemmed from social media threats, after Alton Sterling was shot during an altercation with a local officer, calling for a planned "purge to kill all cops in Baton Rouge July 9." The alert depicts an image obtained from the social media posting of a masked man, reminiscent of the images of ISIS beheading victims, with a police...

HOUSTON, Texas – Micah X. Johnson was a member of the Houston New Black Panther Party. ... As head of the Houston Chapter, Quanell X said Johnson was only a member for about six months. He did not say when that affiliation began or ended. Breitbart Texas has reached out to Quanell X for clarification. No response was immediately available. Breitbart Texas was present at an armed march carried out by the Houston New Black Panther Party in Waller County last summer. This writer took photos and video of the armed marchers at that time. One of the members holding...

Mark James Robert Essex was born in Emporia, Kansas. Kicked out of the Navy after two years with a general discharge for unsuitability for "character and behavior disorders," the 23-year-old took up radical Black Panther politics and developed an intense hatred for the police. He came to the city to meet up with a friend who shared his politics.