The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

I saw The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 with my father-in-law, Henry, this week. He was involved in the Civil Rights movement and even knew Stokely Carmichael back in the mid-60s when they were both involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. This past summer Henry pointed out the street corner where he was arrested by a white cop who didn't appreciate a black man trying to get other blacks registered to vote. I knew it was going to be interesting.

The film, as the title suggests, is a compilation of footage recorded 1967-1975 by Swedish television crews who were dispatched to America to report on the Civil Rights movement and the ongoing racial strife. A disclaimer is given to audiences straight away saying that the film doesn't purport to tell the whole story of the Black Power Movement but merely how those Swedish reporters saw it at the time. One can also argue that it also relates how the editors in the 21st century view what happened.

It follows a narrative which shows a view of the Black Power Movement and then proceeds to chronicle its demise as internal strife, harassment from the Federal government, and rugs all take their toll. We start at a diner in Hallandale, Florida. The patrons are all white and the owner is being interviewed. He says that America is a place of freedom where anyone can earn a living if they just put their mind to it. The crew then travels down the road to the poorer black side of town where a couple veterans confess to how difficult it is to find a job because of the color of their skin. Stokely Carmichael makes an appearance early on where he is giving a speech in which he labels the non-violent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr. as ineffective because white America has no conscience to which blacks can appeal.

Soon enough MLK and RFK are assassinated and the Black Power Movement gains more steam. There is some great footage shot at the Black Panther headquarters in Oakland. One disturbing scene is a room full of children singing, "Pick up a gun, put the pig on the run." However, it is also noted that the Black Panthers gave out free breakfasts and free medical care. That the Federal government started its own breakfast programs at schools was noted as a legacy of the Black Panthers.

In 1969 Carmichael fled FBI harassment for Africa. The following year Angela Davis was arrested after Jonathan Jackson took hostages in a California courthouse using guns registered to her. An interview with Davis from jail is one of the most powerful moments in the film. The interviewer asks her about the use of violence by the Black Power Movement and she goes into a lengthy rant beginning with "When someone asks me about violence, I find it incredible. A person asking that can have no idea about what black people have gone through in this country." Davis is furious and looks like she's about to burst as she talks about her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama and the city's Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor, who was infamous for having his police use fire hoses to disperse peaceful protestors. Like Carmichael, Davis is charismatic, well-spoken, and a very powerful speaker.

As the film moves into the 1970s, it gets terribly depressing and the situation begins to look very contemporary. The sections on Harlem show the tragedy of drug addiction on a personal level as well as on the community. More than one person voices the opinion that, not only did drugs tear apart black unity, but also that the drugs were introduced by the government. An interview with a prostitute looking to better her life brings a glimmer of hope as does one with Lewis Michaux at his bookstore where he extols the virtue of knowledge. But, for me, it was just too sad to see a community wracked by drugs and violence and know that many black communities today are still in that quagmire.

Director Göran Olsson utilizes voiceover narration in the film but he wisely doesn't show us any talking heads. Instead the person's name is shown in the upper left-hand corner as they speak over the archival footage. It's done like a DVD commentary track with some of the speakers referring to images on the screen or to reactions they had seeing this footage for the first time. Relative youngsters like Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli talk about what they get out of looking back at history while the likes of Harry Belafonte and Angela Davis reminisce about the history that they made. Kweli remarks that he was once pulled off a plane and questioned by authorities for listening to a speech by Carmichael, which in this post-9/11 era is not surprising but is still disturbing.

This kind of voiceover had a meta flavor to it and this was enhanced during a scene in which the film crew interviews the editor of TV Guide who had written critically of Swedish television saying that their coverage of the United States was anti-American because it didn't showcase all the good things here. I appreciated these little instances of metaness rearing their head because it chipped away at conventional views of documentary. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 took the old convention of talking heads espousing the objective truth and made things more personal, more subjective.

When the lights came up there was this look on Henry's face. During the film I occasionally heard a "mmm hmmm" from his direction and I asked him if it had brought back a lot of memories. He said it had and that it made him laugh, feel sad & angry, and even made him want to cry. We went to dinner so we could chat some more. He told me stories of working for civil rights in Tennessee, of how awful things were in Birmingham, of living in New York during the late 60s, and what it was like in Montgomery during the Bus Boycott.

The last thing he told to me before our conversation turned to family matters was that he could never get behind armed resistance a la the Black Panthers because there was no chance for an armed minority against a majority with even more guns. But, he added, he did live for a spell armed with a rifle and pistol for protection.